Former President Donald Trump, who has a commanding majority among the 2024 GOP hopefuls and is under sever legal attack from the Biden DOJ and Democrat attorney generals, is not planning on attending the GOP debate, which will be hosted by Fox News.
Instead, the former president and 2024 candidate aims to let the others compete to be his Vice President nominee while he boosts his popularity on the same night with a massive media blitz taking place on the same night as the first debate.
News on that comes from CNN, as sources close to Trump and his advisors apparently discussed what counterprogramming the Trump Campaign will use to distract from the debate and share his message with the American people.
CNN’s Alayna Treene reported that “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.”
FNC is apparently trying to pressure Trump into participating, with Trump’s view of the situation being that they are worried about ratings if he doesn’t show up. “But Trump’s personal read from that meeting, during which Wallace and Scott repeatedly encouraged him to attend the debate, is that the network is worried about ratings without him there,” CNN reported.
Trump’s plans for a media blitz involving Tucker come alongside his attacks on Fox for its vocal support of Governor DeSantis and for being “biased” against him. At one point recently, for example, Trump said, “They don’t cover the election, and they don’t cover the frauds that took place, and they don’t wanna do it. They’re afraid to do it. I don’t know what their problem is, but they don’t cover a lot of things that they should be covering. They backed a loser, they backed a guy that can’t win, Ron DeSanctimonious I call him. He’s losing by 40 points, some people say 51 points. He’s losing by that and they give him so much time. I watched today, they gave him a live, a live presentation down at the border, which was very boring, and all he did was say “I would use various policies” and those policies are all my policies.”
Trump added that Fox is “very prejudiced in what they do and that’s okay because in 2016 they were just as bad, if not worse, and we ended up winning.”
Those comments came after a tense interview with Fox News Channel’s Brett Baier, during which Trump was asked if he would participate in the debate and said, “In many ways I’d love to, but in other ways it seems foolish.”
Similarly, in a post about he matter on Truth Social, Trump said, “Many people are asking whether or not I will be doing the DEBATES? ALL AMERICANS have been clamoring for a President of extremely High Intelligence. As everyone is aware, my Poll numbers, over a “wonderful” field of Republican candidates, are extraordinary. In fact, I am leading the runner up, whoever that may now be, by more than 50 Points. Reagan didn’t do it, and neither did others. People know my Record, one of the BEST EVER, so why would I Debate? I’M YOUR MAN. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!“
Indeed. As the frontrunner by a wide margin, much could go wrong for him and sink his chances if he slips up while doing well, or even very well, would likely do little to help his numbers headed into the primaries.
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