Kamala Harris Is Not the First Democrat to Give an Interview to Fox News

Why an Interview on Fox News Made Sense for Kamala Harris

The vice president will take questions from Bret Baier in a session to be broadcast at 6 p.m. She joins a long line of Democratic candidates and elected officials who have ventured into hostile television territory.

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By Adam Nagourney

Vice President Kamala Harris’s interview with Fox News’s chief political anchor, Bret Baier, at 6 p.m. Eastern is, by any measure, a risk for her and a test of her ability to handle a potentially contentious interview in an unfriendly setting. This is the first time that Ms. Harris has sat for an interview on Fox, and it follows a series of interviews that the Democratic presidential candidate has given, including one to “60 Minutes.”

But she is hardly making history here.

A long line of Democrats — presidents and presidential candidates, governors, mayors, senators and members of Congress — have done precisely what Ms. Harris is doing. The atmosphere may be more polarized than ever — and some Democrats might argue that Fox is more fervent in its attacks on their party than ever — but Democrat after Democrat has concluded that there is more to gain than to lose in reaching out to Fox’s audience.

They have talked to some of the biggest names on Fox: Mr. Baier; Bill O’Reilly, who left the network in 2017; Sean Hannity; and Chris Wallace, who left the network in 2021.

“We very much think that bringing our message to audiences who might not agree with you on every issue is a very important thing to do,” said Manuel Bonder, the press secretary for Gov. Josh Shapiro, the Democrat from Pennsylvania who regularly appears on Fox shows and was on Ms. Harris’s short list to be her running mate.

Hillary Clinton, during her years as a Democratic candidate for the White House and as secretary of state, turned up on Fox numerous times, including sitting down with Mr. Wallace when she was the Democratic presidential nominee in 2016. Barack Obama spoke with Mr. O’Reilly in September 2008, when he was a senator from Illinois running for president, and as president, he did at least five interviews with Fox.

John Kerry appeared on Fox at least twice when he ran for president in 2004. President Biden did a Fox interview with Mr. Wallace while he was running in the Democratic presidential primary in 2020, though he did not do one as the nominee.

And it is not only candidates running for the White House.

Nancy Pelosi, the former Democratic House speaker, has sat for an interview with Fox. Gavin Newsom, the governor of California, regularly went on Mr. Hannity’s show while promoting Mr. Biden’s candidacy for president. Senator Bernie Sanders, the Vermont independent who caucuses with Democrats, did a town hall on Fox. Kirsten Gillibrand, the Democratic senator from New York, sat down with Mr. Wallace in 2020 during her short-lived candidacy for the White House.

Democratic analysts said that while there were certainly risks for Ms. Harris — she began her campaign for president only over the summer and does not have as much experience as past Democratic contenders in handling these kinds of interviews — the tightness of this race, with Election Day just three weeks away, made it worth it.

“I think it’s totally smart that she’s doing this,” said Howard Wolfson, a Democratic consultant who was a longtime senior adviser to Mrs. Clinton and a former Fox News contributor. “It’s an audience that is hearing a lot of negative information about her, and this is an opportunity for her to counter that. Remember: She’s not at 50-plus-one yet.”

That said, Fox News hosts’ interviews with Democratic leaders have not always gone smoothly, marked more than once by testy exchanges.

“You’ve got that little smirk on your face and you think you’re so clever,” former President Bill Clinton said to Chris Wallace in 2006 after the host challenged him on how he had handled the threat of Osama bin Laden while he was in the White House. “But I had responsibility for trying to protect this country. I tried and I failed to get bin Laden. I regret it. But I did try.”

President Obama scolded Mr. O’Reilly in an interview before the Super Bowl in 2014, after Mr. O’Reilly said Mr. Obama’s detractors believed his administration had misled the public about the attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya.

“They believe it because folks like you are telling them,” Mr. Obama said.

At another point, Mr. O’Reilly asked if the broken promise on keeping health plans was “the biggest mistake of your presidency.” Mr. Obama responded, “Oh, Bill, you’ve got a long list of my mistakes of my presidency.”

Simon Rosenberg, a Democratic consultant known for his bullish views on the party’s prospects, appeared on the Fox show “Happening Now” in 2017, but he walked off the set after a quarrelsome session, pledging, “I’m never coming back on this show again.”

Democrats have used these platforms in different ways. In the case of Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Shapiro, it was a way to reach a broader set of voters, to present themselves as more in the mainstream than they might have otherwise been presented on Fox.

But Mr. Newsom and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg — a onetime presidential candidate who has also been a Fox regular — have also used their appearances as opportunities to troll the network and its hosts, in the process presenting themselves to Democratic audiences as feisty advocates for their party — and, not incidentally, positioning themselves for potential runs for the White House.

“I want border security,” Mr. Newsom said in one of his entertainingly contentious interviews with Mr. Hannity, as he disputed the premise of Mr. Hannity’s question. “Democrats want border security.”

(Mr. Newsom’s strategy of trying to use Fox to his advantage did not pay off in one case: when he debated Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida, with Mr. Hannity as the moderator. For much of the session, Mr. Hannity joined Mr. DeSantis in challenging Mr. Newsom and his positions.)

But the truth is, analysts said, these kinds of encounters, if handled adroitly by the subject of the interview, can play well, particularly for an audience of Democrats or undecided voters, and particularly if the Democrat comes across as strong and in command of the issues.

That might be particularly true for Ms. Harris, whom former President Donald J. Trump has sought to present as weak and an intellectual lightweight.

“There are risks,” Mr. Wolfson said. “Any time you do an interview, there’s some risk that you say something you didn’t mean to say. But the potential benefits outweigh the risks.”

“I hope this is not just a one-off,” he said. “I hope there are other opportunities for her to talk in front of audiences like this.”

Michael M. Grynbaum contributed reporting and Kitty Bennett contributed research.