John T. Bennett | (TNS) CQ-Roll Call
WASHINGTON — If any flippable Republican voters remain, Vice President Kamala Harris on Wednesday made her biggest play for them yet on a day when her differences with Donald Trump were as stark as ever.
The Democratic presidential nominee ventured into Trump country when she jousted with Fox News anchor Bret Baier in an interview that aired Wednesday night, her most contentious so far since becoming her party’s nominee. They clashed over a number of issues, as Donald Trump handed her a new attack line on an issue that’s important to women voters.
Wednesday was an eventful one for the nominees, with Fox News airing a town hall taped Tuesday in Georgia with Trump and an all-woman audience as he and Harris jockey for any remaining undecided or flippable voters in that key bloc.
Harris was asked as she left for her own Fox News taping and a rally in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, about the former president and current GOP nominee during the town hall declaring himself the “father of IVF.”
“So Donald Trump, I found it to be quite bizarre. And if what he meant is taking responsibility, well, then yeah, he should take responsibility for the fact that 1 in 3 women in America lives in a Trump abortion ban state,” she told reporters at Joint Base Andrews as she left Washington.
“What he should take responsibility for is that couples who are praying and hoping and working toward growing a family have been so disappointed and harmed by the fact that IVF treatments have now been put at risk. What he should take responsibility for is what we’ve been seeing across the country since he hand-selected three members of the United States Supreme Court, and they undid the protections of Roe v. Wade.”
Trump’s remark came amid a back-and-forth with Fox News moderator Harris Faulkner and a questioner named Pamela, who said she lives in Georgia but was originally from California and had asked about the federal government being “involved in women’s basic rights” — referring to conservative Supreme Court justices voting to end federal abortion protection rights. The subsequent legal moves have put fertility treatments at risk in some states.
“Ultimately, it’s going to be the right thing,” Trump said of states setting their own policies, before telling Faulkner: “And IVF — you had mentioned before IVF.” Only she had not, according to a transcript released by Fox News, making the moment an unforced error before Harris pounced.
“So let’s not be distracted by his choice of words,” she told reporters. “The reality is, his actions have been very harmful to women and families in America on this issue.”
Here are three takeaways from Harris’ Fox News sit-down and another busy day on the campaign trail.
Courting Republicans
Harris and Baier clashed from the beginning of the much-anticipated Fox session, as he pressed her on illegal immigration rates and she demanded multiple times to finish her answer. He asked if she regretted reversing a Trump-era policy to deport and detain, rather than releasing people prior to an immigration hearing.
Harris did not point to any regrets, instead blaming lawmakers, saying the administration’s first bill submitted to Capitol Hill was an immigration measure — which Baier noted the then-Democratic-controlled House and Senate never acted on.
For her part, Harris did manage to get in her standard line about Trump not caring about “fixing a problem” when he told GOP senators earlier this year to nix a bipartisan immigration and border package.
“We had a broken immigration system, transcending Donald Trump’s administration, for years,” Harris said. “We need more judges, we need to process those cases faster. … (Border officials) need more resources.” She vowed to “follow the law” and “enforce federal law,” saying she would not move to decriminalize illegal border crossings.
On that and other answers, Harris appeared to be trying to appeal to moderate Republican and independent voters. A Marist College poll of likely voters conducted Oct. 8-10 found that 94% of Republican respondents intended to vote for Trump, while 6% were leaning Harris.
Turned testy
Things got feisty when Baier played a clip from Trump’s earlier town hall, and the vice president pushed back and pushed back hard, contending it was cherry-picked.
She pointedly questioned why Baier did not select a clip of Trump at the event again saying he views his foes as “enemies from within” and threatening to round them up. (More on that below.)
Voices already had begun to rise during the interview when Baier moments earlier asked how Harris could run as, in her words, a “new generation of leadership.”
“If you’re turning the page,” he said, “you’ve been in office for 3.5 years.” She shot back: “Trump has been running for office …”
Baier wasn’t satisfied, noting: “But you’ve been in office.” The VP replied with a tilted head: “You and I both know what I’m talking about.” The Fox host then deadpanned: “Actually, I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Harris concluded that section of the session by saying of Trump: “It’s clear to me … he’s unfit to serve, that he is unstable, that he is dangerous.”
Harris also blanched when Baier asked when Harris noticed any decline in 81-year-old President Joe Biden. Notably, she never said that she had not, prior to him leaving the race in late July, detected cognitive slippage in her boss.
She repeatedly tried to flip the question on her opponent, saying: “I think the American people have a concern about Donald Trump.” Republicans have tried questioning her honesty with voters by arguing that she misled them about Biden’s fitness for the office. She likely did little to assuage any such scorned voter during the interview.
‘Enemy from within’
Before her long-awaited interview with the Trump-friendly Fox News aired, she spoke at a rally in front of a white barn in Washington Crossing, Pennsylvania. Also on stage were a number of former Republican lawmakers, a former state GOP official and a former Trump White House aide.
Lined up behind her blue lectern with the seal of her current office were former GOP Reps. Adam Kinzinger of Illinois, Jim Greenwood of Pennsylvania, David Trott of Michigan, Denver Riggleman of Virginia, Mickey Edwards of Oklahoma, Chris Shays of Connecticut and Barbara Comstock of Virginia. Also joining Harris were former Georgia Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan and former Trump administration national security official Olivia Troye.
Harris shook hands with her unlikely allies as they applauded her arrival in the campaign cycle’s latest surreal scene.
“I thank you all for what you’re doing, and for the courage that you’re each showing … to speak out,” Harris told the former officials as she stepped behind the microphones in a county Biden and Hillary Clinton carried narrowly over Trump in 2020 and 2016.
“At stake in this election is the U.S. Constitution itself,” she said, as a “U-S-A” chant broke out, long a staple of Trump’s political rallies. “We have so much more in common than what separates us. … In our careers we have each sworn an oath to uphold the Constitution of the United States. And so we know that that oath should always be honored and not violated.”
She took a jab at Trump, saying he was seeking “unchecked power.” If leaders opt against “honoring their oath,” she said, voters would have to worry about being “thrown in jail or targeted by the military.” Earlier this week, Trump floated using the military to round up some of his foes, calling some “the enemy from within.”
During the town hall that aired earlier Wednesday, Trump was asked about his “from within” comment but, true to form, doubled down. “And it is the enemy from within and they’re very dangerous. They are Marxists and communists and fascists,” he said. “And they’re saying — I use a guy like (California Rep.) Adam Schiff because they made up the Russia, Russia, Russia hoax.”
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