Posted on 08/24/2023 8:17:10 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Instead of participating in the first Republican presidential primary debate on Fox News Wednesday night, former President Donald Trump sat down with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson for a pre-recorded discussion on several topics.
Posted to the social media platform X at the same time the debate began, the conversation amassed nearly 100 million views in just over 3.5 hours after it was posted.
According to the RealClearPolitics average of polls measuring the preferences of Republican primary voters based on surveys taken between Aug. 10 and 21, Trump has the support of 55.4% of Republican primary voters. His closest rival, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, has 14.3% support.
Trump cited his significant polling lead as the justification for not participating in the debates.
Instead, he discussed his Republican primary rivals, plans for a second term if elected president and elaborated on why he chose not to participate in the debate.
The following pages highlight four interesting moments from Trump's conversation with Carlson.
As the interview concluded, Carlson asked Trump what his top priority would be if elected to a second term. The 77-year-old said securing the United States-Mexico border would remain his No. 1 focus, just as in his 2016 election campaign.
"The first thing I would do would be I would seal up the border good and tight except for people that want to come in legally," he said. He also expressed a desire to take "hundreds of thousands of criminals that have been allowed into our country and getting them out and bringing them back to their country."
The former president asserted that many of these people were coming from prisons and mental institutions in their home countries.
Trump defended his administration's record on the border, asserting that "I had the strongest border in the history of our country, and I built almost 500 miles of wall. ... [and] another 200 that I was going to build."
"We built it; it was all set to go. All they had to do was install it. It would have taken three weeks," he added.
He claimed the Biden administration wants "open borders," citing his successor's failure to secure the border.
Carlson asked Trump, "Whatever happened to Mike Pence?"
Pence, who served as vice president during the Trump administration, had a falling out with his former boss after he refused to comply with his requests to reject electoral votes from states facing voter fraud allegations as he conducted the ceremonial role of overseeing the certification of the 2020 presidential election results on Jan. 6, 2021.
"In my opinion, Mike Pence had the absolute right to send the votes back to the legislatures," Trump maintained. "The Democrats and everybody said, 'You don't have the right.'"
After lamenting that his former running mate declined to send electoral votes back to state legislatures as a result of "very bad advice," Trump discussed the passage of the Electoral Count Reform and Presidential Transition Improvement Act of 2022.
The measure was passed into law as part of the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2023, signed into law by President Joe Biden in December 2022.
The legislation clarifies that the vice president, who also serves as president of the U.S. Senate, has a "ministerial" duty when it comes to presiding over the joint session of Congress where electoral votes are certified.
"The President of the Senate shall have no power to solely determine, accept, reject, or otherwise adjudicate or resolve disputes over the proper certificate of ascertainment of appointment of electors, the validity of electors, or the votes of electors," the legislation states.
Trump believes the passage of the law proves that he was "right."
"The Vice President no longer has the power to do what I said he could do," he said.
At the beginning of the interview, Trump said that Wednesday's Republican debate featured candidates that "shouldn't even be running."
When Carlson asked him to elaborate on people who he said "shouldn't even be running for president," the former president initially responded that he did not "want to really use names" before denouncing former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson as "Ada Hutchinson" for reasons he did not expand upon.
Hutchinson is currently polling at 0.8% support in the RealClearPolitics average. Describing him as "weak and pathetic," Trump characterized Hutchinson as "not a very popular guy" and expressed bewilderment as to how he could get elected governor of the "great state" of Arkansas.
He concluded his remarks on Hutchinson by labeling him "nasty" as Hutchinson has emerged as one of the more vocal critics of the former president in the Republican primary field.
Trump also took a shot at former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who is currently polling at 3.0% in the RealClearPolitics average. He called his former ally, who has made opposition to the former president a central tenet of his campaign, a "savage maniac" and a "lunatic."
Trump suggested that Christie's animus towards him stems from the fact that he "couldn't give him a job" in his administration because he "just never trusted him very much." According to Trump, "That's one of the reasons he feels so hurt and so betrayed."
Much like he has become accustomed to doing, Trump referred to DeSantis, whom polls suggest is Trump's strongest Republican competitor, as "Ron DeSanctimonious."
While Trump discussed Pence later in the conversation, he did not bring up the other contenders on the debate stage: entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley, Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C. and North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum.
