Fox News, Trump and democracy: A friendly place for Donald; enemy ground for Harris

On Wednesday, Donald Trump canceled yet another interview with the mainstream media. Meanwhile, the same day, Vice President Kamala Harris put her head in the mouth of the lion at Fox News. As Brian Stelter, the CNN media critic put it, she “essentially walked into a Trump campaign field office and said “ask me anything.” 

And when Fox veteran anchor Bret Baier proved Stelter’s point in a testy interview where Baier continually cut her off, Harris showed she could go toe-to-toe with him. Former Republican strategist Steve Schmidt captured how she turned the Fox host’s hostility back on him: Her combativeness, Schmidt said, should “leave heel marks on Bret Baier’s back.” 

The contrast between candidates couldn’t be sharper. One is running from the fight. The other is demonstrating fearlessness. She wants Trump to debate her again, even on Fox, but he shrinks away. 

Do we want a president who cowers before adversaries? Or one who speaks truth to those who are hostile?

What makes Trump’s campaign so afraid to put him on the air except in staged settings where only his truest believers can ask questions? His campaign is the king of the “cancel culture” which was once the far right’s bete noire. Trump backed out of an interview with CNBC, and even with “60 Minutes.” Harris did hers; those sit-downs with the CBS News magazine have been de rigueur for presidential candidates for 50 years.

By contrast, Trump appears on Fox, where interviewers like Maria Bartiromo let his authoritarianism go unchallenged, whether because the network hosts are either awestruck or paid to adore him so as to flog their ratings. Sure, he went to the Economic Club of Chicago where he faced Bloomberg editor John Micklethwait — but he crumbled when asked about tariffs and played coy on tough questions like those about his phone calls to Putin. Trump also face-planted trying to answer a question on Jan. 6 from Hispanic voter Ramiro Gonzalez at a Univision TV event Wednesday night.

So it makes sense that he prefers to spend time in Fox-sponsored phony town halls packed exclusively with his admirers. Even a man who’s lost most of the speed on his swing can hit their softball questions for a ground rule double. 

Beyond the obvious answer that friendly confines are comfortable and easy for a man who continually shows himself to be lazy, Trump gave us a 39-minute clue on Monday. At one of these town halls in Pennsylvania, he abruptly stopped the Q-and-A’s and had the entire crowd watching him bop and swing his arms jerkily to his Mar-a-Lago playlist, including James Brown singing “It’s a Man’s Man’s Man’s World,” and “Ave Maria.” 

It was as if he’d not only lost his marbles, but also his dice, his cards, his jacks and his dominoes. It led the great political strategist James Carville to say “I think he’s suffering from what I call “mamentia,” madness and dementia at the same time.” Whatever genius he may ever have had is now far beyond unstable.

The insanity of that town hall could mislead us to miss that he’s mentally harmed and dangerous. Last Sunday, in an interview with his friends at Fox, he again raised the specter that if elected, he would use the military against “the enemy within.” He identified Nancy Pelosi and Adam Schiff specifically, but you’d have to be an ostrich not to understand that he meant anyone who opposes him. 

Kamala Harris, in her Fox interview Wednesday with Baier, did not miss the opportunity to call out for Trump’s threat to American democracy. He was invoking the fascist concept used by Third Reich leaders primarily to target Jews, but also Roma, gays and dissenters. 

Because Harris caught Fox not playing the clip of Trump’s noxious statement, Baier later said he “made a mistake.” Feel free to believe that if you like.

The vice president, in the words of Politico, knows how to deploy the “street fighter mentality she’ll need to eke out a win.” Trump, by contrast, is bringing a knife to a balloon toss. Only fear can explain his cancellation of so many media interviews.

Harris is venturing into unfriendly Fox territory, seeking to reach undecided voters who may have been attracted to Trump’s frayed image of strength. Those voters may take note: His false bravado doesn’t stand up to his unwillingness to face tough questions and his hardest interviewers. The candidate whose character and actions show real forcefulness in this election is a woman.

Aftergut, a former federal prosecutor, is of counsel to Lawyers Defending American Democracy.