Former President Donald Trump, the GOP frontrunner, turned down the chance to take on his opponents face-to-face for a one-on-one with Carlson. | Timothy Clary/AFP/Getty Images
08/23/2023 10:24 PM EDT
Former President Donald Trump’s counterprogramming to Wednesday’s primary debate came in the form of a disjointed, meandering interview with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson as he sought to seize attention from his lower-polling opponents.
Trump, the GOP frontrunner, turned down the chance to take on his opponents face-to-face for a one-on-one with Carlson. Their chosen medium was X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, where the former host has more than 9 million followers.
Carlson’s fourth question drifted away from the typical Republican primary issues completely, as he asked Trump how he thought Jeffrey Epstein, the financier accused of sex crimes, died. The interview also covered insults against the journalist Chris Wallace, the sale of the Panama Canal, and Trump’s deregulation of how much water can flow through showerheads.
Trump also reiterated false claims that the 2020 election was stolen and jabbed at Republican opponents Ron DeSantis, Asa Hutchinson and Chris Christie as well as President Joe Biden.
“Do I sit there for an hour or two hours or whatever it’s going to be and get harassed by people that shouldn’t even be running for president? Should I be doing that?” Trump said of the Fox debate. “And a network that isn’t particularly...
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