Republican debate live: eight presidential hopefuls take stage as Trump is a no-show

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At the Republican debate, the first question of the night was about Rich Men North of Richmond. If you are wondering who they are, the Guardian’s Matthew Cantor has the answer:

In Rich Men North of Richmond, Oliver Anthony, a bushy-bearded former North Carolina factory worker, sings passionately about working hard for “bullshit pay”.

Armed with just a guitar and his powerful voice, he identifies the source of the problem: “rich men north of Richmond” – federal politicians – who “want to have total control”. The song laments homelessness – “folks in the street ain’t got nothin’ to eat” – and a national suicide crisis: “Young men are putting themselves six feet in the ground / ’Cause all this damn country does is keep on kicking them down.”

So far, so resonant: the song has collected more than 12m views on YouTube alone, and on Tuesday afternoon, it sat at No 3 on Spotify’s Top 50 – USA list.

But things start to feel a little less empathetic when Anthony starts complaining about “the obese milking welfare”, reasoning that “if you’re 5-foot-3 and you’re 300 pounds / Taxes ought not to pay for your bags of fudge rounds”. We can all agree that politicians have caused many of America’s problems; it’s harder to argue that our country is being destroyed by short, overweight chocolate enthusiasts. He also rails against taxation, which he says means “your dollar ain’t shit”.

The former Fox News host Tucker Carlson launched his interview with Donald Trump five minutes before the first Republican primary debate was to begin in Milwaukee in an attempt to sabotage both the former president’s rivals in the 2024 election and their host, Carlson’s former employer, Fox News.

Carlson opened the 46 minute interview with a question about why Trump wasn’t at the Milwaukee debate.

“You see the polls that have come out and I’m leading by 50 and 60 points and some of them are at one and zero and two. And I’m saying do I sit there for an hour or two hours or whatever it’s going to be and get harassed by people who shouldn’t even be running for president?” he said.

“I just felt it would be more appropriate not to do the debate.”

It was perhaps remarkable that the conversation was taking place at all. Just five months ago it was revealed that Carlson said of Trump in a text message: “I hate him passionately.”

“We are very, very close to being able to ignore Trump most nights,” The then Fox News anchor said in a message to a colleague in early January 2021 as the former president continued a futile battle to remain in office. “I truly can’t wait.”

But the two men set aside their differences to jointly take on their respective enemies – Fox and the rest of the Republican primary field.

First Republican debate begins

The first debate of the 2024 Republican presidential primary has kicked off in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Follow along here as we cover it live.

Onstage at the Republican presidential debate tonight is the governor of North Dakota, Doug Burgum – who almost didn’t make it.

He has managed to make the event despite requiring crutches and wearing a boot after hurting his Achilles tendon while playing basketball.

“I’m in,” the 67-year-old rank outsider said in a tweet earlier, before his campaign confirmed his participation.

“Doug feels very strongly that his voice is necessary on the stage this evening, and has said he will fight through the pain and challenge standing in order to make that happen,” a statement said, as reported by NBC News.

Citing “sources close to Burgum”, NBC said he “suffered a high-grade tear in a pickup basketball game with campaign staff” on Tuesday, and was admitted to a local emergency room.

Burgum himself told CNN: “I think the first piece of good news is tonight’s not a dance contest. If this was Dancing with the Stars, I’d be scratched from the competition. But it’s a debate. We’re standing at a podium for two hours and I may just have to cowboy up and we’ll just get through it.”

Tucker Carlson releases interview with Donald Trump

Just as the Republican presidential contenders took the debate stage in Milwaukee, the conservative commentator Tucker Carlson posted what looks to be the entirety of his interview with Donald Trump:

Trump is skipping the debate, opting for the interview with Carlson instead. In April, Fox News, which is hosting tonight’s encounter with the GOP candidates, booted Carlson off the air, and the conservative commentator has since tried to rebuild his audience on Twitter (also known as X).

Republicans take the stage in Milwaukee as first presidential debate kicks off

The eight Republicans who have qualified for the first debate of the 2024 presidential primary process have taken the stage in Milwaukee.

Frontrunner Donald Trump is not among them, having opted to sit for an interview with the conservative commentator Tucker Carlson. The debate stage is instead filled with candidates looking to oust him from the top of the polls, such as the Florida governor, Ron DeSantis, who is currently in second place in most surveys, as well as the entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, who has seen some momentum in recent polling.

The former vice-president Mike Pence, Senator Tim Scott and the ex-UN ambassador Nikki Haley are among the other candidates still in the running who are onstage.

Fran Lawther

Preparations for the debate were entering the final stages on Wednesday, with the stage in Milwaukee set up well in advance of the candidates’ arrival.

Here are some of the latest images coming to us from the newswires as Wisconsin’s largest city prepared for the debate:

Fran Lawther

While Trump is a no-show, some of his family members and most fervent supporters did make it to the debate venue.

