Evening Edition: Kamala Harris Shifts Her Media Strategy
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Church's original recipe is back. You can never go wrong with original. Still tastes the same like back in the day. Right now, get two pieces of chicken starting at only $2.99 or 10 pieces starting at only $10.99. Church's. Offer valid at participating locations. I'm Maria Bartiromo. I'm Greg Gutfeld. I'm Liz Klayman. And this is the Fox News Rundown. Tuesday, October 15th, 2024. I'm John Saucier.

Vice President Kamala Harris has been widely criticized during her sudden campaign for president for shying away from the media. And now in a bit of a surprise move, she's set to sit down with us here at Fox News for an interview, which will air Wednesday evening on Special Report with Bret Baier. Previously, she hasn't done much mainstream news interviews, rather candidate-friendly podcasts and talk shows. I work with Bret Baier every day, and he's not one that tolerates word salad of any kind, and he's not going to tolerate it

from Vice President Harris, I don't think either. But I think that Brett may press a little bit on these tensions. This is the Fox News Rundown, Evening Edition.

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The latest Fox News power rankings have recently shifted to show that seven swing states have been moved to toss-up status with only three weeks to go until Election Day. Vice President Kamala Harris has seen her poll numbers shifting throughout the time she's been the nominee, and the final stretch of the campaign has been getting quite interesting. You had these comments last week by former President Bill Clinton. You had a case in Georgia not very long ago, didn't you? They made an ad about a young woman who'd been killed by an immigrant.

Yeah, well, if they'd all been properly vetted, that probably wouldn't have happened. But if they all properly vetted and that doesn't happen, and America is not having enough babies to keep our populations up, so we need immigrants that have been vetted to do work, there wouldn't be a problem. And before that, we heard former President Barack Obama with some harsh comments for an important voting bloc.

Black males.

So can the vice president keep it together enough in the next three weeks to convince voters that she's ready for the Oval Office? I think that she should have done it far sooner. But I think the political realities, John, are that she senses the tightening of the poll. We're speaking today with Fox News Washington-based national correspondent Griff Jenkins. And her risk-averse media strategy, because I think that's

Fair to call it that, doing very few interviews and then only safe ones, to now go into one of the toughest interviews, in fact, the toughest interview she will face since becoming the nominee, sitting down with fair but tough Bret Baier, has got a lot of upside but also a lot of downside because...

You know, we are going to get questions from Brett, perhaps that haven't been asked by other moderators. And he's going to press her on things like immigration, like the border and statements she's made since she's been the nominee, most recently saying that she would put her record up against anybody and what she's done to do to secure the border. Those were her words a few days ago in a town hall.

And so I think Brett's going to hold her feet to the fire. And it's not surprising, as the campaign senses the tightening of the polls, that she would sit down with someone like Brett because, after all, to take a little pat on the back, here at Fox News on television and radio, we reach a larger audience than anybody. We are a more diverse audience made up of Republicans, but also Democrats and independents. And now as you look

at Fox's latest power rankings, all seven swing states, a toss-up, 93 electoral votes. She's got to reach our audience, so we shall see how she does, and kudos to Brett and the special report team for pulling that together.

Yeah, indeed. Big audience. And I think it will be interesting to see how she does when she is pressed on these questions. Griff, I don't know if you've noticed, I've watched her interviews and it seems like a lot of questions that she doesn't want to answer. She kind of goes off on a tangent and never does indeed answer it. So I'm expecting Brett to follow up on some of these major issues, namely the economy, but also how she's separating herself from President Joe Biden. I mean, you see her over and over in her campaign rallies say it's time to turn the page.

Do you think Brett's going to get into the big question a lot of us have is how is she different than the current president and what things would she like to change? She hasn't given too many big specifics on that. And the only time she really was asked about it, you'll recall she recently said she couldn't think

of a single thing that you would do differently. And look, let me tell you, I work with Brett Baer every day and he's not one that tolerates word salad of any kind. And he's not going to tolerate it from Vice President Harris, I don't think either. But I think that Brett may press a little bit on these tensions.

