Donald Trump May Counter-Program Fox News’s GOP Presidential Debate

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As the first GOP primary debate approaches, Donald Trump is considering his options. Possibly not, the former president told Reuters on Thursday, when asked if he would attend the Aug. 23 debate, hosted by Fox News in Milwaukee. Trump, as usual, questioned the purpose of the show when he was ahead of other candidates, such as former New Jersey governor Chris Christie. Why should I give them time to express? Why would I do that when I’m leading them by 50 points and 60 points, Trump said, thinking about holding a competing event on the same night. We have many offers, whether it’s a rally or an interview with other people,” he said. Not to be braggadocious but the debate will not be a very exciting one if I’m not there.

It’s not the first time Trump has opted out of a major campaign debate, as he did in 2016. That one, too, was hosted by Fox News, and Trump’s relationship with the network has only gotten worse. since. A hostile network, Trump told Reuters of Fox News, a description he recently put on the network following a nasty interview with Bret Baier, who pointedly questioned the former president over his handling of classified documents and other thing. He also complained recently on Truth Social about Fox News using the worst pictures of him and the network ignoring his recent campaign events and then wanting me to show up and get ratings, adding: All they do is promote, against all odds, Ron DeSanctimonious, and he falls like a stone. Sorry FoxNews, life doesn’t work that way!!! (A Fox News spokeswoman did not respond to a request for comment on Trump’s comments to Reuters.)

Executives at the Rupert Murdoch-owned network, however, are working to show Trump in August, as my colleague Gabriel Sherman reported earlier this week. Fox is trying to get Trump to say yes. They offered him the world to show they could be trusted, a top GOP operative told Sherman in conversations between the campaign and the network, along with a senior Trump campaign official who noted that the host Sean Hannity has been in frequent contact with the former president to try to smooth the relationship between Trump and the network. But Trump, as one former Fox news staffer said, despises the Murdochs. A person who urged Trump to take the stage recently told NBC News that the former president won’t debate unless he’s forced to by changing the polls. In the latest NBC News poll, Trump has a 29-percent lead over Ron DeSantis. Trump, an adviser to NBC, has not yet made a final decision and is asking everyone, from the bellman to [RNC Chair] Ronna McDaniel what they think, but if she doesn’t debate, I doubt she stays home.

At the end of the day, I think the debates are in Donald Trump’s hands and everybody has to accept that, a longtime network executive told me earlier this month, adding that former presidents who are increasingly legal problems may change the calculation. We could have a whole bunch of impeachments this summer and by the time the debates start in August, Trump will be gassed and in need of oxygen. CNN recently reported that special counsel Jack Smith gave limited immunity deals to at least two GOP voter fraudsters in exchange for testimony about Trump’s attempts to subvert the 2020 election, and Fani Willis, the Fulton County District Attorney investigating efforts by Trump and his allies to try to subvert the 2020 election in Georgia, has indicated that charges will come in August.

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