Donald Trump, citing his polling advantage, decided to forego the Republican Primary debate, a long anticipated move. But to the shock of many, he announced an exclusive interview with Tucker Carlson. Tucker Carlson’s dramatic exit from Fox News has given him a freedom to pursue a less structured format. Indeed, Tucker Carlson has been a major player in the 2024 election process, as he roasted Asa Hutchinson and Mike Pence in Iowa last month. Whether Tucker Carlson was trying to sabotage Fox News or actively promote Trump is perhaps unknowable. Leading up to the interview that was to be released at the same time the debate was to start, the question was whether Tucker would give Trump a softball interview or engage him the way he engaged other candidates. Ultimately, neither of these came to pass. Instead, Tucker Carlson aired a nigh directionless conversation that was almost entirely irrelevant to the 2024 election. So my question is, did Tucker Carlson do this as one giant troll.
There’s a time and a place for trolling, and I would feel better about Tucker Carlson’s trajectory if the so-called interview with Trump was a giant prank to screw his former employer, rather than the type of interviews he wants to do moving forward.
Tucker Carlson became the brand he is now by excellent monologues and eviscerating RINO politicians for liberal policies. Yet now that Tucker is on his own, his approach to interviews is insecure, despite his continued pay from Fox News. Carlson has released a series of softball interviews most notably with Andrew Tate and his lackey brother Tristan. Perhaps this could be brushed off as a generational misunderstanding and a lack of research. But one need not dig that deep to see that Andrew Tate is a routine liar. Thus it seems message for Tucker to do a sympathetic interview with a pimp.
The interview with Trump barely registers as an interview at all. In a 46 minute video, Tucker Carlson waits until after 43 minutes to ask a substantive question. The question was what in Trump priority if elected in 2024. Trump answered with immigration and border security.
I cannot really fault Trump for a bad interview when he was not given good questions. The interview will not help Trump’s campaign in any way, and at worse his age showing in the interview could dissuade voters.
As for Tucker, he greatly undermined his credibility with a dull interview with Trump that avoided pressing issues.
One Response
Don’t overthink it.