The former Arizona gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake, who, much like Trump, refuses to accept her election defeat last year, was seen talking to the ex-president’s son Donald Jr outside the arena in Milwaukee:

Donald Trump’s opponents for the Republican nomination took his announcement earlier this week that he would skip the debate in stride – at least publicly. But as the Guardian’s Martin Pengelly reported, the former president will nonetheless loom large over the debate stage:

Donald Trump’s rivals for the Republican presidential nomination reacted in mostly muted fashion to his declaration that he will skip all the party’s primary debates, not just the first in Milwaukee on Wednesday.

Trump’s team have strategized that as the overwhelming frontrunner, the former president would gain little from appearing on stage with his many rivals. At the same time, his legal team are probably wary Trump may be tempted to wade into subject matter at the heart of proliferating legal cases against him.

Andrew Romeo, a spokesperson for Ron DeSantis, Trump’s closest if distant rival, insisted: “No one is entitled to this nomination, including Donald Trump. You have to show up and earn it.”

But while Trump is betting that not showing up will not hurt him with voters – and that his son Donald Trump Jr will prove an effective media surrogate in Milwaukee – DeSantis has a pressing need to earn support. With his campaign widely seen to be tanking, the hard-right Florida governor will take the stage in Wisconsin on Wednesday with serious work to do.

In a Sunday night post to his online platform, Truth Social, Trump cited a CBS News poll that gave him a 46-point national lead. Bragging of “legendary numbers”, he said: “The public knows who I am and what a successful presidency I had … I WILL THEREFORE NOT BE DOING THE DEBATES!”

Trump to discuss debate skipping, indictments and 'civil war' in Tucker Carlson interview

Donald Trump is leading the Republican primary field, but rather than participate in tonight’s debate, he sat for an interview with Tucker Carlson – a conservative commentator whose views are often aligned with the former president’s.

Expect their interview, which airs on Twitter (also known as X) at 8.55pm ET, five minutes before the debate starts, to be a particularly friendly encounter. Carlson, who was booted from his primetime spot on Fox News earlier this year, has released a teaser that indicates he asked Trump about everything from his legal troubles to the death of Jeffrey Epstein:

Carlson is getting back on his feet after Fox showed him the door without warning in April, and has opted to broadcast the interview on Twitter/X, which, since billionaire Elon Musk’s purchase last year, has become an increasingly friendly platform for the right. In the below video, Carlson says Trump approached him about doing the interview, seeking “a far larger audience than he’d receive on cable news” – which sure sounds like a dig at his former employer:

For an idea of what the eight Republicans who qualified for the debate might say on stage, the Guardian’s Mary Yang has a comprehensive look at their stances on the major issues.

Such as abortion access, the economy and the January 6 insurrection. Read it here:

Everything you need to know about tonight's Republican debate

Fox News is hosting the first Republican primary debate, which begins at 9pm ET in Milwaukee.

Wisconsin is a perennial swing state that has lately become viewed as the “tipping point” in determining the winner of presidential elections. Racially diverse and reliably Democratic, Milwaukee is its most populous city, but voters in its suburbs often play a major role in deciding elections. The debate will be held at the city’s Fiserv Forum.

The Guardian’s David Smith is in Milwaukee, and has this look at what tonight’s debates mean for the city:

The Republican party faces an electability test on Wednesday when candidates including election deniers, climate deniers and anti-abortion extremists take the debate stage in a city that rebukes them and a state they cannot afford to lose.

The first presidential primary debate will be held in Milwaukee, a racially diverse Democratic stronghold in Wisconsin, a battleground that could decide who wins the White House in 2024.

Even without Donald Trump, who is skipping the primetime televised event, the juxtaposition between Republicans who have embraced his far-right agenda and their sceptical host city offers a preview of the party’s struggle to broaden its appeal.

Republicans set to joust in first presidential debate, sans Trump

Good evening, and welcome to our live coverage of the first Republican primary debate, which will feature all of the party’s main presidential contenders – except for the frontrunner, Donald Trump.

While his eight rivals slug it out on the debate stage in Milwaukee, Trump will sit down for an interview with far-right commentator Tucker Carlson, which will air at the same time.

Meanwhile, in Georgia, the former president’s co-defendants in the indictment filed by Fulton county prosecutor Fani Willis over their attempt to disrupt the 2020 election spent the day surrendering, including Rudy Giuliani, who turned himself in after posting a $150,000 bail.

The debate kicks off at 9pm eastern time on Fox News, and will feature the following candidates: Florida’s governor Ron DeSantis, former New Jersey governor Chris Christie, South Carolina senator Tim Scott, entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, Trump’s ex-UN ambassador Nikki Haley and his former vice-president Mike Pence, and former Arkansas governor Asa Hutchinson. North Dakota governor Doug Burgum was supposed to be there, but just injured his leg at a baseball game and may not attend.

Follow along here as we cover it live.