Fox News' Bret Baier admits he 'made a mistake' and played wrong clip of Trump remarks during VP Harris interview

By 
 October 19, 2024

Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee, sat down for an interview this week with Fox News host Bret Baier, and the conversation -- which Harris repeatedly shifted to be about her Republican opponent, former President Donald Trump, rather than herself -- was predictably contentious.

One day after the interview, Baier admitted that he'd "made a mistake" during the discussion with Harris in that he'd aired the wrong clip of remarks made by Trump that Harris had criticized, according to The Washington Times.

Baier played for Harris a clip of Trump responding to a question about his particular comments about using the military or National Guard against "the enemy within" but acknowledged that he failed to air the clip of Trump making those remarks in the first place.

Baier played the wrong clip

Mediaite reported that during the Fox News interview, VP Harris accused former President Trump of threatening to use the military against American citizens when, in a prior "Sunday Morning Futures" interview, he discussed the possible need to take action against the nation's "enemy from within."

Baier appeared to be ready for that critique and responded with a clip of Trump being asked about the quip by fellow Fox News host Harris Faulkner during a town hall event earlier in the day, when Trump replied, "They were saying I was like, threatening. I’m not threatening anybody. They’re the ones doing the threatening," and went on to complain about the Democrats' "weaponization of government" against him.

"Bret, I’m sorry, and with all due respect, that clip was not what he has been saying about the enemy within that he has repeated when he’s speaking about the American people," Harris immediately said in response to the clip.

"That’s not what you just showed," Harris continued, according to The Hill. "You didn’t show that, and here is the bottom line: He has repeated it multiple times, and you and I both know that, and you and I both know he has talked about turning the military on the American people."

Baier admits his mistake

Near the end of his show the next day, according to Mediaite, Baier confessed to his panelists, which included Harris Faulkner, "I did make a mistake, and I did want to say that I did make a mistake."

"When I called for a soundbite, I was expecting a piece of the 'enemy from within' from Maria Bartiromo’s interview to be tied to the piece from your town hall, Harris, where you asked the former president about 'the enemy from within,'" he added. "It just had the piece about the town hall. Just take a listen to what I meant to roll."

Baier then aired the clip that he intended to initially play for VP Harris, in which former President Trump said, "I think the bigger problem is the enemy from within. Not even the people that have come in and [are] destroying our country. We have some sick people, radical left lunatics. And I think they are -- and it should be very easily handled by, if necessary, by National Guard, or if really necessary, by the military."

That was followed by the clip he did show to Harris in which Trump responded to Faulkner's question about the comments, and Baier added to his panelists, "My point was that we asked him about the question about that sentence and what he was trying to mean."

Trump campaign's response to Fox News interview with Harris

As for the Trump campaign, they quickly pounced on the "total, unmitigated disaster" of VP Harris' "first non-softball interview of her vice presidency" and highlighted more than a dozen moments in the Fox News interview that didn't go particularly well for the Democratic nominee.

In a follow-up statement, campaign spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said, "Kamala Harris’ interview with Bret Baier was a TRAIN WRECK. Kamala was angry, defensive, and once again abdicated any responsibility for the problems Americans are facing. She couldn’t give a straight answer to a single question because she has no answers."

"Kamala’s entire campaign is based on lies about President Trump," she added. "Kamala can’t handle the pressure of an interview with Fox News -- she certainly can’t handle the pressure of being President of the United States."

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