The forum, which will take place on Friday in Iowa, will feature one-on-one talks between Carlson and the top Republican candidates: Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, former Vice President Mike Pence and Sen. Tim Scott, former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley , former Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson and businessman Vivek Ramaswamy. The event will be presented and broadcast on Fox.
Representatives of several candidates confirmed to The Hill on Tuesday their plans to attend the event and said they expect a conversation with Carlson to last about 25 minutes on average. The forum comes just over a month before the first Republican National Committee (RNC) debate in Milwaukee, in which several of the party’s top candidates have pledged to participate.
Meanwhile, Trump has yet to signal a readiness to enter the first debate, citing a “hostile” relationship with Fox News and polls showing him ahead of most other Republican candidates.
The network took Carlson off the air in April, days after settling a high-profile defamation lawsuit filed by Dominion Voting Systems over the network’s coverage of Trump’s statements about the company and fraud in the 2020 election. Carlson has an active contract with Fox and, after leaving the network, released a series of short videos on Twitter (blocked in Russia).
