Conservative media commentator Tucker Carlson said that it would be unlikely that he would accept the nomination for vice president in a series of statements this week. The former Fox News host was reportedly floated by former First Lady Melania Trump as a potential running mate for her husband, former President Donald Trump.
Carlson said at a weekend event that it would be difficult to go from a “well-paid street corner schizophrenic to, like, a politician.” He said that it was “kind of hard to envision.”
“God would have to yell at me very loud,” Tucker Carlson says at APP gala when asked about speculation that he’d join the ticket as VP with Trump. Being around politicians constantly, he adds, “is so repulsive to me.”
— Philip Melanchthon Wegmann (@PhilipWegmann) December 8, 2023
Carlson said that “God would have to yell at me very loud” to run for office and that being around politicians “is so repulsive to me.”
A recent Axios report indicated that Melania Trump sought Carlson as Trump’s 2024 vice presidential candidate.
However, the same report stated that Trump was considering other potential candidates, including Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH), Arksansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders (R), South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem (R), Rep. Byron Daniels (R-FL) and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA).
Previous reports indicated that Trump was also impressed with former Arizona gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake, who narrowly lost her race last year.
The report also indicated tht Trump would seek to surround himself with loyalists in a potential new administration.
Carlson’s hesitation to run for vice president also followed a similar denial regarding a potential White House bid. Earlier this year, a group of activists called for Carlson to enter the presidential race, leading to Carlson publicly disavowing the effort.
In 2022 he said that he had “zero ambition” to run for president. He said that he did not “want power. I’ve never wanted power. I’m annoyed by things, I want them to change, but I’ve never been motivated by the desire to control people.”
Despite the report, the Trump campaign said that the story was “pure fiction” and “just speculation.”
“President Trump is solely focused on winning the Republican nomination and then defeating Crooked Joe Biden in the general election,” a spokesperson said.
