The Fox interview with Harris takes on the dynamics of a debate

Mr. Baier’s aggressive behavior was consistent with the harsh coverage of Ms. Harris that characterizes Fox News’ daily programming. Many viewers were certainly curious to see how she would react if confronted head-on.

However, Mr. Baier often did not give the audience this chance. Instead, after a few seconds, he interrupted several of Ms. Harris’s answers with a frustrated expression. His first interruption came in the first half minute after their substitution.

“May I please finish answering?” Ms. Harris asked at one point. “I am in the process of responding to your point and would like to conclude.”

Mr. Baier, a veteran interviewer and the face of Fox News’ relatively nonpartisan 6 p.m. news program, was eager to steer Ms. Harris away from her usual talking points, including playing a Trump campaign ad and demanding she respond.

This approach paid off. Pressed on the differences between her and President Biden, Ms. Harris made one of her clearest comments yet to put distance between herself and the current administration: “My presidency will not be a continuation of Joe Biden’s presidency,” she said.

But in his eagerness to avoid a filibuster, Mr. Baier’s follow-up questions sometimes resembled rebuttals. Afterward, at a political roundtable with Fox commentators, Mr. Baier sounded slightly defensive. “I tried to redirect several times without interrupting too much, but at some point you have to redirect somehow to get back into the game,” he said. New York Times

WASHINGTON — Mitch McConnell said after the 2020 election that then-President Donald Trump was “both stupid and ill-tempered,” a “despicable human being” and a “narcissist,” according to excerpts from a new biography of the Senate Republican leader , which will be released this month.

McConnell spoke privately as part of a series of personal oral histories he provided to Michael Tackett, deputy Washington bureau chief for the Associated Press. Tackett’s book, “The Price of Power,” is based on nearly three decades of McConnell’s recorded diaries and years of interviews with the normally reserved Kentucky Republican.

The animosity between Trump and McConnell is well known — Trump once called McConnell “a sullen, sullen and serious political hack.” But McConnell’s private comments are by far his most brutal assessment of the former president and could be seized upon by Democrats ahead of the Nov. 5 election. The biography will be published on October 29, a week before Election Day.

Despite those strong words, McConnell has endorsed Trump’s 2024 candidacy and said earlier this year that “it should come as no surprise” that he would support the Republican Party’s nominee. He shook hands with Trump in June when he visited Republican senators on Capitol Hill.

McConnell, 82, announced this year that he would step down as Republican leader after the election but remain in the Senate until the end of his term in 2026. Associated Press

Midway through a town hall meeting hosted by Univision on Wednesday, Ramiro Gonzalez stood in front of Donald J. Trump and told the former president that he had lost his support.

Mr. Gonzalez, 56, a self-described Republican, said he was alarmed when a mob of Mr. Trump’s supporters stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. He didn’t like Mr. Trump’s leadership during the coronavirus pandemic, and he was dismayed by the chorus of former Trump administration officials who no longer support him. “I want to give you the opportunity to try to win my vote back,” said Mr. Gonzalez of Tampa.

Mr Trump refused to accept it.

Instead, he defended his actions on January 6, presenting an image that was often at odds with reality. He insisted that the crowds coming to Washington had come “not for me, but for the election,” ignoring his own role in fomenting election denial. And he added: “Some of these people went to the Capitol – I said, ‘peaceful and patriotic.'” Nothing wrong. Nothing wrong at all.”

Then, after criticizing the Biden administration and turning to the border, Mr. Trump acceded to Mr. Gonzalez’s request. “Maybe we can get your vote,” he said. “Sounds like I might not do that, but that’s okay too.”

Mr. Trump faced blunt, direct questions in English and Spanish from undecided Hispanic voters throughout the town hall, which began at 10 p.m. Eastern Time. Men and women from across the country descended on Univision’s Miami-area studio in Doral, Florida, and questioned the former president’s positions on climate change, gun control and abortion rights, as well as his baseless claims about Haitian migrants in Springfield, Ohio.

Voters’ questions were polite yet pointed, and Mr. Trump maintained his composure and avoided the hostility he often displays when similarly questioned by the news media.

But Mr. Trump did not directly address many of these voters’ questions. He avoided specific answers and resorted to his usual campaign language, often highlighting his administration’s successes and making vague promises for the future. He declined to say whether he believed climate change was a hoax, and he defended his role in overturning Roe v. Wade, without taking a position on the issue of abortion. New York Times

Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance claimed Wednesday for the first time since joining the Republican Party that Donald Trump did not lose the 2020 election after dodging questions from reporters and his opponent on the debate stage more than two weeks ago.

Vance, responding to a reporter’s question in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, said there were “serious problems in 2020,” referring to alleged censorship by tech companies.

“Did Donald Trump lose the election? Not in the words I would use,” he said in his most direct answer to the question yet. “But look, I don’t give a damn whether you agree with me on this issue or not.”

Vance emphasized he was instead focusing on censorship on social media, citing a decision by Twitter that temporarily blocked users from sharing a story about Hunter Biden’s laptop.

Vance had danced around acknowledging that Trump had lost in recent weeks – he didn’t answer when Democratic vice presidential candidate Tim Walz pressed him on it during their debate, when asked five times during an interview with The New York Times, and when asked about it was mentioned several times in the election campaign. As a candidate for Senate in 2022, Vance questioned the results of the presidential election, citing his concerns about Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg’s donations to a voting organization.

The Harris campaign was quick to highlight Vance’s response on Wednesday.

“There we have it – JD Vance has finally admitted that he is contesting the 2020 election results,” Harris campaign spokesman Matt Corridoni said in a statement. “As Governor Walz said in the debate weeks ago, Donald Trump chose Vance for exactly this reason – he knows that Vance will be a loyal soldier in Trump’s quest for absolute, unchecked and limitless power.” New York Times

Former President Donald Trump called himself the “father of IVF” during an all-female town hall event in Georgia and told attendees that he would support in vitro fertilization if elected to a second term.

“I’m the father of IVF, so I want to hear that question,” he said on the Fox News Town Hall, which aired Wednesday but was recorded the day before. Trump also praised “the courage of six Supreme Court justices” – three of whom he appointed – in overturning Roe v. Wade, overturned the 1973 Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion.

Vice President Kamala Harris called Trump’s comments to reporters in Detroit on Wednesday “pretty bizarre” given his role in overturning Roe, which opened the door to conservative attempts to restrict access to IVF.

Gwen Walz, wife of Harris’ vice presidential running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, said Trump was “more like the father of abortion bans in Georgia,” an apparent reference to the state Supreme Court’s recent reinstatement of an abortion ban six weeks after the Conception in a long period of time. The ongoing litigation triggered the end of Roe. Washington Post