Fox News just handed Kamala Harris a massive gift: columnist

Fox News host Bret Baier got scorching ratings from some commenters on social media for his performance interviewing Vice President Kamala Harris on Wednesday, spending much of the interview cutting in and talking over her as she tried to answer his questions. But in some ways, Harris ought to be thanking Fox News for that exchange, columnist Eugene Robinson argued for The Washington Post.

That's because, he said, the combative nature of that interview gave Harris an opportunity to shine.

The interview, he wrote, "gave Harris the chance to display qualities — and present facts — that Donald Trump desperately wants to keep hidden from the network’s millions of viewers."

"Don’t take it from me; take it from Baier himself. He said afterward that he thought Harris came to the interview seeking 'a viral moment' and added: 'I think she may have gotten that,'" he said.

In particular, he said, that moment might have been when the two sparred over Trump's threats to use the military on his political opponents, calling them "the enemy within" — and Harris debunked Baier putting up a selectively edited clip of Trump denying he had ever said that. "Only after having her say — and mentioning that retired Gen. Mark A. Milley, who was chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff under Trump, believes he is a threat to U.S. democracy and national security — did she let Baier move on to another topic."

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Harris has been hounded by the press for months over not giving more interviews — and she came through in spades by engaging with a reporter on America's largest right-leaning news network, wrote Robinson, where he functioned as "more of an inquisitor than an interviewer" only for her to forcibly get her say anyway.

Hardcore Trump supporters watching that exchange are unlikely to be swayed — but, Robinson wrote, millions of less politically engaged Fox News viewers have seen little of Harris, but have been told over and over that Harris is out of her depth and unqualified — and just got a taste of what she's capable of.

"If they watched the interview, they saw a woman whose policies they might not love but who has command of the issues, handles pressure with ease and is nobody’s pushover. Those voters saw a viable alternative to four more years of Trump and his insanity," Robinson concluded. "Some might think Baier was properly adversarial, others might think he was obnoxiously rude. Either way, the Harris campaign ought to send him flowers."