WASHINGTON — It appears the current Republican front-runner will be sitting out the first GOP presidential debate of the 2024 campaign.
According to the New York Times, NBC News, CNN and others, former President Donald Trump has made up his mind not to attend next Wednesday's debate and is instead seeking a sit-down interview with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson.
The move to skip the debate, which will air on Fox News and be moderated by Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum, is not all that surprising. Trump has been threatening for weeks to boycott and hold a competing event, arguing that it makes little sense for someone so far ahead in the polls to subject himself to the inevitable onslaught of attacks.
“If you’re leading by a lot, what’s the purpose of doing it?” Trump asked previously on Newsmax. The former president hinted at his thinking in a social media post Thursday.
“People know my Record, one of the BEST EVER, so why would I Debate?” he asked before declaring: “I’M YOUR MAN.”
Campaign advisers had long said the former president was unlikely to appear, and that they and the candidate have been discussing potential alternative programming.
Carlson now has a program on X, the site formerly known as Twitter.
Trump, in recent weeks, has also floated the idea of calling into different networks to draw viewers from the debate, holding a rally, showing up at the debate at the last minute, or attending but sitting in the audience and offering live commentary on his Truth Social site.
So far, eight candidates say they've met the qualifications to be on the debate stage in Milwaukee on Wednesday: Trump, Ron DeSantis, Tim Scott, Nikki Haley, Vivek Ramaswamy, Chris Christie, Doug Burgum and Mike Pence.
The RNC will not formally announce who will make the debate stage until next week.