By Katelyn Caralle, American political reporter for Dailymail.com
Updated:
Eight Republican candidates will face off Wednesday night in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, for the first GOP debate of the 2024 primary.
However, the candidates are actually competing for second place.
Meanwhile, frontrunner Donald Trump counterprograms with a sit-down with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson that will air at the same time as the debate begins — 9 p.m. ET.
Fox is hosting the debate at the Fiserv Forum arena in Milwaukee with moderators Martha MacCallum and Bret Baier.
Candidates running include Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, former Vice President Mike Pence, biotech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, Senator Tim Scott (RS.C.), former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley, former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, Governor of North Dakota Doug Burgum and former Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson.
Three other candidates — Miami Mayor Francis Suarez, businessman Perry Johnson and radio host Larry Elder — claim they met the podium requirements but were not included in the RNC lineup released Monday night.
Follow DailyMail.com’s live updates from the first Republican presidential debate of 2024.
Team Biden rips ‘softball’ Trump Carlson interview that will promote ‘conspiracy theories’
President Joe Biden’s presidential campaign tore up Donald Trump’s “softball” interview with Tucker Carlson before it aired Wednesday.
“In his softball ‘interview’ tonight, Donald Trump will again make it clear that he is pursuing the same extreme and deeply unpopular MAGA agenda that the American people have rejected time and time again,” Biden’s campaign spokesman Kevin Munoz said.
“Instead of explaining his broken promises to Wisconsin … we’ll probably hear him double down on his most unattainable positions, including his support for wild, debunked conspiracy theories.”
The statement came after Carlson tweeted a “debate night” image of himself and Trump at the ex-president’s private club in Bedminster, New Jersey.
Munoz also said, “That same extreme and unpopular agenda will be on display later tonight in Milwaukee by MAGA Republican candidates giving their best impression of Donald Trump. The American people rejected these extreme ideas in 2018, 2020 and 2022 – and will do so again in November 2024.”
Tucker Carlson questions Trump: Why aren’t you at the debate tonight?
Tucker Carlson has released a highlight video of his upcoming interview with Donald Trump, intended as counter-programming to the first Republican debate on Wednesday night.
The debate starts at 9 p.m. ET, but Trump’s pre-recorded interview starts five minutes before that at 8:55 p.m.
The clip shared on the social media site now known as X shows Carlson opening up asking why Trump decided to skip the debate with eight other Republican candidates.
The former president has repeatedly said that debating these low-ranking candidates is below his level.
In the video, Trump tells the former Fox News host that their interview via a forum called Tucker on X will likely get “bigger ratings” than the debate.
GOP hopeful Vivek Ramaswamy, 38, cheekily told DailyMail.com “I’ll consider it” when asked Tuesday if he planned to rap on the debate stage.
The biotech entrepreneur has been rising in the polls — surpassing Florida Governor Ron DeSantis in several surveys — and likely needs a breakout moment during Wednesday night’s GOP debate to keep momentum going.
And the one talent he’s leveraged to make a statement before is his rapping skills.
Earlier this month at the Iowa State Fair, Ramaswamy ended an early morning event with Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds with a rendition of Eminem’s Lose Yourself.
While attending Harvard, the now presidential candidate had a side job as a libertarian-minded rap artist who went by the stage name “Da Vek.”
Governor Doug Burgum showed up to a debate venue on crutches on Wednesday after sustaining an injury during a basketball game with his campaign staff.
The 2024 hopeful’s plans were up in the air after he was rushed to an emergency room in the Milwaukee area on Tuesday.
Burgum, a wealthy former software executive, showed up at the Fiserv Forum arena a few hours before the crutch debate.
He posted on Twitter, now known as X, an image in a boot and on crutches at the debate venue with the caption, “I’m in.”
President Biden says he will watch the first Republican debate
Joe Biden said Wednesday night after pilates and spin classes that he would watch the Republican primary debate on Wednesday night — even though frontrunner Donald Trump chose to skip the event.
The president joked that he had no expectations for the first formal rally of Republicans trying to defeat him in next year’s election.
“I’m going to try and get as much as I can, yes,” he told reporters earlier on Wednesday.
When asked what his expectations were, Biden smiled broadly and laughed, “I don’t have those.”
Biden speaks to reporters while holding a blueberry smoothie after pilates and spin classes in Tahoe, California, on Wednesday. The president said he will monitor the GOP debate
