By Brandon Morse
The moment I learned that Tucker Carlson was going to be releasing his interview during the GOP debate, I knew where most of America’s attention would go.
It was pretty obvious that Trump was going to be center stage during the GOP debates without even appearing on the stage. No one should be surprised by this. He’s not just the GOP frontrunner by a mile, he’s also the most talked about man in America due to equal parts fame and infamy.
He’s the embodiment of a political thriller. The man is running for President while fending off charges and indictments left and right from political enemies simply using his fame to inflate their own. His time as head of the nation comes with a lot of baggage that people want to hear him talk about, and if he does win the next election then this time…it’s personal.
Cut to the “Trump: Parabellum” title.
That interest is bearing fruit in the numbers. Tucker Carlson’s interview with Trump on X has a staggering 194.7 million views as of this writing. That’s likely to go up even further as the day progresses.
Ep. 19 Debate Night with Donald J Trump pic.twitter.com/ayPfII48CO
— Tucker Carlson (@TuckerCarlson) August 24, 2023
Trump, who’s no stranger to getting ratings, knew this would get viral traction on the internet to the point where it would beat Fox News.
“We’ll get bigger ratings using this crazy forum that you are using than probably the debate,” Trump said during the interview.
Right now, there’s a lot of discussion about who won the debates and many people are heading the W to the candidate they walked in supporting. There’s some excellent analysis of the debates on the front page of RedState right now from a myriad of perspectives.
But there’s clearly one winner here, and that’s Tucker Carlson.
Taking a step back and looking at the entire day, it was pretty clear that Carlson didn’t just interview Trump to interview Trump. The man wanted to prove a point.
It’s pretty clear there’s still some bad blood between him and Fox News. The sudden, unceremonious, and egregiously unfair firing hit Carlson and no one should blame him for feeling like he does about the network. A lot of people share his anger toward Fox News and that spite has severely damaged the network from its credibility to its ratings.
Carlson releasing his Trump interview during the GOP debate was a move soaked in spite, but it also sent a very important message: “You couldn’t get Trump…I could. Hundreds of millions of people watched my interview…you won’t nearly approach that number. I was your greatest warrior…now I’ll be your greatest enemy.”
It too is a thriller fit for theaters.
Revenge is a dish best served cold and I’m not sure this particular batch, on the behalf of Tucker to Fox could be much colder. Oh and the RNC and McDaniel can stuff it.
The GOP is no longer a political party with a strong base. In many ways they are a third party with no candidate that has any national appeal.