President Biden, that was the White House all day long today. President Biden has one event. He's in Philadelphia at a Democrat city fundraiser, not directly related to the Harris campaign. Biden has really been absent from the campaign trail recently.

and not near Harris. And we keep seeing instances of tension in the Harris senior advisor. Ian Sams was asked point blank by our own Neil Cavuto yesterday, twice is there tension? And he said, well, when I think of tension between presidents and vice presidents, you've got to think about January 6th and Trump and Pence. He would not

refute that there is this tension. And I think you're going to hopefully hear more from her about that. And to your larger point, how it is that she wants a new way forward while she still currently is part of team Biden. Speaking of tension,

Griff, it really seems like there's plenty of it to go around in the Democratic Party, especially when I was watching a campaign event this week in Georgia featuring former President Bill Clinton. Now, Bill Clinton, he's been out and about during this campaign, the last two as well. He's not exactly the Bill Clinton we knew in the 90s where he was just a smooth operator,

All the way through. And really, I mean, this guy could sell you on anything. Nowadays, the former president is a little bit older. He's a little bit slower. And he made some comments, which I don't know if they played really well for the Harris campaign, specifically criticizing how the United States has been vetting migrants who have been coming into the country and some examples of violence against American citizens there.

What's your impression on how some of these Kamala Harris surrogates, especially Bill Clinton, have performed in this election cycle? And do you think Bill Clinton is helping or hurting this cause? It's the surrogate problem. And I love, John, that you took me back to my younger days when we were all...

perhaps, by this president who wore black wayfarers that could jam on the sacks. He's definitely not that. And I think you're right, maybe missing a step. But with respect to that moment over the weekend on Sunday where Bill Clinton really said the quiet part out loud on immigration, I printed it out to talk with you a little bit because he really did specifically say to the effect that if

there had been proper vetting, then Lake and Riley might not have been killed. And then went on and got a little bit lost as well, saying that Americans aren't making enough babies, so we need more migrants. But what's significant about that, and what I haven't heard anyone drill into, but as someone that has covered the border and practically lived at the border, John, for the last three and a half years, is that he's pointing...

pointing out at the fundamental failure of this administration on the border, not just simply the numbers which we all saw from drone cameras Fox had down on the border, but also the national security and public safety risk that has come with the failure in the vetting process. And in the case of Lake and Riley that Bill Clinton mentioned,

In April of 2022, a Venezuelan named Jose Ibarra crossed in El Paso and was released into the country. And the only refutation we've gotten from Harris' campaign about the vetting is that Republicans tanked a Senate bill and Trump tanked the Senate bill, which is certainly the case.

didn't get passed and Trump weighed in heavily against it. But that was earlier this year. The person that killed the migrant from Venezuela, Jose Bar, that killed Lakin Riley, crossed and was released under the current policies two years ago, almost two years to the day that Lakin Riley lost her life. We also know from authorities in that Georgia case that the brother of the suspected killer

is we've got ties to this trend day Aragua, Venezuela and violent gang that we see in Aurora, Colorado, in New York City, in Texas, and all across the country taking hold. I talked

to the chief of the border patrol, the commissioner of CBP, and the director of ICE, all personally, who all told me that the concern of Tren de Aragua Venezuelan gang members coming across the border has become a, quote, priority.

Four years ago, Trent de Aragua wasn't even on our radar. Now it's become a prioritized problem. And I think that really when Clinton opens up a floodgate like that, not everyone covers the border, perhaps as extensively as I do or Bill Malusian and some others, but

he really accidentally put his finger and brought to light what is the fundamental most glaring failure of this administration with regards to the border, and that is a lack of failure on the vetting process. But if you don't want to take it from me, because you don't believe me as a reporter, as perhaps someone who is more liberal leaning, then take it from DHS's own Inspector General who said

that unless we stop the failures in the, quote, vetting process, we're going to have a potentially very serious national security risk. On Wednesday night, Fox News will air an interview featuring Vice President Kamala Harris, who is sitting down with our guy, Brett Baier. Just a couple of weeks ago, this seemed like it would never happen.

