Unprepared to answer, unprepared to leadChad Groening (AFN) Bret Baier's first question on Wednesday to Kamala Harris was about immigration. He challenged the vice president to apologize to the families of those who have lost loved ones at the hands of violent illegal immigrants who were allowed to enter the country under the Biden-Harris policies. Harris refused to acknowledge any responsibility for the border crisis, and instead tried to shift the blame to her November 5th opponent, former President Donald Trump.
Krikorian
"It was an obvious choice on the part of Bret Baier to ask about immigration since it's clearly the most vulnerable issue for the Democrats," says Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies. "So, in a sense, what else would he have asked about? So, I was glad to see it." Krikorian was also pleased that Baier asked factual questions. "The first thing he asked was How many illegal immigrants have you all released into the country? This is a number [administration officials] have. They know the answer," he tells AFN. "She may not have any idea what the answer is because she's kind of a dim bulb, frankly, it's pretty clear at this point. But the administration had that number [and] they should have prepared for this question." And Krikorian hopes that, because the interview took place on a major news network, at least some voters now realize Harris is "utterly unfit" for the job as president of the United States. |
The Kamala Harris sit-down with Fox News show host Bret Baier was already too short, Todd Starnes said on American Family Radio Thursday morning.
It became less productive for voters when she gave smoke-and-mirror answers and when her handlers sought to end the interview early, Starnes said. The campaign had agreed originally to 25 or 30 minutes, but after Harris arrived handlers said “maybe 20” for the interview length, Baier said afterward. Reports varied between 20 and 30 minutes on the actual length of the interview.
The vice president continued her theme of challenging the mental fitness of her opponent, former President Donald Trump, yet refused to answer a direct question about why she promoted her boss, Joe Biden, as an intellectual giant, sharp and motivated, until the very time he departed his reelection campaign to pave the way for her candidacy.
“You told many interviewers that Joe Biden was on his game and ran circles around his staff. When did you first notice that President Biden’s mental faculties appeared diminished?” Baier asked.
Honoring Biden’s career
Harris gave a big-picture response about Biden’s lengthy political career before trying to steer away from the topic by stating the obvious – that Biden is no longer on the ballot and Trump is.
“I have watched [Biden] from the Oval Office to the Situation Room, and he has the judgment and experience to do exactly what he has done in making very important decisions on behalf of the American people,” Harris began.
The exchange was a capsule look at the grave state of the U.S., Starnes told show host Jenna Ellis.
“Joe Biden was on the ballot, and [then] he was removed from the ballot – and I think the American people deserve to know why," Starnes argued. "There’s also an integrity issue here and a character flaw that Kamala Harris put her own political career ahead of what was good for the country. I think that's the bigger issue.”
Democrats are keen to say that democracy is "at risk" in the current political climate. Starnes agrees and would extend that beyond America’s borders and would add safety and security as issues as well, but the reason is not Donald Trump, as Democrats say.
“The country has been put in grave danger as a result of the feebleness of President Biden, and that’s a big problem. We’re on the verge of war breaking out in a moment’s notice in the Middle East, Ukraine, Russia, Iran. You’ve got China and Taiwan. This is a very dangerous world – and a very good argument can be made it’s because of weak and feeble leadership coming from the White House,” Starne stated.
Evasive and false at the same time
Not only was Harris evasive she was also untruthful, former U.S. House member Tulsi Gabbard said on Fox News. She cited Harris’ answer on the question of taxpayer-funded gender manipulation surgeries for prison inmates.
During a January news conference in 2019 at the outset of her previous and short presidential campaign, Harris voiced her strong support for the availability of these procedures for inmates. On Wednesday, she told Baier she would “follow the law” just as Trump did.
“It’s a public report that under Donald Trump’s administration, these surgeries were available on a medical necessity basis to people in the federal prison system,” she added.
According to Gabbard, that answer obscured Harris' record as attorney general for California. “It’s one of the many examples of how Kamala Harris is lying to the American people and assuming that we’re so stupid as to believe her lies,” Gabbard claimed.
“We’ve seen the sound bites and the clips of her when she was advocating and patting herself on the back for the law changes that she brought about that would do this very thing, that would make sure that U.S. taxpayers are covering transgender surgeries for inmates. She advocated for the same for illegal immigrants coming across our border.”
Trump’s running mate, Sen. JD Vance of Ohio, took Harris to task on illegal immigrant crime and women who he said “are not dead because of some accident or force of nature.”
"They’re dead because Kamala Harris opened the border and let their killers into our country," Vance continued. "They don’t just need our sympathy; they don’t just need our kind words, though they certainly deserve that. They need leadership who actually puts the security of this country first. Unfortunately, they’re not getting that from Kamala Harris.”
Two key take-aways from Wednesday’s events
Starnes identified two key takeaways from Wednesday’s news. One of them gave context to the Harris interview though it did not originate from she and Baier.
Trump was also in the news Wednesday, sitting down with Fox News host Harris Faulkner for a townhall-style event in Georgia. Responses in Trump’s mostly female audience contradicted the views of many Democrats who say abortion is the most important election issue among women.
“It was a huge crowd, and every single lady raised her hand saying it was actually the rise of transgenderism that is the pressing issue – and especially men who are now competing in women's sports," Starnes said. "So, I think that's very interesting when you look at female voters and what might be driving them to the polls.
“The other thing is that Kamala Harris [in the Baier interview] refused to take any responsibility. She refused to apologize to the families of American citizens who have been killed on American soil by illegals. I think that was a devastating response she gave, basically blaming all of this on Donald Trump.”
Bret Baier's full interview with Vice President Kamala Harris is available here.
Sidebar added after story was originally posted.