Fox News to Keep Trump Surrogates from GOP Debate Spin Room
(AP Photo/Charlie Riedel, File)
Has a new front opened up in the ongoing battle between Fox News and former President Donald Trump? Maybe not.
The cable news network is hosting the first GOP Primary debate for the 2024 election, which Trump announced that he will skip, along with all other future primary debates. In a memo obtained by Mediaite, surrogates for any candidate not participating in the debate will not be allowed in the post-debate spin room.
Is the network hitting back at Trump? Not really, though, given the argy-bargy between the Trump campaign and Fox News of late, some are surely to see it that way.
First reported by Axios, then later confirmed by Fox News’ sister company, the New York Post, which Rupert Murdoch also owns, and
reports
The barring of Trump surrogates from attending Wednesday’s debate at the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee comes one day after the 77-year-old former president confirmed that he would not participate in the event, which will be aired on Fox News, CNN’s Alayna Treene reported on Monday.
The Post has confirmed that surrogates for any candidate who didn’t make the stage will not be allowed at the debate, and that it is not a Trump-specific ban.
The ex-commander-in-chief’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., had said Monday that he would be attending the showdown as a surrogate for his father.
His fiancée, Kimberly Guilfoyle, was also expected to show up at the event and run media for the former president, according to the Daily Caller.
CNN’s Treene tweet has since been deleted, which she later clarified:
Some of Trump’s most loyal advocates planning to attend the debate include failed Arizona gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake and Representatives Marjorie Taylor Greene, Matt Gaetz, and Byron Donalds, many of whom have previously called out candidates for skipping other debates.
