(Kevin Whiteley, Headline USA) Few people are as trusted among conservatives as former Fox News-truth-teller Tucker Carlson, who, at one point, was rumored to be humoring his own thoughts of a presidential run.
On Wednesday’s broadcast of the Clay Travis & Buck Sexton Show, former President Donald Trump, the current GOP frontrunner, floated the possibility of inviting Carlson to be his running mate, in what many would consider a dream ticket.
The two pundits, who took over the time slot of the legendary Rush Limbaugh, had a rare opportunity to sit down with Trump at Mar-a-Lago, where they discussed the upcoming election, current debates, polls and lingering doubts as to whether incumbent President Joe Biden would be the Democrat nominee.
Exactly one year away from the 2024 election, Trump is smoking Biden in five of the six swing states per @nytimes. You buy it? I still can’t believe Democrats are really going to run Biden. It feels super reckless given his mental and physical state, even for them. pic.twitter.com/VwDRoLxyw7
— Clay Travis (@ClayTravis) November 5, 2023
Although Travis—like many others—suspects that Democrat elites may pull a bait-and-switch by allowing superdelegates to force a brokered convention late next August (assuming Biden doesn’t voluntarily or involuntarily exit the race sooner), Trump seemed cautiously optimistic for a rematch against the addled octogenarian.
“I think that it possibly will be him,” Trump noted in his reply, careful to not be too absolute in his prediction.
“I would’ve said almost definitely,” he continued. “I find it hard to believe—he’s the worst president in history. … He’s making Jimmy Carter look like a genius.”
Even with the competition’s bar set at unprecedentedly low levels, though, Trump’s struggle is still likely to be as vicious and uncertain as any political fight ever witnessed in American history.
The same corrupt forces that aligned in 2020 to deny him re-election have only grown stronger and more brazen during Biden’s presidency, making powerful allies a must, even for the undisputed leader of the GOP.
“Would you consider Tucker Carlson on your V.P. list?” Travis asked Trump.
“Oh, wow,” Trump blurted in reaction.
While little is known about the pair’s private rapport, a leaked text-message that emerged during a defamation lawsuit against Fox News offered some hint that Trump’s and Carlson’s two strong-willed and opinionated personalities might not be entirely in sync.
At one point following Trump’s defeat, Carlson allegedly wrote, “I hate him passionately.”
Publically, however, the two have been cordial, with Carlson offering make-good remarks about Trump, then later interviewing him on at least two occasions.
The two were even photographed sharing a laugh together (along with Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga.), during a tournament at the Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, N.J.
Picking up on Trump’s hesitation, Travis sought to reframe his question to avoid getting the candidate in trouble with any other prospective running mates.
“I wanna give you a hypothetical here,” he said, launching into a sports analogy related to University of Alabama coach Nick Saban, a known Trump supporter, before bringing it back into focus.
“…[W]ould Tucker Carlson be on your list of potential V.P.s, and how many names may be on that list as you sit and look and survey the political field?” Travis inquired.
“Well, first of all, I did my first—you could call it counter-programming, but I won’t call it that—but Tucker wanted to do an interview during the first debate. And I think you know because this is what your business is. We broke every record in history,” Trump boasted.
“Monster audience,” Travis added.
Indeed, that interview, which aired on Aug. 23 during the first GOP debate, underscored how the two men acting as both leaders and outsiders could effectively take on the establishment.
Ep. 19 Debate Night with Donald J Trump pic.twitter.com/ayPfII48CO
— Tucker Carlson (@TuckerCarlson) August 24, 2023
“I think it just hit over 300 million people—but it was, for that evening, over 207 million,” Trump said of the Twitter-streamed interview.
“It then got to 275 within a day or two,” he added. “And the biggest ever was Oprah’s interview with Michael Jackson, which was 125 million, so we almost doubled it.”
Trump was boycotting the Republican National Committee’s demands that he adhere to certain rules, as well as the RNC’s decision to allow certain candidates—and moderators—who were likely to do more harm than good to his political interests.
Carlson, meanwhile, appeared to be trying to stick it to his former network after his unceremonious ouster in April.
While Trump appeared eager to talk about the decline in debate ratings, Travis continued to prod him as to whether he would consider adding the newsman to his shortlist for running mates.
“I like Tucker a lot. I guess I would,” he relented.
“I think I said I would because he’s got great common sense,” Trump continued. “You know, when they say you guys are conservative or that I am conservative, it’s not that we’re conservative; we have common sense.”
That, of course, is assuming that Carlson would accept the offer. He recently has invited Trump primary competitor Vivek Ramaswamy on for two interviews and appears to share more idealogical ground with the 38-year-old upstart.
Carlson also is in the process of forming a new media company that could require his undivided attention.
He and his Daily Caller co-founder, Neil Patel, recently announced a new joint venture, registered under the name Last Country, Inc., which already has secured at least $15 million in backing from Omeed Malik’s 1789 Capital.
Headline USA’s Ben Sellers contributed to this report.
