Fox News host Bret Baier has said he made a “mistake” during his interview with Vice President Kamala Harris this week by showing the incorrect clip of Donald Trump speaking about “the enemy from within”.

At the bottom of his show Special Report, on Thursday, Baier explained to viewers that a particularly heated moment between him and the vice president arose after a clip was played of Trump defending himself for denigrating leftist Americans during a town hall.

“I made a mistake and I want to say that I did make a mistake,” Baier told viewers.

During his interview with Harris, the vice president accused him of purposefully showing a different clip of Trump that made him appear more level-headed. Harris was actually referring to a clip from Trump’s interview with Fox News’s Maria Bartiromo where he suggested using the military to control “radical left lunatics” who he referred to as “the enemy from within”.

Baier told viewers that he was expecting a piece of Baritomo’s interview with Trump to play alongside the former president’s town hall answer. Instead, only the town hall clip showed.

But some raised eyebrows at Baier’s explanation. His former Fox News colleague, Gretchen Carlson, wrote on X, that “When wrong clips run (which happens) hosts can easily say ‘Sorry that was the wrong clip’. He or his producers would have known it was the wrong one right then.”

Baier didn’t clarify this “mistake” during his interview with Harris, which was pre-recorded slightly earlier than played as-live, even though the vice president told him it was incorrect.

“Bret, I’m sorry and with all due respect, that clip was not what he has been saying about the ‘enemy within’ that he has repeated when he is speaking about the American people. That is not what you just showed,” Harris told Baier during the interview.

Baier tried to explain the clip showed Trump, during the town hall, being asked “specifically” about his comment.

But Harris interrupted again, “No, no that’s not what you just showed. In all fairness and respect to you. He has repeated it many times and you and I both know that.”

The vice president concluded by condemning the former president for threatening to “go after” Americans who he deems the “enemy from within”.

Most of Baier’s interview with Harris was tense as the two talked over each other and sparred over facts. It marked the first time Harris appeared for an exclusive interview on Fox News.

The vice president engaged in a media blitz over the week, trying to reach voters in all demographics in the final days leading up to the presidential election. Part of her campaign strategy is to appeal to moderate conservative voters who are not loyal to Trump.