Security at the first Republican primary debate of the 2024 presidential election was directed to bar members of the Trump campaign from entry, according to a document seen by news crews.
It’s the latest drama surrounding Donald Trump’s decision to skip the debate in favour of a one-on-one interview with former Fox anchor Tucker Carlson.
The directive included pictures of Trump staffers Jason Miller, Justin Caparole, and Danny Tiso,” and said the men were “not approved for entry.”
The Trump team criticised Fox News, which hosted the debate, for the document, which was first reported by NBC News.
“Fox News’ ‘Never Trump’ bias against President Trump apparently now extends to his supporters as well,” Mr Miller said in a statement on Wednesday. “It’s tacky, it’s petty, and it explains why their ratings are in the toilet. Watch President Trump’s interview with Tucker Carlson on Twitter tonight at 8:55pm ET!”
Fox News said in a statement to NBC News the document pertained to Tuesday preparations for the debate, and that the network wasn’t involved in creating the directive.
“This paper was designed and printed by the Fiserv Forum security team as a guide for candidate walk throughs that took place yesterday,” the network said. “FOX News Media was not involved with the production of the document and did not sanction any of the language used.”
Instead of Mr Trump using the debate as a campaign stop, the former president opted for a highly charged interview with Carlson, during which he dabbled in conspiracy theories and lashed out against rivals for 2024 like former New Jersey governor Chris Christie and former vice president Mike Pence.
“A guy left with an eight per cent approval in New Jersey, think about it, and now he is running for president and he runs solely on the basis of oh, let’s get Trump,” Mr Trump said of Mr Christie.
“He’s like a savage maniac, he’s like a lunatic. And that’s all he talks about. His poll numbers are very, very low, about two per cent.”
Meanwhile, he also went after Mr Pence for refusing to illegally suspend the certification of the 2020 election in Congress.
“In my opinion, Mike Pence had the absolute right to send the votes back to the legislatures. The Democrats and everybody said you don’t have the right. In other words, what I said was ‘What is he a human conveyor belt?’” Mr Trump said.
