Doanld Trump, the 45th president and current frontrunner for his party’s nomination, opted against participating in the first Republican primary debate Wednesday night in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
Trump instead pretaped a 46-minute interview with top-rated former Fox News Channel host Tucker Carlson for streaming as counterprogramming during the GOP presidential debate, aired by Fox. (In a surprise move, Fox had fired Carlson in late April.)
Carlson’s wide-ranging interview with Trump, which took place in the former president’s home in Bedminster, New Jersey, touched on issues regarding the 2020 election, Trump’s mounting legal problems, the jailhouse death of financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, a potential “civil war,” and Trump’s thoughts on Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and others in the GOP.
The Trump-Tucker interview streamed on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, and was prerecorded several days ago. The interview was available just after 8:55 p.m. EDT Wednesday, to get a short jump on the 9 p.m. EDT debate on Fox.
The interview came the evening before Trump was set to be arraigned for the fourth time this year–this time in Atlanta, where Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis secured a grand jury indictment on racketeering charges against Trump and allies for challenging the outcome of the 2020 election in Georgia.
This report is developing and will be updated.
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