Fox’s Baier Says He ‘Made A Mistake.’ Others Are Calling Bull$hit

Conservatives have tried to spin Kamala Harris’ interview with Fox’s Brett Baier as a disaster for her but in the real, non-MAGA world it’s clear Harris walked out of the Fox Lion Den without getting scratched up. If you read some of the RWNJ stories about the interview the level of gaslighting means conservatives know it as well as you and I do. Harris turned the tables some on a smug, smartass interviewer who made the mistake of underestimating her. Best of all was that Harris was articulate and forceful but stayed well away from getting loud or angry.  Baier got beat, and worse he got called out in real-time by Harris for trying to pull a stunt. Seeing the reaction that evening and the next day he decided to try and clean up his mess. He wound up making it worse.

One particular part of the interview has gotten a lot of attention because Baier tried to trick-bad Harris by playing a video clip of Trump to deflect from the actual subject being discussed. Harris handed him his butt and even Baier realized it. It was well under two minutes of the whole thing but it’s become the key talking point.  Unfortunately for Baier and Fox that talking point has been critical – of THEM. We don’t know who will win this election but Fox is trying to hedge its bets a bit so Baier said in his show the next day he made a mistake – that the wrong clip was shown. If anything that’s blowing up in his smug mug!

I’m not a regular Morning Joe viewer. I watch parts of it sometimes and this a.m. happened to catch Mika Brzezinski teeing off on Baier. While she didn’t use the actual words ‘I’m calling bullshit’ on him that was clearly what her controlled rant said. Mika noted all the ways Baier could have and should have handled it in the moment.  And he didn’t do anything other than try to deflect, which was exactly what the clip he had cued up to run was meant to do. As I said Harris handed him his ass and Baier grimaced his way through getting schooled. He showed every sign of someone who was all set for a “gotcha” moment on Harris only to have her turn it around as a “gotcha” on HIM. See for yourself:

Fox host: *plays clip*

Vice President Harris: 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. That's not what you just showed

Fox host: Well…

Vice President Harris: You… pic.twitter.com/CwJyJqk9P1

— Kamala HQ (@KamalaHQ) October 16, 2024

Baier for all the world looked like a lawyer opposing Harris in court – where the judge told Harris to come on up to the bench and take the gavel and slap him down!  He kept some composure but he’s experienced enough to know that what had just happened was going to be a news story in and of itself. And that said news story wouldn’t be one that was favorable for him. Worst of all is that millions (over seven million as it turned out) FOX viewers saw Harris get the better of him.  Of course knowing ONE viewer in particular (Trump) would be watching he didn’t dare do what Brzezinski said he could have and should have done. Right there he could have said ‘I’m sorry – the control room seems to have had the wrong clip cued up’ and that would have been the end of it. But Trumpy was already upset that he was doing the interview so Baier chose to ‘take on for Trump.’

That, as I’ve noted turned out to have been a mistake because it became the big takeaway from the interview. So in an attempt to clean up the whole mess Baier kept the whole thing alive with a version of ‘non-apology apology’ hence him getting ripped this morning.  And he took plenty of criticism before his “mistake” statement (which is why he made it) and since. But Mika Brzezinski tore him a new anal orifice. Now, to be fair one would expect someone like her to take Baier to the woodshed. Had hubby Joe been on she wouldn’t have gotten the chance because he hogs the attention and HE would have done it.  The point is that Baier probably would have been better off saying nothing.

Why do I say that? Well, a little while ago I read a short article from The Independent where a former colleague decided to publicly call him out.  Granted, Gretchen Carlson’s exit from Fox was rather less than amicable but she built up a lot of goodwill with their viewers over time.  Carlson went on twitter/X and posted her own tweet on the matter and it was blunt and to the point. For some reason I can’t repost that particular tweet but it’s genuine and the text says:

Now Bret Baier says “his mistake” he ran wrong Trump “enemy from within” clip during interview w/ Harris. Newsflash: When wrong clips run (which happens) hosts can easily say “Sorry that was the wrong clip”. He or his producers would have known it was the wrong one right then.

At a time when Harris is sharpening her message against Trump, doing multiple events per day and adding a section about Trump’s ‘enemy from within’ rhetoric to her stump speech Baier has given this a boost.  Of course, he shouldn’t have tried to pull that kind of stunt on Harris in the first place. However he’s just another arrogant Fox a-hole who assumes that as a white guy of his stature (a real legend in his own mind) Harris would crumble under the pressure he intended to apply during their thirty-minute or so sit down. He threw punches and Harris didn’t just block – she threw punches back and though on HIS set and HIS network air he knew before it was over that when the judge’s scorecards were added up Harris would be the winner of this particular prizefight.

All he could do was grin and bear it. Actually, if you look at that clip again GRIMACE is probably more accurate.

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