President Donald Trump and Tucker Carlson are teaming up to sabotage Fox News’s big night covering the Republican debate, according to reports.
The New York Times and CNN are reporting that Trump plans to skip the first Republican debate, hosted by Fox News, on Wednesday in Milwaukee.
Instead, Trump will sit down for an interview with Carlson, the world’s top independent news anchor.
The NY Times called the plan to sabotage Fox News an “act of open hostility.”
According to The New York Times: “The timing of the interview with Mr. Carlson remains unclear, but if it goes ahead as currently planned, the debate-night counterprogramming would serve as an act of open hostility.
“The chairwoman of the RNC, Ronna McDaniel, has privately urged Mr. Trump to attend the debate, even traveling to his private club in Bedminster, N.J., last month to make her pitch in person.
“And Fox News has been drawn into a public battle not only with Mr. Trump but with Mr. Carlson, who is still on contract and being paid by Fox despite having his show taken off the air.
“Fox sent Mr. Carlson a cease-and-desist letter after he aired a series of videos on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter.
“The Trump campaign’s conversations with Mr. Carlson — and the possibility of counterprogramming — have previously been reported by multiple news organizations,” The Times reported.
BREAKING: Donald Trump will skip the Fox News debate and do an interview with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson instead.
At this point, will anyone actually be watching the GOP debate? 😂
Carlson, who was fired by Fox News, appears to be stealing the show from his former… pic.twitter.com/JpkSAR1Wjy
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) August 18, 2023
President Trump is skipping the Republican debate hosted by Fox News to instead do an interview with Tucker Carlson. pic.twitter.com/lbhMdYdfiS
— Citizen Free Press (@CitizenFreePres) August 18, 2023
According to CNN:
Trump, meanwhile, has been throwing out different ideas for his own counterprogramming during the debate, the sources say, including sitting down with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson and calling into the different cable news shows.
Conversations regarding a potential interview with Carlson have taken place with Trump’s team, but there is no definitive plan for him to do that as of now, they say.
Trump has privately and publicly floated skipping either one or both of the first two Republican presidential primary debates and has repeatedly pointed to his commanding lead in the polls as one reason he is hesitant to share the stage with his GOP challengers.
