TRUMP SLAMS GOP RIVALS, PRAISES THE JAN. 6 CROWD
Former president skips debate, posts interview online
Donald Trump skipped the debate stage typically relished by presidential candidates on Wednesday and instead appeared in an online interview peppered with election lies, attacks on his rivals and praise for the crowd of supporters he spoke to before they stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
Trump said he was sitting out the first Republican presidential debate in Milwaukee because his poll numbers showed him far ahead of his rivals.
Instead, he used a pre-recorded interview with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson to make his case that everyone but him is irrelevant.
In one exchange, Trump seemed to indulge a suggestion from Carlson that Trump’s political opponents might try to end his life.
“They are savage animals. They are people that are sick. Really sick. You have great people in the Democrat Party, great people that are Democrats,” Trump said. “But I’ve seen what they do, I’ve seen the lengths that they go to.”
The comment comes as Trump has venerated those charged with crimes for the deadly riot at the U.S. Capitol and downplayed the violence that day. He repeated his praise in the interview.
“People in that crowd said it was the most beautiful day they’ve ever experienced. There was love in that crowd. There was love and unity,” Trump said of the supporters he addressed on the morning of Jan. 6, before they marched to the Capitol.
“I have never seen such spirit and such passion and such love. And I’ve also never seen, simultaneously, and from the same people, such hatred of what they’ve done to our country.”
The interview with Carlson was posted Wednesday night on X, the website formerly known as Twitter, five minutes before the debate aired.
Trump attacked some of his rivals early, calling former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson “nasty,” and cited him as an example of someone who shouldn’t be on the debate stage, along with former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie. Both Christie and Hutchinson have been critical of Trump and said he shouldn’t be running for president.
Trump had said it is beneath him to appear with the other candidates on the Milwaukee debate stage because of his large lead in the polls. His ongoing feud with Fox News Channel, which hosted the debate, seemed to cement his decision.
“Do I sit there for an hour or two hours, whatever it’s going to be, and get harassed by people that shouldn’t even be running for president?” Trump said in the 46minute interview. “Should I be doing that at a network that isn’t particularly friendly to me?”
Trump and his team have not clarified if he will skip every Republican debate. He has complained about the location for the second debate in September, the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, because Fred Ryan, the publisher and CEO of the Washington Post, is the chairman of the foundation’s board of trustees.