Former President Donald Trump spent considerable time during a 46-minute interview with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson lambasting his rival presidential candidates, President Joe Biden, and the four criminal cases he faces.
In a major snub to the Republican National Committee and Fox News, Trump avoided the first primary debate of the 2024 cycle, choosing instead to release a prerecorded interview with Carlson on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, five minutes ahead of the debate.
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"I just felt it would be more appropriate not to do the debate. I don't think it's right to do it," Trump told Carlson in an interview meant to overshadow the primary debate. "I'm gonna have eight people, 10 people, whoever made the debate ... I don't know how many it is. But I'm gonna have all these people screaming at me, shouting questions at me. All of which I love answering. I love doing, but it doesn't make sense to do them."
The eight candidates on the debate stage in Milwaukee sought to make their most persuasive arguments to the audience on why they, not Trump, should become the GOP's next standard-bearer. Yet six out of the eight candidates admitted they would support Trump if he was convicted and was the Republican nominee.
Even before Wednesday's debate, Trump's allies and campaign had trolled his top rival in the race, Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL), with a "Ron DeSanctimonious Debate Night Bingo" card sent out to reporters. During the Carlson interview, Trump declared that the DeSantis campaign was "gonzo" and that Fox News was finished with him.
The former president also claimed that former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie was a "savage maniac" and former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson was "weak and pathetic." His former running mate-turned-rival Mike Pence "had the absolute right to send the votes back to legislatures," Trump claimed. Pence has consistently disagreed, claiming the Constitution doesn't allow him to refuse to certify electoral votes. The disagreement is central to at least two indictments Trump faces over alleged efforts to overturn the 2020 election.
"I haven't spoken to him in a long time. I was very disappointed in him," Trump said about Pence.
Trump senior advisor Chris LaCivita declared the former president the winner of the debate, despite Trump's refusal to participate. "President Trump has already won this evening’s debate because everything is going to be about him," LaCivita said in a statement. "Only President Trump has the policy ideas, the fortitude, and the polling to go head-to-head with Crooked Joe Biden in the general election. Republican voters recognize this, hence President Trump’s 62-16 lead in the GOP primary."
The former president is the undisputed front-runner of the GOP primary race, leading all other rivals in both national and state polls. Yet after two impeachments and increasing legal problems, Trump claimed that his supporters would see the attacks from his opponents as "fraud."
When asked about dealing with potential violence against himself or a possible civil war, Trump had stark comments. "There's a level of passion that I've never seen. There's a level of hatred that I've never seen, and that's probably a bad combination," Trump responded.
He also reiterated an expletive regarding his indictments: "It's all bulls***."
It was a flippant remark that comes one day before Trump is expected to surrender at the Fulton County, Georgia, jail after Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis indicted him and 18 others for violating Georgia's Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act in connection to the 2020 presidential election.
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President Joe Biden's reelection campaign hit back against the Trump interview, slamming it as a "softball" event to peddle "wild, debunked conspiracy theories" and "out-of-touch positions."
"In his softball 'interview' posting tonight, Donald Trump will again make clear that he’s running on the same extreme and deeply unpopular MAGA agenda the American people have rejected time and time again," said Biden campaign spokesman Kevin Munoz in a statement Wednesday afternoon.