It is an understatement to say that she was not on conquered ground: less than three weeks before the American presidential election, Kamala Harris gave an interview on Wednesday October 16 to Fox News, the favorite channel of American conservatives. “Can I finish, please? You have to let me finish, please,” she notably said during a several times tense exchange with Bret Baier, veteran journalist of the channel . The Democratic candidate and the presenter sometimes spoke at the same time, during this thirty-minute interview. What to say to New York Times that “Kamala Harris may not have another debate with former President Donald Trump, but she had one with Bret Baier.”
Basically, the current 59-year-old vice-president promised that her presidency would not be “a continuation” of that of Joe Biden. “Like every new leader who takes office, I will bring my experience, my professional experiences and new ideas,” she said 20 days before the election. Kamala Harris, who replaced Joe Biden in mid-July in his duel against Donald Trump, faces a delicate balancing act: obliged to put her own mark on the campaign, she cannot however deny the mandate of the octogenarian leader. The latter also affirmed on Tuesday that she “[tracerait] her own path” in the event of victory. “I represent a new generation of leaders,” insisted Wednesday evening the one who wants to become the first woman to access the White House.
“Severe test”
Kamala Harris was particularly pushed around on the immigration issue, or when she was asked to say whether she had noticed a cognitive decline in Joe Biden. Defending it, she recalled that Joe Biden was not on the ballot, “Donald Trump is”. Combative, she notably accused the latter of “belittling” the Americans during this campaign. “The president of the United States should be able to deal with criticism without threatening to put the perpetrators in prison,” she noted.
The Democrat “transformed questions about her almost four years in office into attacks against the record of her Republican rival, Donald Trump”, is a fact CNNwho describes the interview as “heated”. The Guardian for her part believes that Harris has been “put to the test”, and emphasizes that “her first appearance on the conservative channel is part of a direct appeal to right-wing voters”.
Because by venturing out of her comfort zone, while the polls predict a close result, Kamala Harris is seeking to make a breakthrough within an electorate that is not very sensitive to her speeches. Just before her first interview on Fox News, the Democrat had already addressed Republicans at a rally in Pennsylvania, quoting General Mark Milley, once Donald Trump’s top military official, who described the former president as “fascist through and through.” “For those watching, if you share this view, whatever party you are in, whoever you voted for last time, there is a place for you in this campaign,” he said. she declared.
Harris “achieved the goals she set for herself”
Minutes after the interview ended, Trump’s campaign team released a statement calling it a “disaster.” Kamala Harris “has once again rejected any responsibility for the problems Americans are facing,” said Karoline Leavitt, spokesperson for Donald Trump’s campaign, according to comments reported by the Associated Press agency. He added: “If Kamala can’t handle the pressure of a Fox News interview, she certainly can’t handle the pressure of being president of the United States.”
For its part, still according to the Associated Press, Kamala Harris’ team believes that she “achieved the objectives she had set for herself”: “She was able to reach an audience that had probably not been exposed to to the arguments she made and she was also able to show her toughness by standing up to a hostile interviewer,” notes campaign spokesperson Brian Fallon.