Fox News’ Bret Baier challenged the sitting vice president and Democratic nominee for president during an interview on Wednesday. And for that, he’s been made out to be the progressive establishment’s villain du jour.
MSNBC’s Mika Brzezinski complained that Baier hadn’t allotted Vice President Kamala Harris enough time to bash former President Donald Trump during their short conversation and his performance “an embarrassing, bad-faith effort.”
“I figured @BretBaier would be tough. I didn’t think he would be downright rude and disrespectful,” declared her colleague Claire McCaskill, before also adding that he was “scared.”
MAGA firebrand turned #Resistance hero Joe Walsh derided Baier as “clearly a Trump-cheerleader” and congratulated Harris for having kicked his “ass with righteous anger!”
“Bret Baier is a hack who got run over,” submitted The Washington Post‘s Jen Rubin.
And Brian Tyler Cohen said that Baier had “Cowered to pressure by Trump and revealed himself as the partisan hack that he is.”
All of the above allegations were heavy on adjectives and light on examples. In truth, Baier’s interview was what Americans should expect from the journalists entrusted with interrogating our leadership class on our behalf.
Baier’s questions were for the most part fair, focused, and relevant. Fox’s flagship anchor allowed Harris time to answer questions, but interjected on behalf of voters when she began to filibuster. When she tried to mislead his audience, he issued a correction. And when she pivoted to attacking Trump, he allowed her to up to a certain point, but remained focused on eliciting her own solutions to the problems Americans say are most pressing.
What Baier did on Wednesday is no different at all from what Republicans always and Democrats often — at least in non-election years — encounter in most interviews with serious journalists: Adversarial questions meant to produce substantive answers.
Harris is asking voters to make her the most powerful person in the world. Even if you believe that she is the obvious choice given that the alternative is Trump, it is not the role of journalists like Baier to boost her, but to ensure that Americans are well-educated about both candidates.
And that’s precisely what he sought to do. Harris might be right to excoriate Trump for killing a bipartisan border security bill earlier this year, but Baier was right to continue to try to get her to answer for the specific policies implemented by the Biden-Harris administration. Harris might have been right when she said Americans are tired of Trump’s divisive rhetoric, but Baier was right to point out that they’re still considering making him commander-in-chief. Harris might have been right to identify Iran as America’s greatest adversary, but Baier was right to interrogate her about how Democratic foreign policy doesn’t follow from that perspective.
The one notable moment that can be scrutinized came after Harris criticized Trump for his rhetoric about “the enemy within” and Baier proceeded to play a clip of Trump defending himself. Baier and Harris then squabbled over the clip in a way that likely left the audience more confused than enlightened.
Showing the clip was a mistake; but mostly because it wasn’t necessary, not because it was some kind of grave journalistic sin or misleading. Contrary to what some of his critics have argued, Baier didn’t dispute what Trump had said, and only presented the clip as the former president’s defense of his own words.
Those whining about Baier’s treatment of Harris should check their mirror for orange and their closet for oversized red ties. Trump may enjoy fawning, uncritical coverage from many at Fox, but that’s not true of its chief political anchor. Remember, it was barely a year ago that Baier ran so many circles around Trump that the former president hasn’t stopped attacking Baier since then. The newsman got plaudits then from all of the same people panning him now.
His angry critics are only telling on themselves.
This is an opinion piece. The views expressed in this article are those of just the author.
