Vice President Kamala Harris will do an interview this week with Fox News, the cable network said on Oct. 14.
Hosted from Philadelphia in battleground Pennsylvania, the interview will be conducted by Fox News’s chief political anchor, Bret Baier, and taped just before airing on his “Special Report” at 6 p.m. ET on Oct. 16.
The interview, which will feature 25 to 30 minutes of Q&A, will be Harris’s first formal back-and-forth on the conservative-leaning network, coming mere weeks before Election Day.
The interview could be a key opportunity for the vice president to reach across the aisle and appeal to voters outside of her base, as well as to appear willing to take tough questions. According to Nielsen research, more independent voters watch Fox News than CNN or MSNBC.
Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, in 2016, was the last Democratic presidential nominee to sit for an interview with Fox News. Four years later, senior Democratic officials formally barred the network from hosting a 2020 primary debate.
The network has not interviewed President Joe Biden since he took office.
That reluctance among Democrats seems to be cooling, as Harris’s running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, has spoken with “Fox News Sunday” on the past two weekends, and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg has been on the network regularly in recent weeks.
Other Harris surrogates, including California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, also have participated in recent Fox News interviews.
On the same day that it will air Harris’s interview, Fox News will broadcast a town hall where former President Donald Trump will take questions on abortion, child care, and daycare from an audience of women only.
Harris has been appearing for more interviews recently after facing criticism from Trump and his running mate, Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio), for being media-shy.
She spoke with online talk shows “Roland Martin Unfiltered” and “The Shade Room” and is recording a live interview in Detroit with Charlamagne Tha God on his “The Breakfast Club” morning radio show on Oct. 15.
Harris was interviewed by “The View,” “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert,” “The Howard Stern Show,” and CBS’s “60 Minutes” this past week.