Trump campaign expecting ‘unnatural obsession’ on former president from Fox debate hosts

Former President Trump’s campaign is anticipating what it is calling an outsized amount of focus on the former president by the Fox News moderators presiding over Wednesday night’s first GOP primary debate in Milwaukee.

“President Trump has already won this evening’s debate because everything is going to be about him,” the campaign said in a statement issued Wednesday afternoon, just hours before the prime-time debate, which will air on Fox.

“You should also expect the Fox hosts to show an unnatural obsession with President Trump tonight, asking other Republican candidates over and over to react to President Trump’s policy positions. In fact, we will be tallying the number of times President Trump’s name is brought up, and his total ‘speaking time,’ even though he is not in attendance.”

Fox anchors Martha MacCallum and Bret Baier are moderating the event, which Trump has said he will skip based on the large lead in most GOP primary polls he currently holds.

Trump has instead decided to sit with conservative commentator Tucker Carlson, the pundit whom Fox News pulled off the air just days after it agreed to pay Dominion Voting Systems hundreds of millions of dollars in settlement money in connection with claims made about its software on Fox’s air about voter fraud being pushed by Trump and his allies.

Trump’s interview with Carlson is slated be published on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, at the same time the GOP debate on Fox gets underway.

The former president for months has ridiculed Fox, a network that features a number of hosts still staunchly supportive of him, and has mentioned his “hostile” relationship with the network as another reason he will not attend.

In an interview with The Hill this week, MacCallum said she and Baier will not stifle Trump’s GOP rivals who wish to address his ongoing political and legal controversies.

“There will be an opportunity for them to say their piece on those issues as it relates to the former president, even without him on stage,” she said.