Fox News anchor Bret Baier says he understands why people took issue with his recent contentious interview with Kamala Harris, which was parodied on Saturday Night Live over the weekend.
“I get the criticism,” Baier toldVanity Fair on Monday. “I get the wondering whether that was different.”
During the interview last week, Baier frequently interrupted Harris.
Baier argued he’s subjected other high-profile leaders to a similar style, including a 2023 interview with Donald Trump.
“If you look back on that one-on-one with former president Trump, he didn’t like it at the time,” the Fox News anchor added.
However, a CNN analysis found that Trump interrupted Harris 38 times in 27 minutes, about twice the rate he did with Trump.
The Harris interview also drew criticism over how the anchor handled discussion over recent comments from Trump where he suggested using the military to control “radical left lunatics,” who, he referred to as “the enemy from within.”
During the conversation, Fox News aired a different clip, from a subsequent town hall event with Harris Faulkner, where Trump appeared more moderate. Trump’s original comments had actually been made on Fox News days earlier, in an interview with Maria Bartiromo.
Baier later described the decision to run the separate clup as a mistake.
“I made a mistake and I want to say that I did make a mistake,” Baier told viewers last week.
The Fox anchor further explained the moment to Vanity Fair.
“I wanted to point out, that same day Harris Faulkner had a town hall with the former president in which she asked specifically about that question and what he meant,” Baier said, adding that “in the chaos of getting it on the air I didn’t realize how we could have made that much more clear to both the viewer and to the vice president listening to it.”
The Special Report host also said he cracked up at how the interview was later parodied on SNL, with Alec Baldwin and Maya Rudolph filling the roles of Baier and Harris, respectively.
“I laughed out loud several times and my sons thought it was very cool. Alec is welcome to guest host on Special Report anytime,” Baier said.
