Kamala Harris Should Leave ‘Heel Marks’ on Bret Baier’s Back: Ex-Republican

Political strategist Steve Schmidt suggested Vice President Kamala Harris should leave “heel marks” in Fox News’ Bret Baier’s back on Wednesday night.
“Tonight is the night to hold Fox News to account for all the damage and the lies,” Schmidt wrote. “The test for measuring up is going to be simple, and it directly involves the number of heel marks left in Bret Baier’s back.”
Schmidt wrote in his newsletter, The Warning with Steve Schmidt, his words of advice for Harris’ “showdown” with Baier, whom he called a “preposterous figure.” He said the Democratic presidential nominee must speak to the public “about the threat the whole country faces from Donald Trump and his fascist movement.”
Harris’ interview with Fox News will be her first formal sitdown with the outlet known for its conservative bent, though Baier is widely seen as among the network’s tougher journalists. The interview is scheduled to air at 6 p.m. Wednesday.
Schmidt suggested that the Democratic nominee should embody former President Ronald Reagan in her interview while speaking “with firmness, strength, clarity and conviction about what Trump is, and the danger he represents.”
“Tonight, Kamala Harris should look Bret Baier in the eye, and seize Ronald Reagan’s mantle,” Schmidt wrote. “She should attack Trump as weak, immoral and degenerate. She should mock him as a laughing stock, and then quote the inscription on Ronald Reagan’s grave.”
Reagan’s grave, which is in Bel Air, California, has a backdrop ensconcing the former president’s tomb stone. It reads: “I know in my heart that man is good that what is right will always eventually triumph and there is purpose and worth to each and every life.”
Schmidt, who worked on Republican political campaigns like that of former President George W. Bush and Senator John McCain, has spoken out against Trump, renouncing the Republican Party as “fully the party of Trump” in 2018. Schmidt co-founded The Lincoln Project, which campaigns against the Republican nominee. In 2020, the group raised almost $100 million to campaign against Trump.
“Over the past few days, Harris has moved in a positive direction by attacking Trump more forcefully. She needs to pick up the pace, hit him harder, and more often,” wrote Schmidt, who announced he was joining the Democratic Party in 2020. “Kamala Harris has 20 days to become something that transcends the ordinary, and inspires millions of people.”
Newsweek reached out to the Harris campaign by email for comment on Wednesday.
Democratic political strategist James Carville told CNN on Monday that he is “not a fan” of Harris’ newest campaign strategy involving numerous media appearances.
Harris has been on a media blitz recently, appearing on the podcast Call Her Daddy and Howard Stern’s Sirius XM channel, as well as television shows like The View, 60 Minutes and The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.
“She’s obviously working hard,” Carville said. “I’m not a fan of doing interviews with different people because the problem with the interview is you have to answer questions that the interviewer asks you.”
Instead, Carville suggested that the vice president needs to be on the offensive about Trump.
“We need to stop being timid in making these connections that he is going out of his way to make,” Carville said. “I think what Trump is saying now is unprecedented and I’m afraid that people just don’t know how—I don’t know if radical is the word—the things he really is proposing. She has to put a light on this, a big shining light.”
According to the Silver Bullet’s Eli McKown-Dawson on Wednesday, “the presidential race is really close.”
“As of Tuesday, our forecast gives Kamala Harris a 50 percent chance of winning the Electoral College … and Donald Trump has a 50 percent chance too. That’s obviously about as close to a pure tossup as you can get,” McKown-Dawson wrote.
FiveThirtyEight polling averages on Wednesday show Harris ahead nationally with 48.6 percent support to Trump’s 46 percent.
Update: 10/16/2024, 3:37 p.m. ET: This article’s headline has been updated to correct the spelling of Bret Baier’s last name.