There are two competing philosophies in life that I try to impart to my sons as they manage their way through life. First, “fortune favors the bold” (or “fate loves the fearless”), which suggests that bold moves are rewarded in life. Aim big, hoping you will reap the benefits of reasonable chance-taking. The second but equally important approach is “discretion is the better part of valor,” or shortened to a phrase I always say to my sons, “Why borrow trouble?”

These disparate but complementary approaches come to mind as I try to understand the news that Vice President Kamala Harris has agreed to sit down with Fox News anchor Bret Baier in a pre-taped interview set to air Wednesday evening on Special Report. It’s not difficult to get the impression that this sit-down represents a shift in strategy for Team Harris, and it’s also easy to see her going on Fox News as her riskiest media play to date, but one with the highest reward.

The Harris campaign has been pretty locked down on its overall strategy, and an early pivot to patriotism and Harris effectively running as a “Rockefeller Republican” in a successful DNC came with a significant rise in the polls. But things have plateaued since she’s engaged in a low-key approach of local news hits and podcast interviews, and interviews with CNN’s Dana Bash and 60 Minutes’ Bill Whitaker seemed to fail to move any polling needle.

Last week’s sit-down on The View offered the sort of “Madame President” genuflecting that felt eerily similar to the hubris on display in October 2016 by the Hillary Clinton campaign. And with an NBC News national poll showing that Trump and Harris are literally tied, the decision to go on Fox News doesn’t suggest panic but perhaps a recognition that things need to change.

“I think that the campaign realizes they have to do more outreach. And, you know, the countdown is on here,” Baier recently said on Fox News about the looming interview. “I think they’re realizing that there is a shift in the polls. It may be small, but it is noticeable towards the former president.”

It is impossible to overestimate the political influence of Fox News, especially in an era of flagging network news viewership and the rise of cable news opinion shows filling that and the void of leadership ceded to media personalities by elected officials. Fox News enjoys more viewers than MSNBC and CNN combined, especially during prime-time shows that are dedicated to painting Kamala Harris in the most negative light possible while consistently ignoring almost any story that makes former President Donald Trump look bad.

Baier has shown himself to be a tough but fair interviewer. He is always respectful of his guests, but he almost certainly will question Harris on some subjects that have been avoided on friendlier turf, particularly The View appearances and various alternative podcasts.

Baier will certainly press the vice president on topics that Fox News viewers seem to hold dearest — immigration issues under the Biden-Harris administration. Harris has successfully punted any failures on the border by blaming Trump for effectively killing a bipartisan bill. Still, she has failed to answer why it took over three years to put that forth or enact the Executive Orders that have brought down border crossings dramatically.

But while Harris might risk getting her feet held to the fire, this is still potentially a massive win for her. Mediaite understands that Special Report has more independent viewers than other Fox News shows. Also? More swing state viewers watch Fox News than any other network by a wide margin.

Regardless of how this interview will work out for the Harris election effort, I’m a longtime believer in the benefits of this kind of media appearance. I wrote a column recently beseeching Harris to go on Fox News (though I suggested Steve Doocy and Dana Perino), and going back to Mediaite’s earliest days, I went long in 2009 explaining why then-embattled President Barack Obama should go on The O’Reilly Factor to push back on the socialist warnings that Obamacare would lead us into an economic depression (it did not).

Harris could fail spectacularly in her 20-or-so-minute interview with Baier. If so? That’s a good indicator that she’s not ready for The White House. But it’s just as likely, if not more so, that she acquits herself in a manner that not only impresses some persuadable voters but also undermines the caricature she is made to be by the more strident pro-Trump voices on the network like Laura Ingraham, Jesse Watters, and Sean Hannity.

It’s not quite as big as the debate, but this could very well seal the 2024 election. For whom, however, remains an open question.

The post The Fox News Interview Is Kamala Harris’s Riskiest Media Play Yet first appeared on Mediaite.

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