Fox News was the most-watched network at the Republican National Convention last month, drawing an overwhelming share of viewers throughout the week, including an average of 9.43 million on the final night.
The question is whether things will turn out very differently at the Democratic Party Convention – a big if, considering that the party leadership has at times criticized or avoided the station.
However, recent figures such as Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and Senator Chris Coons (D-DE) have stepped in, while Kamala Harris’ campaign team announced over the weekend that part of the huge advertising investment would go to the network’s daytime programming, “particularly during daytime programming that reaches a more moderate audience.”
In separate interviews, Deadline spoke with Special reportBret Baier and The storyMartha MacCallum, the lead anchor of Fox News’ coverage, talks about what to expect this week, whether it will be a challenge to attract Democrats to her shows and the prospects of Fox News hosting a presidential debate.
DEADLINE: The race is completely different from what left off in Milwaukee. Did you expect the race to be where it is now?
BAIER: I would have bet that Biden would probably stay in office, and up until this Saturday (after the Republican convention), he was, and he said he was going to be the nominee. 14.5 million Democrats had voted for him, and I thought he was going to stay in office. So I thought the race was starting to solidify and the former president could only lose it. Now I think we’re going to have a really close race where it’s again probably going to come down to six states and probably 300,000 votes or less in a country of 330 million people. So we could be in for a close race.
MACCALLUM: You see this huge sense of relief on the Democratic side that they have a new candidate, someone they’re excited about. And I think that has refocused the whole campaign, and it’s fascinating to watch. We’ll see how it goes for the Democrats in Chicago, and we’ll see what comes after that. A lot of people think that the campaign will really be refocused after Labor Day, too.
DEADLINE: What storylines will you be paying attention to, or will this primarily be a celebration?
MACCALLUM: I remember thinking during the Republican National Convention that the excitement seemed pretty natural. I haven’t seen people that excited in a long time. I remember Van Jones on CNN saying, “Something’s happening here this week. There’s a movement.” The excitement among the people who were there and beyond is very real. So now the tables are turned. The Democrats have a chance now, and they certainly got a big boost with Kamala Harris. And I love how she’s consolidated her power so quickly when not that long ago people were asking if Joe Biden should take her off the ballot, if she was a liability on the ballot. So this is an upside-down world, and from a reporter’s perspective, it’s fascinating to watch all of this. I think there’s probably another bombshell somewhere. I don’t know what it’s going to be, but I think we’ve all become very aware that this is a pretty volatile cycle.
BAIER: I think it’s going to be full of different storylines. Israel, Gaza, whether protesters show up, that could be one of them. I think when it comes to how this race is going to play out, that’s really the most important storyline. She’s clearly narrowed the gap and is even ahead in some cases, and some betting odds are giving her a better chance of winning the presidency. That alone raises the stakes for the convention, and I think it’s going to be fascinating. We’re going to have a lot of Democratic surrogates on my show. I know we’ve got Governor (Josh) Shapiro and Governor (Gavin) Newsom, Secretary Buttigieg and others.
DEADLINE: How has the Democratic leadership shift changed Fox News’ coverage next week?
MACCALLUM: We saw a remarkable removal of the lead candidate. I’ve never seen anything like it. There have been times in history when it looked like a candidate was in a pretty tough spot, but the party didn’t push him off the list and replace him with someone else. That’s what we’ve seen here, and that creates a very different atmosphere, and of course we’re reporting on it the way we report on everything, and just watching every step of the way along the way. I think she’s going to have to start defining herself clearly after this convention.
DEADLINE: How difficult is it to get Democrats as guests on your show?
BAIER: I have Democrats on all the time, and we have a segment called “Common Ground,” where we bring a Democrat and a Republican together and talk about what they’re working on. That’s been a real success story for about a year, and now senior members and chairmen often try to get on the show. So the DNC has already reached out to us and our show… There are Democrats, independents and Republicans who watch our show. I think they want to reach out to them.
MACCALLUM: I talk a lot with John Kirby from the White House. I talk to a number of congressmen who come to us regularly. I guess it’s a little harder to get Republicans to come, but this is their week, so they should feel like coming.
DEADLINE: Bret, Nikki Haley was on your show last week and basically told Donald Trump to focus on the issues and not the personalities. Do you think she was trying to reach out to him and send him a message?
BAIER: I do. I think she made a clear statement that you have to focus on the issues and not on the size of the crowd and race or the various things that the former president mentioned in passing. I think she clearly wanted to get that message out, and it was picked up in a lot of places. And I’m sure the former president or his campaign team saw it in one way or another.
DEADLINE: Do you think it is a challenge for Trump to run against a woman, and a woman of color at that?
BAIER: I don’t know if that’s a challenge for him. I think the early days of this switch to a new candidate on the Democratic side have perhaps confused the Trump campaign as they try to figure out the best line of attack. And I think there’s still a lot of time before this race kind of solidifies… But I think the switch has thrown some people completely off track.
DEADLINE: What are you looking for to ensure this convention is successful for the Democrats?
BAIER: A minimum of disunity and the feeling of growing together as a party. Unity is the message of the different wings of the party.
MACCALLUM: There was a Monmouth poll yesterday that I found amazing. It showed that the enthusiasm rating among Democrats was over 40 before Biden left the race and now it’s over 80, which is an amazing development. I don’t know how much higher it can go after the convention, but that’s a number we’ll keep an eye on. But I just think that in and of itself is an extraordinary story. That jump in enthusiasm, particularly for someone that people thought was a liability on the ticket… And the other thing that I’m watching closely is the question of suburban women voters, and particularly suburban independent women voters, and how they’re moving. Where are the people who are kind of on the edge of a close race? How someone who gets won over by this convention and moves over to Harris or Trump, I think that’s the whole story.
DEADLINE: Fox News has proposed a debate for September and Donald Trump has agreed. What do you think are the chances that Fox News will host a debate that both candidates agree to? (Kamala Harris has not agreed but says there will be another debate in October, with no network announced).
BAIER: We’re doing everything we can to talk to people and see if we can be there in October. That’s a whole different thing, of course. It’s like the Wild West trying to get everything under control without the Commission on Presidential Debates in charge. So we’re trying very hard. If there’s no debate, then maybe back-to-back town hall meetings or something like that.
