The TV personality said he called Trump hours after being shot, and that the former president did not talk about himself but said he was impressed by those attending the rally who remained calm.
“This is the selfish guy I’ve been hearing about for nine years? Really? Not a word about himself,” Carlson said. “Everything was different after that moment. Everything. This convention is different. The nation is different. The world is different. Donald Trump is different.”
Trump famously got his news from FOX News and Carlson’s high-profile talk show while in office. The pair have maintained a friendship over the years, and Carlson claimed the shooting transformed Trump.
“In that moment, Donald Trump, months before the presidential election, became the leader of this nation, “Carlson said. “I think it changed him.”
Carlson also alluded to his past false claims that the 2020 presidential election was “stolen” from Trump while seeming to take jabs at President Joe Biden .
“You could take, I don’t know, a mannequin, a dead person, and make him president,” Carlson said. “Theoretically possible. With enough cheating, that could happen.”
July 18, 2024; Milwaukee, WI, USA; Tucker Carlson speaks during the final day of the Republican National Convention at the Fiserv Forum. The final day of the RNC featured a keynote address by Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump. Jasper Colt
FOX News parted ways with Carlson in 2023 following a nine-figure settlement with Dominion Voting Systems, which sued the company over Carlson’s on-air comments about the 2020 election. Soon after, Carlson founded his own streaming network to broadcast to his audience, and in February, he interviewed Russian President Vladimir Putin .
The former president’s son, Donald Trump, Jr., revealed this week that if his father had not tapped Ohio Senator JD Vance to join him on the Republican ticket this November, he hoped he would have chosen Carlson.
Rachel Barber is a 2024 election fellow at USA TODAY, focusing on politics and education. Follow her on X, formerly Twitter, at @rachelbarber_
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