Tucker Carlson Helps Cull the Republican Presidential Field

American Thinker ^ | 16 Jul, 2023 | Clarice Feldman

[MtnClimber]

If, like me, you find the presidential debate format a rather meaningless exercise, you will be astonished at what one-on-one interviews by a skilled interrogator can accomplish.

At the Iowa family Leader conference, Tucker Carlson interviewed several leading contenders for president Tim Scott, Asa Hutchinson, Mike Pence, Nikki Haley, Vivek Ramaswamy, and Ron DeSantis.

If the participants thought this was going to be another tongue bath, they were certainly surprised. He asked hard questions and some of their answers exposed their muddled thinking. At least two of them – Asa Hutchinson and Mike Pence -- were clear losers and can now be safely considered out of the running. If you haven’t had an opportunity to listen to all the interviews on the site, I’ll summarize some of the highlights.

Tucker chided Pence for being more concerned about defending the Ukraine than with dealing with domestic problems.

Tucker: "Where's the concern for the United States?"

Pence: "That's not my concern. Tucker I've heard this routine from you before. That's not my concern."

Pence tried to duck this gaffe by claiming it was out of context, but the video is undoctored and the response is clear. I believe his campaign is now dead.

He offered up an extended clip in which he said, "Anybody that says that we can’t be the leader of the free world and solve our problems at home has a pretty small view of the greatest nation on Earth. We can do both.

“And as president of the United States, we will secure our border, we will support our military, we will revive our economy and stand by our values. And we will also lead the world for freedom under my administration. I promise you.”

[HamiltonJay]

None of these guys are relevant, they are a circular firing squad. They are fighting for scraps. Rearranging deck chairs on the titanic fighting for the NeverTrump voter.

When all is said and done, Trump will handily win the primary receiving with well over 60% of the primary votes cast. And these interviews by Tucker show exactly why.

[outofsalt]

“Video killed the radio star”
TV resulted in presidents like JFK, Clinton and Obama. Form over substance. Vivek has substance and America needs to be informed and entertained in order to regain its greatness.

[dforest]

Rush was tried and true genuine. Even he was fooled just like all of us by these elitist liars.

This is like Trump, he is genuine because whatever comes out his mouth isn’t run through handlers looking to fool people. You may not like, approve, or wish he would have reworded what he said, but you can’t say it isn’t genuine. What you see is pretty much what you get.

Vivek sounds good, great at speaking and articulating, but not sure if he is genuine yet because he hasn’t been around long enough to give us a baseline to see whether he just mouths the words we like to hear or truly believes those words.

[AnotherUnixGeek]

Even if the person,themselves, mentions God in the conversation?
In that situation wouldn’t it be more of a clarification than some sort of intrusion on someone’s rights?

I'm fine with Carlson's decision not to go there. I don't care how any candidate arrives at his policy positions - I care about whether the candidate's policies line up with what's best for me, my family and my nation. I believe that by excluding religious criteria, that's what the Founding Fathers intended as well.

[healy61]

Your post seems to try to shoot Carlson for asking a few questions. He didn’t control anybody. Pence said it, and can’t run from it, that America daily life is not his concern.

[euram]

Yesterday it was reported that Pence raised only $1 MILLION for his campaign. That should tell him something. During his interview with Carlson he once again blamed Trump for J6. I suppose he thinks he’ll attract the Media-Dem Party supporters and the Liz Cheney crowd.

[TTFlyer]

It sure is.

[mmichaels1970]

It takes nothing, however, from Carlson’s brilliant interviewing skills to note that this is a far better method of letting voters know about the candidates, than what is ridiculously called “debates” -- kick lines of large numbers of contenders, predictable questions from biased moderators, followed by short, often obviously scripted responses and one-line sound bites. No serious candidate should continue to participate in them and no intelligent voter should bother watching them.

Amen.

[ohioman]

I see our resident mental case has spoken. The left certainly appreciates your anti-MAGA agenda.

[upchuck]

Agree with Clarice 100%. Thanks for the ping MtnClimber.

Clarice Feldman ping.

If you'd like to be on or off the Clarice Feldman ping list, usually issued only on Sunday morning, please click Private Reply below and drop me a FReepmail.

[silent_jonny]

LOL--"tongue bath". Pence sure wasn't expecting anything less

[grey_whiskers]

BZZZT.

If you say, the Government in it’s official capacity is not allowed to notice, you might have a case.

But individual voters can reject any candidate for any reason whatsoever.

[Liz]

Good points.

[AnthonySoprano]

.

Pence could handle BASIC questions.

I think he wanted to Confess.

What does it say, the first time you get a real, albeit basic, question you fall on your face?

Pence has had decades of no real job.

[sjmjax]

Good point. Getting honest political interviews from mainstream media is like getting honest product reviews in a magazine that depends on advertising buys.

[AnotherUnixGeek]

But individual voters can reject any candidate for any reason whatsoever.

Absolutely, individual voters can vote based on any criterion they want to use. It helps explain why we have so many Democrats in office. My point is that asking about a candidate's religious faith isn't something Carlson needed to do. I'd certainly have had less respect for him if he had.

[Vaduz]

Indeed

[spintreebob]

TUCKER CARLSON is the title of this article. It is not “Trump...” nor “Republicans...”. This is typical of current newsmedia of which Tucker Carlson is typical. Regardless of right or left, the story is about the story teller. This is a decline in our society, in our culture. Tucker Carlson is exactly like Chuck Todd and the other side is like.

The medium is the message.

[spintreebob]

Culture on the Right seems to have degraded into the culture of the left, if FR is any indication.

Why so much defense of the messenger if the story is the message and not the messenger?

Bill Clinton was elected because he would feel our pain, not solve any problem. Now Tucker Carlson is our leader because he feels our pain and he is the story because he feels our pain.

[logi_cal869]

Here we go again on Pence.

Tucker failed at multiple points to call Pence out.

His most egregious was contradicting himself on ukeland.

At least the audience shared their view (boos).

But I can’t accept Tucker’s ‘amen’ at the end of his session with Pence.