As the vice president avoided the media, especially so with news networks, we're looking at the Harris-Walls campaign today with Fox News Washington-based correspondent Griff Jenkins, who says the economy and the border are major issues in this election and could be hurdles for Harris as she tries to win the White House. We'll have more coming your way next.

You mentioned the bipartisan border security bill that failed in Congress. I found it pretty interesting, Griff, that National Border Patrol Council had endorsed that bill, but also this week they've endorsed former President Trump for president. So that's an

interesting situation how those two endorsements have come out. Finally, Griff, let's talk about another major surrogate, former President Obama, a man who is extremely popular in the Democratic Party and among Democratic circles as well. He has taken a more active role in this campaign in supporting Vice President Harris and had an interesting speech recently where he almost was trying to shame black men against voting for Donald Trump. Now, we know that African-American men is going to be a major part of this election. Some of our data, Griff, has shown that

that Trump still lags behind Harris when it comes to the black male voter, but has picked up some ground. Do you think that former President Obama can help get part of that voting bloc back? How do you feel that he's done so far in this election? I saw, actually, I was just looking at social media on X, and this afternoon, former President Obama was tweeting about Kamala Harris has a plan to,

for young black men to make them more financially secure and of course pointed to her unveiling her opportunity agenda. But the fact is, you know, Harris is struggling with a demographic that she probably never thought she would, which is black men. That's why she's doing interviews like

Charlemagne the God, trying to really reach out to them. And, you know, in Detroit, I was reading the New York Times piece today that said they quoted 10 current and former Democrat office holders in Detroit that said that Harris has lacked an urgency. So she's got to make a stronger case. She unveiled the plan, which at the top of it is $1,020,000 forgivable government liability.

loans. But, you know, I think Obama's initial sort of attempt to talk directly to black young men ended up backfiring by basically accusing him of being sexist, if you will. And he's going to have to do more. But, you know, at the end of the day, John, as we kind of talk about it, I think

Surrogates can only do so much. And there's no doubt that both Bill Clinton and Barack Obama's hearts are in it. But when you talk about the issue of the border, which is top of mind and always one, two or three in the top issues across all polling for voters being a top issue. And then you talk about these drifting numbers from Democrats in the black vote.

I think the only person that can really sell it and make the closing argument is the candidate herself, in this case, Vice President Harris. And so I think that's why you're seeing this shift in the media strategy, because she knows she's got to reach specific groups and she's got to start to address no longer. And you just run on good vibes. You really got to address these issues because now, naturally, as is the case in history, we're three weeks out.

This is when people that maybe don't follow politics as much as you and I do because of our jobs, they start tuning in. They're really starting to take a look, and it's not going to just suffice to give them a platitude and some good vibes. They want some actual real sense of direction of where

these candidates stand on those issues. And, you know, the Harris campaign has been accusing Trump of hiding in the basement like Biden. But every time I turn on a television or turn on a radio, we hear Trump out there. He's not shy about making himself known. So I think there's been a few fumbles here in the past few days with the surrogates. We'll see if that changes if

Harris starts leaning even more so into being available in media interviews like the one she's going to do tomorrow with Brett Baier. And I have to add this as a reporter that covers politicians, if she would hold a press conference. We are now 86 days and she is still not...

decided to hold a single press conference with a group of reporters like you would have at the White House, they will pepper her with questions of the day. Right. Even as the sitting vice president to do it as that, right? Let alone be a candidate. You think she might have a press conference, but you know, the campaign strategist may think that's a bad idea and they might actually be right. I guess we'll see how the interview with Fox goes. Griff Jenkins, Washington DC based national correspondent for Fox news channel three weeks till election day. Griff,

Don't blink, okay? And thanks for being with us on the Fox News Rundown Evening Edition podcast. There you go, John. Have a good one. Thanks for having me. You've been listening to the Fox News Rundown. And now, stay up to date by subscribing to this podcast at foxnewspodcasts.com. Listen ad-free on Fox News Podcasts Plus on Apple Podcasts. And Prime members can listen to the show ad-free on Amazon Music. And for up-to-the-minute news, go to foxnews.com.

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