In an alternate universe, Vice President Kamala Harris’ first Fox News interview probably would have been conducted by Chris Wallace. A veteran of ABC, NBC and CBS News before his 18 years at Fox, Wallace was among the few debate moderators during the 2020 election to wrangle with former president Donald Trump with any measure of success.

“I think the country would be better served if we allowed both people to speak with fewer interruptions,” he told Trump in that long ago time when we expected presidential candidates to show up to multiple debates.

Wallace left Fox in late 2021 after he decided that “when people start to question the truth — Who won the 2020 election? Was Jan. 6 an insurrection? — I found that unsustainable,” he told the New York Times.

Not Fox News’ chief political anchor Bret Baier, though. And now that voters aren’t getting any more debates before the November election, we’re left with Baier trying to prove he can take on a coherent presidential candidate like a Real Journalist. Harris agreed to a pre-taped interview conducted by Baier that aired on Wednesday’s edition of “Special Report,” which we were assured aired unedited.

Their chat began politely. Harris even played to Baier's vanity by saying, “I know you investigate, and you are a serious journalist.” Nearly everything that happened after that showed he is not, and she knew it. First came a boneheaded pop quiz: “How many illegal immigrants would you estimate your administration has released in the last three and a half years? Just a number. Do you think it's one million? Three million?” As Harris tried to speak, he eagerly talked over her. "I was beginning to answer you," she said after he promised he'd get to another version of the question he'd already asked.

Then came his demand that Harris confirm whether she will continue “using taxpayer dollars to help prison inmates or detained illegal aliens to transition to another gender” and attempts to goad Harris into 1) apologizing to mothers of women murdered by undocumented migrants and 2) calling Trump voters stupid.

The true high/low point came when Harris brought up Trump’s multiple references to “enemies from within” and his stated intent to turn the military on those who disagree with him.

Baier thought he was ready for her, throwing to a clip from a Fox town hall that aired earlier that conveniently edited out the section showing him saying those very things.

What he might not have expected was Harris calling out that fallacy.

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“Bret, I’m sorry and with all due respect, that clip was not what he has been saying about ‘the enemy within’ that he has repeated when he is speaking about the American people. That's not what you just showed,” Harris said.

Baier insisted the clip was Trump’s response to a question about those statements, and........

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