CNN anchor Alex Marquardt noted that the former President Donald Trump‘s decision to skip next week’s GOP debate in favor of what’s sure to be a softball interview with Tucker Carlson is “a slap in the face to Fox executives” via Media Ite.
On Friday’s The Situation Room, Marquardt asked reporter Alayna Treene what she had learned about Trump’s plan to disregard the debate.
“Well, he’s not going,” Treene said. “He won’t be there on Wednesday. Of course – and I said this earlier when we had earlier reporting about this – there’s always the hedge from the campaign, and from me just from having covered Donald Trump for so many years, that he could always change his mind at the 11th hour.
“But no, he, in the last 24 hours, he’s been telling advisers that he has no plans to go. And instead, he’s planning to do an interview with Tucker Carlson around the same time of the debate, I’m told. He’s also planning to have some of his surrogates go to the debate in his absence so there’s representation, specifically in the spin room after the debate even when he’s not there himself.”
“It’s not just a questionable political move, but it really is a slap in the face to Fox executives who wanted him there, to the RNC who, of course, wanted him there. So what’s the message?” Marquardt asked.
Treene said that both Trump and Carlson — who was unceremoniously fired by Fox News in April — have been openly feuding with Fox News executives and owner Rupert Murdoch. Fox News is set to host the debate in Milwaukee on August 23. Treene continued:
“And something I had heard was, he was in Bedminster last month with — Fox News executives came and traveled to the club, his New Jersey golf club, and had dinner with him. And they encouraged him to participate in the debates. And I’m told that even this week Donald Trump has been telling people he thinks that that means they’re worried about ratings. And I think he’s, you know, relishing that fact. He also met with Ronna McDaniel, the RNC chairwoman, and others at the RNC at Bedminster, who did the same thing; encouraged him to participate in the debate. He’s still not going.”
