Fox News BANS Trump’s team from debate spin room after former president refuses to come to Milwaukee for GOP showdown

Fox News banned Donald Trump’s deputies from the spin room of the debate on Wednesday after the former president refused to come to Milwaukee for the Republican showdown.

Only presidential campaigns participating in the debate are allowed in the media lane, the realm where surrogates advocate for their contender and wreck the competition, sources confirmed to DailyMail.com.

Trump, who is leading the polls for the Republican presidential nomination, announced Sunday that he will not attend the first two debates of the primary season, both of which are sponsored by Fox News.

The retaliation is the latest showdown between the former president and the conservative-minded news network that made his name.

Team Trump still plans to have a full presence on the ground, including Trump’s oldest son Don Jr., Kimberly Guilfoyle, Kari Lake and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene.

Those Trump surrogates with tickets to the debate itself may still attend, CNN reported, because the tickets are distributed by the Republican National Committee.

But Fox will control access to the debate’s media center, where hundreds of reporters will work covering the debate.

Trump surrogates are allowed in the spin room if they are guests of media organizations covering the debate. Otherwise they should stay away. As were other Republicans who were ineligible for the debate.

Credentials for the post-debate gaggle will only be given to “participating candidates/campaigns,” Fox News wrote in a memo obtained by Axios.

Donald Trump announced on Sunday that he will attend neither the first nor second Republican primary debates — both sponsored by Fox News — despite qualifying for the event and leading the polls for the GOP presidential nomination.

RNC Chair Ronna McDaniel and Fox News executives heavily lobbied Trump to attend Wednesday’s event, including making personal pilgrimages to his Bedminister, NJ golf club to keep their pleas personal.

McDaniel even warned Trump that skipping the primary debate meant he would give President Joe Biden an excuse to drop out of the debate with Trump if they met again in 2024, the New York Times reported.

Trump would like to debate Biden, with whom he is nearly neck and neck in the polls.

Still, that convinced the former president not to join the at least seven other contenders who qualified for Wednesday’s debate phase.

A Republican debate sign hangs outside the Fiserv Forum in preparation for the August 24 debate in Milwaukee

Trump will instead talk online with Tucker Carlson, the former Fox News host who is still under contract and paid by Fox despite his show being taken off the air.

The interview was already recorded.

Although Donald Trump has said he will not be on the debate stage, his presence will be felt.

Moderators Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum have said they plan to ask the other contenders about the many charges against the former president.

“How the other candidates respond to it will be interesting,” said Baier, the network’s chief political anchor and anchor and executive editor of Special Report.

“In the GOP primaries, we’ve seen these charges raise his polls, increase his fundraising,” Baier said. deadline . “How others react to it and how differently they approach it will be part of this primary and this debate.”

Trump will also dominate the news cycle in the days leading up to the debate. On Monday night, he announced he agreed to surround authorities in Atlanta on Thursday — the day after the debate — where he faces charges of trying to overturn that state’s 2020 election results.

Former President Donald Trump (left) does not plan to attend the first Republican primary debate and will instead sit down for an online interview with former Fox News Channel host Tucker Carlson (right)

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene will also be in Milwaukee to support Donald Trump

Kari Lake was at the Iowa State Fair for Trump (above) and will also be in Milwaukee

Trump has argued that he doesn’t need to be next to the other contenders for the Republican presidential nominations that heavily trail him in the polls.

“A lot of people ask if I’m going to do the DEBATES?” he posted on Truth Social Friday. ‘People know my record, one of the BEST EVER, so why debate? I’M YOUR MAN. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”

If Trump counterprograms the debate by appearing with Carlson, it would spark an epic battle for viewers during the primary season’s first major event.

In response, the Fox team is considering integrating Trump video clips into their debate questions, according to the New York Times.

Trump was indicted for the fourth time last week. This time, he faces charges in Georgia for interfering in the 2020 state election results. He also faces federal charges in two cases — one for classified documents in his possession and one for election interference — plus charges in New York related paying hush money to porn star Stormy Daniels

Meanwhile, Republican 2024 race hopefuls prepare for the GOP presidential primary debate at the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee, Wisconsin on Wednesday.

The other candidates who qualified are Ron DeSantis, Vivek Ramaswamy, Mike Pence, Chris Christie, Nikki Haley, Tim Scott and Doug Burgum. Asa Hutchinson, Francis Suarez and Perry Johnson have claimed eligibility, but the Republican National Committee has not confirmed they have met all qualifications.

To participate in the debate, candidates must meet a donor threshold (40,000 individual contributors, including 200 each from 20 states) and a polling threshold (at least 1 percent support in three qualifying national polls, or two qualifying national polls plus qualifying polls from two states with early voting: Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada, and South Carolina). They must also sign a pledge to support the eventual Republican nominee, whoever it is.