Tucker Carlson Lays Out His Demands for Moderating Republican Debate

Tucker Carlson is laying out the conditions under which he would moderate a Republican presidential primary debate.

The former Fox News anchor said that he would be open to hosting one of the debates, as long as the Republican National Committee (RNC) was not involved, saying he would "of course" moderate an event.

"That sounds fun as hell. I absolutely would," Carlson told popular right-wing X, formerly Twitter, user ALX in an interview released Tuesday. "I mean, it would, I think, have to be outside the RNC's jurisdiction, and that would be good."

Carlson's comments come after GOP presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy suggested during last month's debate in Miami, Florida, that Carlson, and other figures like Elon Musk and Joe Rogan, should co-host future debates instead of the RNC. It also comes less than a week after the organization announced that it would pause its participation in the 2024 primary debates.

The RNC's decision means that the coming debates will be hosted by networks independently of the committee. Since its first debate in August, the organization has continually heightened the fundraising and polling thresholds needed to qualify.

"We have held four successful debates across the country with the most conservative partners in the history of a Republican primary. We have no RNC debates scheduled in January and any debates currently scheduled are not affiliated with the RNC," the RNC's Committee on Presidential Debates said in a December 8 statement.

"It is now time for Republican primary voters to decide who will be our next President and candidates are free to use any forum or format to communicate to voters as they see fit," the statement read.

While former President Donald Trump qualified for all four debates, he has refused to participate. Instead of appearing at the first debate in August, Trump opted for a pre-recorded interview with Carlson that was released at the same time as the debate in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

On Tuesday, Carlson likened the RNC to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, saying neither had "reason for being."

"[The RNC] only consumes resources and says annoying things and breaks things, but there's sort of no reason to have it. You know what I mean?" he said.

Two outlets—CNN and ABC—have already announced plans to host debates in the new year in Iowa and New Hampshire ahead of next month's caucuses and early primary voting.

Ramaswamy said last month that if there are debates in January, the event should be hosted on X rather than cable television, and be moderated by someone like Carlson, "who might just ask questions that primary voters actually care about."

"The RNC says they want to reach younger voters & new audiences? Well, that's how you do it," Ramaswamy said.