‘So Disgusted!’ Megyn Kelly Clashes With Mark Halperin Over Whether Tucker Carlson Will Run for President

Megyn Kelly and Mark Halperin split on both whether Tucker Carlson will run for president in 2028 and if he’d have any sort of real chance as a third-party candidate.

Halperin joined Kelly on The Megyn Kelly Show where they debated a social media post that included Carlson and others, like Marjorie Taylor Greene, teasing a potential third party. Carlson, Greene, and the others have turned from vocal supporters of President Donald Trump to vocal detractors over the Iran war, Epstein files, and more.

“Tucker’s as likely to run for president as I am to move to India and start my cricket career. I just don’t think it’s going to happen,” Halperin told Kelly.

“Disagree,” Kelly pushed back.

“Well, he might do it as a lark, but as a credible campaign, I don’t believe it. I don’t believe the support’s there for him,” Halperin threw back.

Joe Kent, the former director of the National Counterterrorism Center who quit earlier this year in protest of the Iran war, was also at the table with Greene and Carlson, and he’s said they’ve pushed Carlson as a 2028 candidate, should they actually launch a third party.

Kelly noted she hasn’t spoken to Carlson directly about the matter, but she believes he’s “disgusted” enough to run.

“I gotta tell you, I disagree. I haven’t talked directly with him about it, but I believe Tucker’s so disgusted in the neocons and what’s happened in the Republican Party that for the first time he would consider it,” she said.

Halperin noted that starting a third party in today’s political system is next to impossible, with hefty ballot access thresholds and a big question mark about debate participation.

“I’ve spent a lot of time on this, and starting a third party is nearly impossible in our system. It takes a lot, a lot stuff that that group doesn’t have sitting around Tucker’s house chatting in flannel,” he said.

Kelly argued Carlson and others could create a “problem” either way by acting as a spoiler candidate of sorts and shaving millions of votes away from Republicans.

Halperin acknowledged that if Carlson could get ballot access and into debates, Republicans would be doomed.

“If magically they could be on the general election ballot and in the debates, yeah, that’d be doom for the Republican Party, doom. I mean, unequivocally,” he said.

“They can get in the debates,” Kelly argued, noting the Commission on Presidential Debates “no longer runs the thing,” meaning the threshold to enter a debate could be lower.

Halperin still had plenty of doubt, claiming no Republican would allow themselves on a stage to debate Carlson.

He said:

The Republican nominee would no sooner step on the debate stage than they would eat a bag of tax… They’re just not going to let them in the debates. If the Commission wouldn’t let them into debates unless they met some threshold — and if the Commission’s not in doing it and we don’t really know if the Commissions is doing it or not. They’ve had some bad cycles here, but they may come back, but if they don’t, no Republican presidential nominee is going to agree to debate Tucker.

Amid talk of a presidential run and a new third party, Carlson announced that he will be making a major announcement on his YouTube channel on Wednesday at 6 p.m. ET.

The White House responded to Carlson in a Wednesday statement, referring to him, Greene, and others as “turncoats.”

White House spokesperson Davis Ingle said:

President Trump created the greatest political movement in the history of politics with the MAGA movement, and he remains the unequivocal leader of the Republican Party. The President is committed to maintaining Republican majorities in Congress and continuing to lower costs for working families. Meanwhile, this photo represents an embarrassing collection of mostly whiny turncoats who dramatically overestimate their influence and relevance.

Watch above via The Megyn Kelly Show.

Jason Cohen contributed to this report. 

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