Will Kamala Harris’ Fox News Gamble Pay Off?

Tonight, Vice President Kamala Harris is set to make her debut on Fox News, in an apparent attempt to appeal to conservative voters in the final weeks of the campaign. The interview is scheduled for 6 p.m. on Bret Baier’s Special Report.
Harris’ decision to engage with Fox News—her first formal interview with the outlet—comes as her campaign has faced criticism from conservatives for not doing enough unscripted interviews earlier in the election cycle. Newsweek has contacted Harris’s campaign via email for comment.
However, this month, Harris’s campaign changed strategy, and the vice president has done several media appearances including The Late Show With Stephen Colbert and The Howard Stern Show, as well as the traditional candidate interview on 60 Minutes, which Donald Trump refused to do.
The vice president will also participate in a CNN town hall on October 23 that will be moderated by anchor Anderson Cooper. The discussion will be broadcast live from Delaware County, Pennsylvania.
Harris’ appearance on Fox News will be her first time doing an interview with an established conservative media network.
Baier is known as a fair journalist. After the presidential debate in September, Fox floated the idea of another debate, moderated by Baier and fellow host Martha MacCallum. Trump said he would not agree to a Fox Debate unless Jesse Watters, one of Fox’s more partisan prime-time hosts, moderated it.
However, some of the network’s hosts have a history of giving unfair favorable coverage to Donald Trump. In 2020, Fox News paid Dominion Voting Systems, a voting machine company, a record $787.5 million settlement after saying its anchors knowingly endorsed and promoted Trump’s lie that Dominion machines were switching votes from Trump to Joe Biden in the 2020 election.
The network’s owner, Rupert Murdoch, said hosts Maria Bartiromo, Jeanine Pirro, Lou Dobbs and Sean Hannity all endorsed the false claim, rather than just hosting guests espousing it as a view.
Erika Franklin Fowler, professor of government at Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut, told Newsweek that, despite the risks of the unscripted interview, Harris would want access to Fox’s large audience.
“Harris is trying to reach persuadable voters, and Fox News has a large following,” Fowler said. “Yes, that includes a lot of Republicans, but it also has independents who might not otherwise hear from her more directly.”
Fowler added that, while this one interview might not be a game-changer, it offers Harris an opportunity to shape media narratives and demonstrate that she is reaching out to a broader audience.
“The biggest risk is not that different from other interviews she has done: namely that any poor answers may be sliced and diced into campaign attacks that can be used against her,” Fowler said.
Natalie J. Stroud, a professor of communications at the University of Texas at Austin, echoed those concerns, telling Newsweek that Harris needs to clarify her policy positions for an undecided or skeptical audience.
“Harris has shifted her position on some issues and needs to continue to make that clear,” Stroud said. “She also has to tell the public clearly how her presidency would differ from Biden’s.” Failure to do so, she added, “is a risk for her campaign.”
Harris is running on a more moderate platform than her short-lived presidential campaign in 2019. Since then, she has taken a more moderate position on several issues, including fracking and Medicare for All.
Stroud said the rationale behind Harris’ decision to go on Fox News offers a platform to potentially sway undecided voters, particularly right-leaning individuals who may be disillusioned with Trump.
“If Harris sees an opening with right-leaning voters who are unsure about Trump, going onto Fox News may be a way to reach out to them,” Stroud said.
Harris’s running mate Tim Walz and Democratic Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg have both been praised for their effective messaging on Fox.
Success in this interview, Stroud said, would involve Harris effectively communicating her vision to an audience that would not usually hear her message directly.
“In a fragmented media environment, seeing the candidates appear in many different outlets is a good thing for democracy,” Stroud added.