Kamala Harris insists on independence from Biden's presidential vision in Fox interview

Kamala Harris promised a break from Joe Biden's presidency in an interview with right-wing Fox News, aimed at reaching Republican voters who doubt Donald Trump.

Feisty Harris confronted interviewer Bret Baier with contentious issues including immigration and gender transition surgery, by repeatedly asking, “May I finish,” when the host speaks over her answers.

A key moment in the half-hour sit-down came as Harris was being pressed on comments she made last week — that Republicans have seized on — when she said she could not think of anything she would have done differently from Biden during his four years in office.

"My presidency will not be a continuation of Joe Biden's presidency," said Harris, 59, who became her party's nominee after the aging Biden dropped out in July.

Harris said she would bring "fresh and new ideas" and added: "I represent a new generation of leadership."

Biden had said on Tuesday that Harris would "cut her own path" as president.

Harris also launched into a blistering attack on Republican former president Trump, 78, for threatening to use the military against internal enemies.

"He's the one who tends to demean and belittle and diminish the American people. He's the one who talks about an 'enemy within.'"

 'Harris’ gamble' 

Trump's campaign quickly described the interview as a "train wreck."

"Kamala was angry, defensive, and once again abdicated any responsibility for the problems Americans are facing," Trump spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said in a statement.

Harris's first-ever sit-down with Fox was a gamble as she seeks to break the deadlock in a White House race that remains neck-and-neck with less than three weeks to go.

The Democrat faced probing questioning during the interview, with Baier also asking her to respond to Trump campaign advertisements and a clip of the Republican defending his military remarks.

Harris repeatedly turned questions back to her election rival Trump.

Some of the testiest exchanges came as interviewer Baier pushed Harris on the record numbers of illegal immigrants who have crossed the Mexican border under the Biden administration. Numbers have dramatically fallen in recent months.

Harris replied by saying that the Biden-Harris administration had proposed a bill for greater border crossings but that "Donald Trump told (Republicans) to kill it."

Harris was also quizzed on gender surgery for prisoners or illegal aliens, a conservative attack angle used in a series of the Trump campaign's recent television ads.

"I will follow the law — and it's a law that Donald Trump actually followed," Harris said, referring to a New York Times report Wednesday that under Trump's presidency, prisons also offered gender-affirming care.

Asked when she had first noticed that Biden's mental acuity had "diminished" before he quit the race following a disastrous debate with Trump, Harris again turned the subject back to the Republican.

she said: "Bret, Joe Biden is not on the ballot. And Donald Trump is."