Blaze TV announced Monday that former Fox News host Tucker Carlson will be hosting the first Republican presidential forum of the 2024 primary season.
The event will take place at the Family Leadership Summit in Des Moines, Iowa, later this month.
“Blaze Media is teaming up with THE FAMiLY LEADER to bring you the first presidential forum of the 2024 Republican Primary season, hosted by Tucker Carlson,” Blaze TV tweeted.
“We’ll be live streaming this event all day Friday, July 14th on BlazeTV and the BlazeTV YouTube channel,” the news outlet added.
According to Blaze, the GOP candidates running include former South Carolina governor Nikki Haley, governor of Florida Ron DeSantis, businessman Vivek Ramaswamy, senator from South Carolina Tim Scott, and former vice president Mike Pence.
Former President Donald Trump currently leads the field of Republican candidates by over 30 percentage points, according to the RealClear Politics average of polls.
Trump has 53 percent support; while DeSantis garners 20.9 percent; Pence, 6.1 percent; Haley, 3.6 percent; Scott 3.3 percent; and Ramaswamy 2.4 percent.
On August 23 in Milwaukee, the Republican National Committee will have its first formal debate.
The RNC, Fox, and the Young America’s Foundation are co-hosting the event, which will be broadcast on Fox News Channel and streamed live on Rumble.
Fox News reported that due in part to his significant lead over the competition, Trump had previously stated in both public and private that he might forego the Milwaukee debate, but according to aides, a final decision has not been made.
Trump’s stand-out performance at the first Republican presidential debate in August 2015 fueled his successful bid to become the 2016 GOP nominee.
According to The Hill, candidates must fulfill a number of requirements in order to be eligible to participate in the Fox debate. These requirements include polling at least 1% support, having 40,000 unique donors, 200 of whom must come from 20 or more different states and territories, and signing a pledge of allegiance to the Republican Party nominee.
Along with Trump, DeSantis, Pence, Haley, and Scott are other candidates who claim to have reached that standard.
Since being dismissed by Fox News in April, Carlson’s moderating of the candidate event on Blaze TV is likely to be his most well-known appearance to date.
Fox did not provide an explanation, but The Los Angeles Times reported, citing unnamed sources, that Rupert Murdoch, chairman of Fox Corporation, made the decision to terminate Carlson.
Murdoch apparently was not happy with Carlson’s coverage of the Capitol incursion on January 6, 2021, in particular when he questioned what function federal law enforcement forces may have had on that particular day. This is thought to be part of the cause.
The decision was made in the same week that Fox settled a defamation lawsuit for $787.5 million with Dominion Voting Systems, which claimed that the news organization’s coverage of the use of its voting machines in the 2020 election damaged its reputation in the sector.
Both Dominion and Fox have denied claims that Carlson’s removal was part of their settlement agreement.
In May, Carlson announced he would be hosting an online program on Twitter.
His shows have garnered millions of views each since first airing last month.
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