Harris interview with Fox News shows shift in strategy for Democrats with network

NEW YORK (AP) – Kamala Harris Wednesday's interview with Fox News Channel's Bret Baier is the latest indication that Democrats are in this campaign are increasingly willing to become involved in a network that is well-equipped with opponents' supporters Donald Trump.

Since the convention in August, about twice as many Democrats have appeared on Fox as during the same period in President Joe Biden's 2020 campaign, which was more common than when Hillary Clinton was nominated in 2016, according to the network.

Whether to ignore Fox or seize the opportunity to change the views of some viewers has long been the subject of internal debate among Democrats. Biden did not appear specifically for Fox during his campaign. Clinton made one appearance during her primary campaign and another in mid-summer 2016.

“The Vice President, Governor Walz and our campaign believe it is important to speak to all Americans, wherever they get their information or entertainment, so that they can learn directly from us – not through a filter – who Vice President Harris is “What she stands for and what she's running for,” said Ian Sams, Harris campaign spokesman.

It's not just Democrats who see the new faces on Fox News

Guess who noticed?

Trump grumbled on his social media This week's feed features Sams, who was interviewed by Dana Perino on Fox on Wednesday, Martha MacCallum on Tuesday, and Neil Cavuto on Monday. Trump said that Sams “virtually owns the network.”

“It’s not worth doing interviews on Fox because on average it just amounts to NOTHING,” he wrote on Truth Social. “Fox News has completely lost its bearings.”

Trump appeared on Fox on Wednesday, hours before Harris, in a recorded town hall with voters moderated by Harris Faulkner.

Harris' Vice President Tim Walz appeared two weeks in a row on “Fox News Sunday,” which runs on both television and cable news. Host Shannon Bream said she was “a little surprised” when the Democratic campaign reached out ahead of his appearance last Sunday.

“I think people out there are still undecided,” Walz responded. “I appreciate you. You ask good, tough questions and your audience gets a chance to listen.”

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg was something of a “fox whisperer” early in the campaign and seemed to enjoy chatting with the network's hosts, to the point where he opened his speech at the Democratic National Convention by saying: “I’m Pete Buttigieg, and you might recognize me,” from Fox News.”

California Gov. Gavin Newsom, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro and Reps. Jared Moskowitz of Florida and Ro Khanna of California are among the other Democrats who have made multiple appearances.

The Fox guest shots are largely limited to daytime and, as with Bream's show, weekend hours. Democrats are rarely seen on prime-time shows hosted by Laura Ingraham, Jesse Watters, Sean Hannity and Greg Gutfeld.

While it usually doesn't make sense for a Democrat to join a network that is fully committed to defeat, this is an exception, said Dan Pfeiffer, co-host of “Pod Save America” ​​and a former adviser to President Barack Obama . “A Democrat moving into enemy territory is a great way to get attention, and soft Republicans and Republican-leaning independents are a key target of her campaign,” he said.

Fox also argues that it has more independent and democratic viewers than most people think. Its viewership alone makes it hard to ignore: Fox's share of the cable news audience is larger than CNN and MSNBC combined in all swing states except Nevada.

What Harris expected on Fox’s “Bret Baier.”

Baier hosts a 6 p.m. news hour on Fox and, along with MacCallum, generally co-hosts most of Fox's major news events. “I would expect what you essentially get from Baier: strong, difficult questions with aggressive follow-up. In a word: fair,” Tom Jones wrote Wednesday in the Poynter Institute’s journalism newsletter.

But Baier is also very aware of the station's target group, sometimes to his detriment. Court documents in a Lawsuit against Fox News for spreading false stories about a voting technology company after the 2020 election revealed that Baier privately pushed to overturn Fox's controversial — and ultimately correct — call for Biden's win in Arizona.

Trump said on Truth Social that he would have preferred a tougher journalist to conduct the Harris interview, and said Baier was “often very gentle with those in the 'cocktail scene' of the left.”

In the days leading up to his interview with Harris, Baier went on social media to curb suspicions expressed by some Fox viewers about the interview.

“No doubt she already has the list of questions. “I don’t trust him,” one user wrote on

To others who suspected the interview might be edited, he insisted that it was only taped at 5:30 p.m. Eastern Time – the time the Harris campaign had set aside for the interview – and posted shortly thereafter in his would be shown in its entirety on his show.

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David Bauder writes about media for the AP. Follow him at http://x.com/dbauder.