WASHINGTON CROSSING, Penn. – As she ramps up her efforts to court disgruntled Republicans in her battle with former President Donald Trump for the White House, Vice President Kamala Harris is taking a two-pronged approach on Wednesday.
The Democratic presidential nominee will team up in battleground Pennsylvania with more than 100 anti-Trump Republicans, including one of the most vocal and visible, former Illinois Rep. Adam Kinzinger.
Following her campaign event at the historic park where George Washington crossed the Delaware River on Christmas night 1776 – a turning point moment in the American Revolutionary War – the vice president will sit down with Fox News chief political anchor Bret Baier for an interview that will run on “Special Report” at 6 p.m. ET.
With less than three weeks until Election Day, Harris and Trump are locked in a margin-of-error race in the key swing states.
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Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris arrives to speak during a campaign rally at Erie Insurance Arena in Erie, Pennsylvania, on Monday, Oct. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
While Trump retains vast sway over the GOP, a small sliver of Republicans supporting Harris could make an important impact in what will likely be a race within the margins in the battleground states.
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Kinzinger, who flew missions as a pilot in the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and later served a dozen years as a conservative member of Congress, had a prominent speaking role at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago in August, when Harris gave her nomination acceptance speech.
Kinzinger was one of only two Republicans who served on a special select committee organized by House Democrats that investigated the attack on the U.S. Capitol by Trump supporters aiming to prevent the Congressional certification of the 2020 election.
Former Republican Rep. Adam Kinzinger of Illinois speaks at the Democratic National Convention on Aug. 22, 2024 in Chicago. (Paul Steinhauser – Fox News )
The other was former Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming, the one-time rising conservative star among House Republicans who became a leading GOP crusader against Trump’s efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss to President Biden.
Cheney formally endorsed Harris as the two teamed up at a campaign event in swing state Wisconsin two weeks ago.
The Harris campaign highlighted that the vice president on Wednesday will also be joined at her event in Bucks County – a key swing county north of Philadelphia – by former Republican Reps. Barbara Comstack of Virginia, Jim Greenwood of Pennsylvania, Mickey Edwards of Oklahoma, Denver Riggleman of Virginia, Chris Shays of Connecticut, David Trott of Michigan, as well as former Georgia Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan, former New Jersey Gov. Christine Todd Whitman and former aides who served in the Trump administration.
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As she did at her event with Cheney, Harris is expected to spotlight the importance of patriotism and upholding the Constitution in a bipartisan call for putting country above party in this election.
“Anyone who recklessly tramples on our democratic values as Donald Trump has, anyone who has actively and violently obstructed the will of the people and the peaceful transfer of power as Donald Trump has … must never again stand behind the seal of the President of the United States,” Harris emphasized two weeks ago as she stood on the podium with Cheney.
“The View” co-hosts praised former Congresswoman Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., right, for endorsing presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris this week. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)
Cheney’s father, former Vice President Dick Cheney, has also endorsed Harris.
Harris is also backed by more than 200 alumni who served in both Bush administrations or worked for the late Sen. John McCain and Sen. Mitt Romney, the 2008 and 2012 GOP presidential nominees, respectively. She is also supported by more than 100 Republican former national security officials and other prominent Republicans.
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Following Wednesday’s event, the vice president is expected to sit with Baier for approximately 25–30 minutes at around 5 p.m. ET, about an hour before “Special Report” airs live.
“We are going to run it uninterrupted, unedited, all the way,” Baier said on the eve of the interview.
The vice president’s first formal interview on Fox News will give her a chance to speak directly to viewers across the ideological spectrum who normally do not watch the rival cable news networks CNN and MSNBC.
“Special Report” is regularly among the most-watched programs on cable news, and the show’s “Common Ground” segment features political leaders from across the aisle discussing the issues of the day with the goal of finding compromise.
“We have a lot of eyeballs. We have Democrats, independents and Republicans,” Baier said. “We have the biggest cable news audience. And this is probably going to get a lot more eyeballs. I think tough but fair is what I pitched it as. And I think that’s what they’re going to see.”
Harris largely avoided interviews after replacing President Biden atop the Democrats’ 2024 ticket in mid-July. Her first formal sit-down interview with CNN did not happen until late August. However, she has ramped up her media appearances in recent weeks, including interviews with CBS News’ “60 Minutes,” ABC’s “The View,” late night talk show host Stephen Colbert, radio personality Howard Stern and numerous podcasts. Most of those encounters were perceived as friendly interviews.
The interview with Baier on Fox News, however, may feed the perception that the vice president in the closing stretch of the campaign is open to facing tough questions.
“She knows there are going to be hard questions. She can handle those,” seasoned Democratic strategist and communicator Chris Moyer told Fox News. “Going through that process and handling that, you’re kind of going behind enemy lines a little bit.”
Harris will be the first Democratic presidential nominee in eight years to sit for an interview on Fox News, when Hillary Clinton spoke with Chris Wallace in 2016.
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However, leading Harris surrogates – including Govs. Gavin Newsom of California and Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg – have made high-profile appearances on Fox News this summer and autumn.
Additionally, Democratic vice presidential nominee, Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota, was interviewed on “Fox News Sunday” the past two weekends.
Former President Donald Trump sat down with Fox News’ Harris Faulkner for a town hall on “The Faulkner Focus” answering questions from female voters in Georgia. (‘Fox & Friends’ )
The Harris sitdown with Baier comes the same day that Fox News ran a townhall with Trump, with the former president fielding questions on issues such as abortion and child care from an all-female audience.
The program, recorded on Tuesday in battleground Georgia, ran Wednesday morning on “The Faulkner Focus.”