Carlson will host a GOP candidates forum Friday on the streaming network that Beck co-founded. Together, can they be a kingmaker?

By Jennifer Graham

It’s not a debate, it’s a forum. After all, the first official GOP presidential debate of the 2024 campaign is not until Aug. 23 in Milwaukee.

But a gathering of major Republican candidates, sans Donald Trump, will take place Friday, hosted by former Fox personality Tucker Carlson and broadcast by Blaze Media, the conservative media company co-founded by Glenn Beck.

Is the dream team of conservative broadcasting about to assemble?

Beck, one of the most influential voices in talk radio for the past two decades, has made no secret of his desire to combine forces with Carlson, who was unceremoniously dumped by Fox News in April.

On his Blaze TV show the day Carlson was let go, Beck called the move “suicidal” for Fox and said to his audience, “Would you sign up for The Blaze right now so I — we — just have a bucket full of money we could throw (Carlson’s) way?”

Beck, who was clearly stunned by the announcement, went on: “Tucker was the only guy out there that I felt was in the mainstream media that was telling America the truth. ... You’re getting rid of Tucker Carlson? Wow.”

Carlson has been coy about his plans, but the admiration isn’t one-sided. Just three weeks before Fox’s announcement, Beck had been on Carlson’s show to talk about the Trump indictment. In his introduction, Carlson said of Beck:

“When the history of cable news is written ... Glenn Beck will have his own chapter as possibly the greatest synthesizer of big ideas ever to appear on camera. And a lot of people made fun of Glenn Beck over the years for that, but if you go back and watch the tape, you will find out that, maybe more than any other person on television, Glenn Beck got it right. Again and again and again.”

https://www.deseret.com/2023/7/11/23791106/glenn-beck-tucker-carlson-candidate-forum-gop-2024