Trump's Fox News disaster
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Former President Trump's interview with Fox News' Bret Baier this week singlehandedly helped sharpen new lines of attack for Trump's three main adversaries: Democrats, Republican primary opponents and prosecutors.
Why it matters: Trump rarely ventures into the mainstream media for interviews, opting to surround himself with friendly journalists or provide one-way commentary from his echo chamber on Truth Social.
- That strategy has so far proved effective, as Trump maintains a dominant lead in the GOP primary race — but it may not be sustainable as the campaign ramps up.
- Baier repeatedly pushed back on Trump's falsehoods and exposed his vulnerabilities on key conservative priorities, previewing the gloves-off treatment the former president can expect in the coming months.
Driving the news: For Democrats, any combative public appearance by Trump provides new material to paint him and his MAGA movement as extreme — a playbook the party ran to great effect in the 2022 midterms.
- Trump's continued insistence that he won the 2020 election drew a stern fact check from Baier, whose network paid more than $787 million to Dominion Voting Systems to settle a defamation lawsuit over similar claims.
- "This is how you’re going to tell an independent suburban voter that they should vote for you?" Baier asked.
For Trump's Republican rivals, Baier's questions on criminal justice reform and COVID provided a golden opportunity to hammer the former president's record on two conservative wedge issues.
- After boasting about pardoning Alice Johnson, a Black woman who was serving a life sentence for dealing cocaine, Trump appeared caught off guard when Baier pointed out she would receive the death penalty under Trump's 2024 campaign vow to execute drug dealers.
- "No, no, no. Under my? Oh, under that? Uhhhh ... it would depend on the severity," Trump said, before arguing that Johnson never would have been involved in drug dealing if the death penalty was in effect.
- Trump also said he has no regrets about early COVID restrictions and tried to play both sides on vaccines — bragging about speeding their development but refusing to acknowledge whether the shots work.
For federal prosecutors, Trump's apparent confession about retaining classified documents after a grand jury subpoena could provide new evidence for the charges he'll face at trial.
- "I want to go through the boxes and get all my personal things out. I don’t want to hand that over to [the National Archives] yet," Trump said, acknowledging that he knew he had documents the government was seeking.
- "Statements of this kind are generally admissible at trial," tweeted conservative legal analyst Jonathan Turley, who has frequently defended Trump.
Between the lines: The biggest winner from the interview may have been Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, whose political operation has been blasting out clips over the past 48 hours accusing Trump of incompetence.
What to watch: Baier and his Fox News colleague Martha MacCallum were named moderators for the first Republican debate on Aug. 23. It's not yet clear whether Trump will participate.