The former president envisioned the debate as "all these people screaming at me, shouting questions at me, all of which I love answering, I love doing." He determined that "it doesn't make sense" to attend the debate and continued to take swipes at Fox News, insinuating that the network does not have "a lot of credibility."
Trump mentioned Carlson's dismissal from the network earlier this year as he proclaimed, "You know that perhaps better than anybody." He decried Fox News' "terrible move," recalling that Carlson was "No. 1 on television."
The former president also expressed confidence that "we'll get bigger ratings using this crazy forum that you're using than probably … the debate, our competition."
Tucker asked Trump twice about his concern about assassination.
Trump dodged the question the first time and the second time replied “They are savages.”
So Pence could have done what Trump asked him to do but
Now Biden got a law passed that would prevent a VP from sending electoral votes back to states??
It allows for faster erosion of the field. I don't expect 3 of those candidates to be invited to the 9-27 debate.
That’s my understanding (from before this news-reporting cycle).
I think his point was if it were not something the VP could do, sending the electors back to the state, why did they pass a law to stop it? I am not up on this to the degree some are but it would seem to me if that is a constitutional duty of the VP, the constitution would have to amended to redo it?
dodged? lol
It’s interesting that you point that out and in the way you quote. When Trump said that I instantaneously though the mainstream media and the Biden campaign would use it to say Trump is calling Democrat voters “Savages”. But to be fair and honest that’s not in context because Trump followed the “savages” statement with, “There’s a lot of good Democrats …”.
A second thought on this is while Trump was embracing the entire nation and all voters, seven of eight GOP presidential candidates have been insulting Trump and his supporters. Trump made it clear in the Tucker interview that he was/will be the President of all the people by saying exactly that. He can also back that statement by how all Americans benefited by his economic policies.
A more appropriate characterization would have been “skirted”.
The problem is that Congress muddied the waters when it passed the Electoral Count Act of 1887 to deal with potentially disputed electoral votes like the case of the disputed 1876 election.
One key provision of that law — involving members of Congress objecting to electoral votes certified by the states — is almost certainly unconstitutional in cases where only one slate of electors is certified by a state.
Thank you.
Anything Biden/Demx pass is not good for our country.
The 12th amendment changed the original method by which the VP is chosen, but retained the same wording regarding the duty of the President of the Senate, aka the Vice President:
“the President of the Senate shall, in the presence of the Senate and House of Representatives, open all the certificates and the votes shall then be counted;–The person having the greatest number of votes for President”
I’ve never understood where in the constitution the VP has any leeway or choice, but the legislation Trump referred to just added another lock to the door he wanted Pence to open. If someone can show me where Pence could have done so within the bounds of the constitution I’d like to see it.
Otherwise I do not want Mike Pence doing extra-constitutional make-up-as-you-go crap any more than I want democrats doing so. We either live under the Constitution, or we don’t.
If Trump can lose his self aspirational image for a moment and lay the facts of the bigger picture of deep state and their motives out for the public, he would win in a landslide.
Then, if they cheat Trump out of it, the people will not tolerate it and all hell will break loose.
Trump needs to portray himself as a freedom fighter and the corrupt deep state as CCP pawns.
Our country is in such bad shape that I doubt if Trump can save it even if he wins with a Republican House and Senate.
😥
Lol. Very good. Crow for Vice-President.
“Trump is calling Democrat voters “Savages”.”
I thought Trump was referring to the Deep State. The RINOS hate him as much or more than the Democrats. After all, the Deep State killed JFK, and he was Democrat.
You are correct. But lines like that get twisted by the msm and democrat campaigns. Just to be clear. I have no problem with him saying that. They will always find something to twist out of context. And it doesn’t matter if it is Trump. Any leading Republican candidate will have lies told about what he says.
I listened to some of the interview and it sounded like Trump was applying for a job with a TV station or Talk show. No mention of anything on policy.
RE: No mention of anything on policy.
He’s had 4 years governing the country as President. What policies of his on energy, taxes, foreign policy, the border, trade, judges and justices, defense, etc. are still unknown to you?
Nice one!
So just writing some nonsense law wouldn’t hold up under judicial review.
So technically, that 2022 law is unconstitutional and the VP still has the power to return the electors to the state for re-certification.
The founders had no idea what a mockery our legal process would become, they wanted the power in Congress especially the house, so there is no ceremony or ceremonial duties written in the Constitution, those are real powers, and the vice president has the authority to verify certify or not, each states electoral votes during the electoral college.
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