CNN
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Kamala Harris didn't get her second debate with Donald Trump — so she went to Fox News instead.

The vice president clashed heatedly with Bret Baier, the pro-Trump network's top host, on Wednesday night in a contentious, unscripted scrum that Republicans have long accused her of avoiding.

Harris and Baier argued and interrupted each other as he exposed her political flip-flops and reversals and she made her points clear. The contentious clash, played in swing state Pennsylvania, had more to do with the vice president's only debate showdown with the former president than with forensic, formal interviews in which she often stumbled.

“May I please finish, you have to let me finish,” Harris said at the start of the interview, using a technique she has used in the past against male rivals in congressional hearings and debates.

The vice president's visit to Fox News showed how she is trying to conjure new turning points in a contest in which there is no clear leader and in which most swing states are seen as mistakes. Trump's decision to decline a second debate with his rival has resulted in the final weeks of the campaign missing key dates that could change the race.

In the end, on Wednesday, both Harris and Fox News probably got what they wanted.

The vice president appeared combative after daring to enter the conservative media's lair, drawing a contrast with Trump, who largely avoids television news interviews in which he is cross-examined. She highlighted his extreme rhetoric and threats to use the military against “enemies from within” in a way the network's viewers rarely see. Her performance reinforced her new campaign tactic of stoking new concerns about a second Trump term, which she said in a speech earlier Wednesday would involve the ex-president sitting in the Oval Office “plotting retaliation, stewing in his own grievances.” and would only think about yourself and others.” not you.”

Harris also sought damage control after saying in an interview last week that she wouldn't have done much differently than the unpopular commander in chief over the past four years. “My presidency will not be a continuation of Joe Biden’s presidency,” Harris said. “Like every new president who takes office, I will bring my life and professional experiences as well as fresh and new ideas.”

Fox, on the other hand, provided its commentators with hours of post-interview content. For example, the post-debate analysis picked up on Harris' non-response to one of Trump's allegations – how many undocumented immigrants were allowed into the country under her watch. As the station summarized the highlights of the interview, a chyron ran that read, “Kamala continues her tirade against Trump.” Baier pressed Harris on issues important to conservative audiences, including the tragedies of the murders of young American women by migrants without papers — for which the vice president expressed deep sympathy — and her past support for using taxpayer dollars to fund gender-affirming care for transgender undocumented immigrants. (She said she would abide by the laws of this policy as president).

And just in case Harris changed the mind of any of his viewers, Fox followed her appearance with sharp rebuttals from Trump's older sons Donald Jr. and Eric and his former ultra-hardline political adviser Stephen Miller.

The tightrope Harris walked as she sought to demonstrate steel and the president's courage was evident in criticism of her performance on social media, which often played on tropes aimed at strong, black women.

But before the interview, Harris spokesman Ian Sams explained her opinion. He pointed out that Fox's high ratings include some undecided voters and Democrats. And he said that Harris wanted those viewers to hear directly from her.

The Fox interview capped another day in which Harris sought to potentially draw out small pockets of voters who could make a difference in closely contested battlegrounds, less than three weeks before the head-to-head election.

After courting black male voters on Tuesday, she traveled to the Keystone State to try to appeal to Republicans unhappy with Trump's anti-democratic behavior. As she appeared with former Republican lawmakers and officials expelled from her party by Trump, the vice president noted that it would normally be surprising to find them in such company.

But she added: “Not in this election, because at stake in this race are the democratic ideas that our founders and generations of Americans before us fought for.” At stake in this election is the Constitution of the United States. “

Democrats believe there could be a significant number of GOP voters, including some who voted for former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley in the Republican primary, who could be persuaded to vote for Harris next month voices. If just a few thousand Fox viewers or traditional conservatives switched sides, it could push some swing states in the vice president's direction. Still, Harris risks that her portrayal in her first formal Fox interview could anger some of those voters. And the roughly 100 Republicans who showed up with her on Wednesday in Bucks County, a critical Philadelphia suburb, in many cases represented Republicans' past – left behind in the populist transformation brought about by Trump.

At that rally in Pennsylvania, Harris doubled down on her new tough tone toward Trump, calling him “increasingly unstable and unhinged.” It has also raised questions about his age and abilities – turning the tables on the 78-year-old former president, who often used the same strategy against Biden when he was in the race.

In many of his recent appearances, Trump has appeared to support Harris' claims. On Wednesday, for example, he reiterated his false claims that Haitian migrants in Ohio were eating cats and dogs. He told a Univision town hall with undecided Latino voters that the refugees who are in the country legally are “also eating other things they shouldn't be eating.”

The Republican candidate also called himself the “father of IVF” in his latest attempt to distance himself from the chaos in women's reproductive health after the conservative Supreme Court majority he built struck down the nation's constitutional right to abortion. Harris later told reporters that the comment was “bizarre” because she was trying to use subsequent state-level abortion restrictions to widen the gender gap that could help her beat Trump.

And as Democrats increasingly highlight Trump's perceived threat to American democracy, Republican vice presidential nominee Sen. JD Vance insisted the former president did not lose the last election. “I've answered this question directly a million times: No. I think there will be serious problems in 2020,” the Ohio Republican said. “So did Donald Trump lose the election? Not with the words I would use, okay?”

Trump, meanwhile, insisted at a Univision town hall that January 6, 2021 – one of the most infamous days in American history – was a “day of love” and that “nothing was done wrong at all.”

Every single Trump comment would have disqualified a conventional candidate. But it is a sign of how he has transformed American politics that his support base is immune to scandalous or outlandish behavior.

And there is no doubt that Trump, despite his rudeness and his harsh handling of the constraints that demagogic leaders are supposed to keep in check, is the authentic voice of tens of millions of Americans.

Harris is also hampered by a daunting political environment. She is a member of an unpopular administration at a time when many Americans are still feeling the aftereffects of high inflation, which the White House has often downplayed, and are frustrated by still-high prices for rent, cars and groceries.

It took her several months to come to the conclusion that she would provide a stark contrast to the Biden administration, which she revealed in the Fox interview. In itself, this is a reflection of her difficulties as a presidential candidate. And her difficulty early in the Fox interview in effectively deflecting some of Baier's questions about immigration showed that the issue remains a weakness and may pose a significant obstacle to her efforts to win over GOP defectors.

Still, the fact that she resisted the interview at all could help her with undecided voters. And last but not least, her appearance made it clear that the conservative media machine and Trump's are almost indistinguishable from one another.