Posted on 08/18/23
| News Source: The Hill
Former President Trump plans to skip next week’s first Republican presidential primary debate and instead sit for an interview with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson, according to a new report.
Trump has made the decision to skip the debate and is currently planning to sit for an interview with Carlson, The New York Times reported, noting the former president has spent the last several days soliciting feedback from aides and allies on whether to participate in the debate.
When contacted for comment on the reported agreement between Trump and Carlson, an aide for the former president said his campaign “hadn’t confirmed anything on our end” and cautioned against “getting too far ahead” as it relates to the former president’s plans.
Trump, the front-runner for the GOP nomination, has for weeks signaled a hesitation to participate in the Aug. 23 debate, which is being hosted by the Republican National Committee and will be broadcast on Fox News.
The former president has in recent months ridiculed Fox, the top-watched cable news channel, for what he has said is fawning coverage of his political enemies. Trump has also said he feels that participating in the debate would allow his GOP rivals to attack him needlessly.
Fox hosts and executives have, at the same time, been urging Trump both publicly and privately to participate in the first debate, which is sure to serve as a major media spectacle and be one of the biggest ratings nights for the channel of the year.
Trump’s reported selecting of Carlson to host a counterprogramming event of sorts to the first debate can be seen a significant slight to Fox, the cable news giant for which Carlson was at one time its top-rated host.