Donald Trump will skip this weeks GOP debate & do a Tucker Carlson interview instead

There are millions of people who still “support” Donald Trump and plan to vote for him in 2024. The thing is, I believe he really only has his core supporters at this point – the average Republican knows that Trump is bad for the party, bad for the country and that he’s a completely deranged lunatic. Right? The problem is that Republican leaders are terrified of Trump’s core support, that 30-40% of the Republican Party which dictates extremism, racism, white supremacy and misogyny. Well, I don’t know how this figures in, but Trump will skip the first Republican “presidential” debate, scheduled for Wednesday.

Former President Donald J. Trump plans to upstage the first Republican primary debate on Wednesday by sitting for an online interview with the former Fox News host Tucker Carlson, according to multiple people briefed on the matter. In the past 24 hours, Mr. Trump has told people close to him that he has made up his mind and will skip the debate in Milwaukee, according to two of the people briefed on the matter.

Mr. Trump is notoriously mercurial, and left himself something of an out to change his mind with an ambiguous post on his website, Truth Social, on Thursday. He wrote that he’s polling well ahead of his rivals and added, “Reagan didn’t do it, and neither did others. People know my Record, one of the BEST EVER, so why would I Debate?”

For weeks, the former president has been quizzing aides, associates and rally crowds about what he should do. Until earlier this week, Mr. Trump had been giving people the impression he was considering a last-minute surprise appearance on Wednesday.

Still, people close to him had said for months that he was unlikely to take part in the first two Republican debates, both of which are sponsored by the Republican National Committee. And Mr. Trump’s apparent decision to skip the first debate of the presidential nominating contest is a major affront to both the R.N.C. and Fox News, which is hosting the event. The exact timing and platform of the interview with Mr. Carlson remain 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 R.N.C., 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.

[From The NY Times]

Hilariously, this is controversial because of Tucker Carlson as well – Carlson was fired from Fox News, and Fox served a cease-and-desist on Tucker when Tucker started making Twitter videos after he was fired. I mean… I’m not going to watch Trump’s interview or the Republican debate, but it feels like the GOP is just descending into utter madness . What’s the right way to approach this? Sit back and watch the chaos unfold and hope that they destroy each other?

A few more things: Trump is still leading in the polls for the Republican nomination. Maggie Haberman at the Times also reports (because of course) that Trump and his people are looking ahead to debating Joe Biden again. The 2020 debate between the two men was notable because Trump had Covid and he didn’t tell anyone until a few days later. He was flushed and feverish and full of rage. Anyway, I hope he’s in prison by next year’s presidential debates.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Backgrid.

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