Tucker Carlson's interview with Dave Portnoy was released on Thursday, and the former Fox News star agreed "100%" w...
Tucker Carlson's interview with Dave Portnoy was released on Thursday, and the former Fox News star agreed "100%" with the Barstool Sports founder that President Joe Biden and former president Donald Trump are "too old" to be president in 2024.
In the 21st episode of the "Tucker on X" show, Portnoy and Carlson discussed Trump dodging the first GOP primary debate earlier this month and the interview that aired the same day as the Fox News debate.
"I would never want to stick it to Fox, you know," Carlson told Portnoy. "I'm not mad at Fox, I'm really not."
Carlson said of Trump, "He approached us and said, 'You know, I'm not gonna do the debate.'"
Tucker said, "If I'm being totally honest, I didn't really believe him because it's Trump. He changes his mind, he's volatile. Maybe he decides this is a spectacle he can't pass up."
Carlson said Trump doesn't like Fox News, and Fox News doesn't like Trump.
Carlson claimed Fox News "always" had rules "about not allowing" Trump on the cable news network.
"My view was I think it's totally legitimate to dislike Donald Trump," Carlson stated. "I don't hold that against anyone. It's totally fair to have any view you want on American politics."
"But the guy is the dominant figure in American politics and certainly the dominant figure in the Republican Party," Carlson said of Trump. "And you're a news organization. So if you've got a rule – just because the owner doesn't like him, you can't have him on the air – you're not really covering the news at that point, are you? What are you doing? You're lying actually."
Portnoy declared that Trump shouldn't have skipped the Republican debate.
"I thought he should've done the debate," Portnoy told Carlson. "To become president, I think it was the right move not to do it, but for the betterment of the country, I think he should be on the debate."
Carlson responded, “I kind of agree. I like the debates, personally. The problem is that the news companies that host the debates are so rotten and corrupt, and everybody knows it. The whole thing is rotten and corrupt."
An overwhelming 73% of Republican voters said in a recent poll that Trump should have participated in the first Republican presidential primary debate against his GOP competitors.
When asked if Biden would be the Democratic presidential candidate in the 2024 election, Portnoy replied, "To be honest, I think both Trump and Biden are too old. I don’t think you should be able to be that old to be president.”
Carlson replied, "I agree 100%."
"I think Biden has got some serious dementia issues," Portnoy added.
Portnoy pointed out that 81-year-old Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) froze up in public for a second time in less than two months. McConnell's physician medically cleared the aging senator to return to duties and said the concerning incident was likely caused by "dehydration."
Portnoy said, "How are these people running our country?"
Carlson then took a jab at McConnell.
"The only defense that I would say of Mitch McConnell is that McConnell post-stroke is an improvement over McConnell pre-stroke," Carlson quipped.
President Joe Biden, 80, is the oldest president in U.S. history. Biden took office at age 78 in January 2021.
If Trump won the 2024 presidential election, he would be 78 years old on Inauguration Day 2025.
The Pew Research Center found that the median age of current national leaders is 62.
Speaking of his departure from Fox News, Carlson told Portnoy that his former employer is "run by fearful women" and has "a lot of incompetent people" running the network.
Carlson said he was thankful for Fox News allowing him to "say whatever he wants" for 14 years.
He added, "I'll never stop being grateful for that."
Carlson said he wasn't sure what he said that got him fired from Fox News, and he wasn't expecting to be abruptly terminated.
"I can't be mad about it," Carlson said. "They were great to me. The Murdochs were always great to me."
Carlson said he could "feel" the cable news network was "very mad" about his messaging against the war between Ukraine and Russia.
Carlson said he made a mental note to "never work for anyone else again."
Carlson said he is "grateful" that his show on X has been massively popular.
He said Elon Musk called him an hour after news broke that he was fired by Fox News to pitch the idea to host a show on the X social media platform.
Portnoy went viral this week for a video clip of him being verbally attacked by a furious pizza shop owner in Massachusetts.
You can watch the entire Tucker Carlson interview with Dave Portnoy below.
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