Former Fox News host Tucker Carlson told producer Alex Lorusso that he’d look favorably upon the idea of co-hosting a Republican presidential primary debate with X CEO Elon Musk and podcaster Joe Rogan.
“Vivek Ramaswamy asked last month, at the [Republican National Committe] debate, he proposed that you, Elon Musk and Joe Rogan run a debate instead of who the RNC pick,” Lorusso — perhaps better known by his social media handle ALX — asked Carlson.
“You know — the Russiagate pushers and everyone,” he added.
“Would you be open to such a debate?” Lorusso asked.
“Oh, gosh,” Carlson responded, sounding a bit surprised at the question. “Of course I would. Of course I would. Yeah! That sounds fun as hell.
“I absolutely would,” Carlson continued. “I mean, it would, I think, have to be outside the RNC’s jurisdiction. And that would be good. I mean, they’re — by the way, I don’t know how many people are on this call, but if anyone present can see a purpose for the RNC to continue to exist, just shoot me a text.”
“The RNC is like NATO,” he explained. “It has no reason for being; it only consumes resources and says annoying things and breaks things. But there’s sort of no reason to have it.”
You can hear Carlson’s comments here:
I asked @TuckerCarlson if he’d be willing to host a GOP debate with Joe Rogan and Elon Musk.
TUCKER: “Of course I would — that sounds fun as Hell. Absolutely, I think it would have to be outside of the RNC.. The RNC is like NATO, it has no reason for being, it only consumes… pic.twitter.com/VvEPr8ej7E
— ALX 🇺🇸 (@alx) December 13, 2023
The RNC announced last week that it would host no more debates during the 2024 primary season, but had no objection to candidates participating in debates conducted by other organizations.
CNN quickly announced a debate on January 10, only days prior to the January 15 Iowa caucuses.
However, only three candidates would qualify for the debate under the terms announced by CNN. Only Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, and former President Donald Trump have received “at least 10% in three separate national and/or Iowa polls of Republican caucusgoers or primary voter,” thus qualifying for the debate.
There seems to be no reason to believe that Trump, 77, would attend this debate, or any other, given his scouring of the earlier events.
So far only DeSantis, 45, has committed to participating in the debate, Axios reported.
“Haley has been noncommittal on the prospect of facing one-on-one DeSantis ahead of Iowa, even as she has also been calling on Trump to break his debate boycott,” the outlet said.
KTIV-TV in Sioux City, Iowa, reported Friday that Haley, 51, “said former President Donald Trump is ‘going to’ need to be on a debate stage before the Iowa caucus, arguing he needs to take his case directly to Iowans.”
DeSantis spokesman Bryan Griffin claimed that the reason Haley’s not anxious to get on the stage with the Florida governor is because of her performance in last week’s debate in Tuscaloosa, Alabama.
Should the RNC chose better moderators for its debates?
“After that loss, it is no wonder why Haley has failed to confirm she will join Ron DeSantis on the debate stage in Iowa and New Hampshire next month,” he said, without evidence.
In truth, however, Haley has gained 2 points since the last debate, according to the RealClearPolitics polling average, while DeSantis is down a point.
Ramaswamy, 38, has barely moved the needle, going from 4.9 points to 5.0 over the past week and leaving him still very unlikely to qualify for the CNN debate.
