Trump, in Tucker Carlson interview, says other GOP candidates shouldn’t be running for president

Former President Donald Trump wasted no time attacking other Republican candidates all over his pre-taped interview with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson.

“I’m saying, 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 mentioned.

The 46-minute interview — launched on Carlson’s X account Wednesday night time because the GOP debate were given underway — is being noticed a few of the campaigns as an try to counterprogram the primary debate amongst 2024 Republican presidential candidates on Fox News.

Trump went after former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson and previous New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie in specific, pronouncing Hutchinson shouldn’t be running for president and that Christie runs “solely on the basis” of going after Trump.

Later in the interview, when requested about former Vice President Mike Pence, Trump mentioned he used to be “disappointed” in his former running mate and that he hasn’t spoken to him “in a long time.”

Trump claimed Pence had the suitable to ship the electoral votes again to the states on Jan. 6, and mentioned he thinks Pence did not ship again the votes as a result of he “got very bad advice,” accusing “RINOs” of operating with Democrats.

Trump additionally attacked Fox News, claiming it confirmed favoritism towards other candidates, pronouncing the community “isn’t particularly friendly to me, frankly.”

Carlson fed into Trump’s false claims concerning the 2020 election in the interview. After being requested if he is apprehensive the election may be “stolen” from him in 2024, Trump claimed, “Oh, they could. [Senate Minority Leader] Mitch McConnell was trying to get senators to impeach me.”

The sit-down interview — which used to be held in Bedminster, New Jersey — used to be pre-recorded ultimate week, a supply aware of the topic showed to ABC News.

Trump has cited his indeniable frontrunner standing in the Republican race — in spite of going through 91 legal fees for which he maintains his innocence — to signify that he does not wish to give his opponents a platform to assault him.

Trump mentioned his polls permit him to stick cheerful even if he will get indicted: “I think it’s a lot easier because I’m so high in the polls, because it means that people get it. The people see it’s a fraud.”

As the interview dropped, 8 candidates — Hutchinson, Christie and Pence, in addition to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott and North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum — gave the impression on level in Milwaukee Wednesday night time for the primary debate a few of the GOP candidates.

In the months main as much as the talk, Trump teased whether or not or now not he’d sign up for his opponents on level, best to expose ultimate week on his social media platform that he would “NOT BE DOING THE DEBATES!”

Ahead of the interview’s free up, Carlson mentioned in a video message on X that Trump approached him about “having a conversation for a far larger audience than he’d receive on cable news.”

It’s unclear exactly what number of debates Trump plans on sitting out. Appearing at the conservative “Ruthless” podcast on Wednesday forward of the Republican debate, Trump senior marketing campaign adviser Chris LaCivita mentioned the previous president recently does now not plan to wait the second one GOP debate, which can be held in California subsequent month.

LaCivita mentioned Trump is “not going to be in California,” whilst noting that “he could change his mind at any moment.”

ABC News’ Tal Axelrod and Laura Gersony contributed to this file.