Donald Trump and Tucker Carlson won the GOP debate on Wednesday night. The former president chose to dip out of the first GOP primary and, in an attempt to suck the oxygen from the news cycle, teamed up with the deposed Fox News host to dish up some sweet revenge. Oh, did they?
Trump chose to opt out of the Milwaukee debate featuring the likes of Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, tech mogul Vivek Ramaswamy, former Vice President Mike Pence, former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley, and Senator Tim Scott. According to the RealClearPolitics average, Trump is up by 41.1% over his fellow Republicans nationally, which, at this point, is a meaningless number. However, for PR purposes, it is very eye-catching. His RCP lead in Iowa, a meaningful number even at this early stage, is still a whopping 26%.
Trump opted not to engage with a large group of opponents who would have spent their time attacking him. That wouldn’t help him, obviously. Everything Trump says now is being recorded and filed, and will be used against him in multiple courts of law.
The interview was reportedly conducted two days ago at the Trump National Golf Club Bedminster and timed to air on X, formerly known as Twitter, for exactly five minutes before the GOP debate began.
During the lead-up to the debate, Carlson’s camp released a Trump sizzle reel, suggesting the two would discuss whether Trump fears for his life, political vitriol, election cheating, and even whether Trump thought sex pervert Jeffrey Epstein killed himself.
Donald Trump. Tucker Carlson.
Debate Night in Bedminster
8:55pm ET pic.twitter.com/w8nGhOfEdv— Tucker Carlson (@TuckerCarlson) August 23, 2023
Fox News sidelined cable news’s number one talent in late April, after the inexplicable court settlement with Dominion Voting Systems. The network tried to suffocate Carlson’s remaining influence at the network by removing the people who worked on his show. Now, according to Tucker Carlson biographer Chadwick Moore, whose book “Tucker” I’ll be reviewing in the coming days for PJ Media, Tucker is treated as Voldemort at Fox News. He is the man who shall not be named (although I note that Brit Hume was able to mention Carlson before the debate). But here’s the dumber part: Fox News employees are ordered not to use any news generated by their still-on-the-payroll colleague. Worse, Carlson has scooped his old network multiple times, including the Devon Archer interview and now scoring a sit-down with Trump on the night before he turns himself in in Fulton County, Georgia, where he’s been charged with leading a conspiracy to win an election.
Trump told Carlson that cable news is way down in the ratings and said, “Fox is way down…and the good-old day are long ago. I will say this, it could come back but …. We’ll get better ratings on this crazy forum you’re using than — probably — the debate, the competition (Fox News).”
The most impactful moments of the 46-minute interview were when Trump was given free rein to talk about Joe Biden.
Trump said, “I think [Biden’s] the most corrupt president we’ve ever had. And he also has the distinction of being the most incompetent.” He also said that he believes Biden is “compromised because China knows so much about him. They know where the money comes from. They know where it is, who paid it — they probably paid it.” He mentioned the University of Pennsylvania Biden Center receiving Chinese money.
“He is in many ways the Manchurian candidate,” Trump said. “He is the Manchurian candidate and he’s afraid to tell Russia to get out of Cuba. He’s afraid to tell China to get out of Cuba.”
Biden’s failing health and the prospect of Kamala Harris being the nominee prompted Trump to say, “Her moments are almost as bad as his.” On Biden, he said, “You watch him and it looks like he’s walking on toothpicks–he’s so stiff. And then you see him on the beach and he can’t even lift that chair. You know, they’re made to be light. He can’t lift the chair. He can’t walk to the chair…. Somebody thinks he looks fabulous on the beach. I think he looks horrible on the beach.”
On the 2020 election, Trump said, “I think the election was rigged. With Covid they used [it] to cheat on things. And we have so much on it; it’s, like, it’s so easy [to prove].” He said judges simply wanted nothing to do with a conspiracy theory. “We should go back to paper ballots,” he said later in the interview.
He also expanded on his belief that Vice President Mike Pence had the authority to call for sending the votes back to the state legislatures for re-tabulation. Trump said Pence got bad legal advice when he refused. Later, when the “RINOS and Democrats” got together and changed the law to take it out of the vice president’s hands, Trump noted that the vote proved his point that it was entirely legal to ask Pence to do this.
On the current race, Trump said, “Desanctus is out. He’s gonzo. His people have figured him out. But if somebody else got in, other than me, they’ll go at him as viciously as they did me. These people are sick. They will go after them. And a lot of people say they will not be able to hold up — I do get credit for holding up quite well.”
Carlson asked him, “How do you get indicted every week and still stay cheerful?”
Trump responded, “I think it’s easier because I’m so high in the polls and it shows that the people get it. The people see it’s a fraud. And the people see this horrible district attorney. She said basically that I have no right to challenge an election. Well, what about Stacey Abrams? What about Hillary Clinton? What about all the Democrats?”
Trump said, “Asa Hutchinson is “weak and pathetic.” He said Chris Christie left office “with an 8% approval rating in New Jersey and now he’s running for president. And he runs solely on the basis of ‘let’s get Trump.'” And “he’s like a savage maniac.” He said he never trusted Christie and that’s why he didn’t give him a job in his administration.
Trump took a stab at former Attorney General Bill Barr with some choice name-calling, leading Carlson to mention that Barr promised to look into the death of Jeffrey Epstein but never did.
“Do you think Epstein killed himself?” Carlson asked.
Trump replied, “I don’t know. He was a fixture in Palm Beach.”
“Why would Bill Barr cover up the death of Jeffrey Epstein?” Carlson asked. Trump didn’t answer except to say that Barr never conducted an investigation into election fraud, although he said he would. Later, he said that it’s possible Epstein was killed but that he thought he killed himself.
Carlson then moved to the left’s reaction to Trump’s candidacy and presidency by noting that first it started out as protests, then it escalated to impeachments, and now it’s indictments.
Carlson asked, “Why wouldn’t they try to kill you? Honestly.” Trump replied, “They’re savage animals.” But he didn’t directly answer the question.
Ep. 19 Debate Night with Donald J Trump pic.twitter.com/ayPfII48CO
— Tucker Carlson (@TuckerCarlson) August 24, 2023
Though there were plenty of fireworks in the GOP debate, it will be no surprise if the Trump and Tucker show scored more eyeballs.
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