Fox News host Bret Baier claims Harris was late while giving a post-mortem on a “tough” interview

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Fox News host Bret Baier claimed Kamala Harris was 15 minutes late to her heated sit-down interview as he delivered his verdict on the vice president’s performance.

The veteran anchor spoke with colleague Dana Perino to give a postmortem of the 27-minute interview after it ended Wednesday night, saying it was “difficult to redirect” the Democratic nominee without interrupting her.

Baier compared Harris’ lateness to the interview to the kicker in football taking a timeout before kicking the field goal.

“They ice the kicker,” he said. “So we should start at 5 p.m. That was the time they gave us. Originally we wanted to do 25 or 30 minutes. They came in and said, “Well, maybe 20.” So it’s already being cut.

“And then the vice president showed up around 5:15 p.m.,” he said, adding that it was a close turnaround since the show airs at 6 p.m.

Baier was criticized online for repeatedly interrupting and talking over the vice president during the interview, which featured several heated arguments.

Addressing his interruptions, he told Perino: “When we started talking, I knew it would be difficult to redirect her without me trying to interrupt her.

“I did that with President Obama – at one point I just said, ‘Mr. President, I know you like to filibuster.’ Sometimes I just didn’t even have the option to redirect that way. I had a lot of other questions.”

When his time was up, Harris’ campaign staff began waving their hands to signal that the interview was over. “I’m talking about four people waving their hands like it has to stop,” he said.

However, Perino acknowledged, “Sometimes, especially when she tried to push back against Donald Trump, she was pretty good at getting her point across.”

In another interview with conservative commentator Mark Levin, Baier said he was “frustrated” because he couldn’t ask all the questions he wanted in the allotted time.

“I had so much to do,” he said. “I was hoping it would be a polite back and forth, but it was good for her to come and I think she should do more of it, but I was just trying to get the talking points through and that took time a while.”

The Independent the Harris campaign has reached out for comment.

Trump commented on the interview, accusing Harris of having an “incurable case of Trump Confusion Syndrome” and – despite concerns about his own cognitive abilities – suggesting that the vice president take a cognitive test.

In a post on Truth Social, Trump said: “She is hardly in a position to talk about any topic other than the man who had the best economy ever, the strongest border in history and who just got the UNANIMOUS CONFIRMATION of the U.S -Border Police has received ME!”

He added: “She is also the WORST Vice President in history, but will hopefully be GONE soon.” Congratulations again to Bret Baier on a tough but very fair interview that clearly showed how completely incompetent Kamala is. For the good of our nation, their inferior cognitive abilities must be put to the test immediately!”

Meanwhile, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg told CNN it was an “impressive” performance from Harris. “She was tough, smart, focused, disciplined, the same qualities that made her a very effective prosecutor and I think will make her a very effective president,” he said.

Former GOP representative Adam Kinzinger also praised her for “going into the lion’s den.”

“She went into the lion’s den, took them on and stood tall. “Fox tried her bs (sic) pratfalls in her right-wing reality and she cleverly turned it all back on Trump and held him accountable in his own safe space,” he said.