On Wednesday night, eight Republican presidential candidates gathered in Milwaukee for the first GOP primary debate.
There was a lot on the line for each of them. But there was also an enormous amount at stake for the news organization that hosted the debate: Fox News.
Consider the cross currents that the two Fox moderators, Martha McCallum and Bret Baier, had to deal with:
First there was Trump, who refused to participate and lashed out at Fox and its talent, including Baier, on social media.
Then there was Tucker Carlson, McCallum and Baier’s former star colleague who is in messy litigation with the network, and who nabbed Trump for himself and counter-programmed the evening with an interview that aired simultaneously with the Fox debate.
Then there was Rupert Murdoch hovering in the background. In the days before the debate there were new reports that the man who runs Fox, MacCallum and Baier’s boss, has his own strong feelings about who the GOP nominee should be.
If that isn’t enough, on the eve of the debate, several candidates who didn’t qualify to be on stage threatened to sue.
Add to that the challenges of being the ones asking the uncomfortable questions in that arena on Wednesday. The candidates are primed to pounce on you if it serves their political interests. The boisterous crowd of partisans could turn on you at any moment.
So what was it like behind the scenes at the Fox News debate? How did the hosts prepare, including for a possible last-minute appearance by Trump? What did they think of the highly caffeinated Mike Pence interrupting them at every turn? What was the deal with DeSantis and Christie during that one hand-raising moment? And whose idea was that UFO question, anyway?
On this episode of Playbook Deep Dive, host and Playbook co-author Ryan Lizza asks Martha and Bret those questions and a lot more as they bring us inside what is perhaps the most important event of the GOP primary so far.
Ryan Lizza is a Playbook co-author for POLITICO.
Martha MacCallum is the anchor and executive editor of "The Story with Martha MacCallum" on Fox News Channel.
Bret Baier is the Fox News Channel's anchor and executive editor of "Special Report with Bret Baier" and chief political anchor of the network.
Kara Tabor is a producer for POLITICO audio.
Alex Keeney is a senior producer for POLITICO audio.
How Trump and Biden could blow it in 2024
The most unlikely ingredient to a successful career in Washington
How Hunter Biden, Jack Smith, and Trump’s legal troubles are setting the stage for 2024
Why James Lankford expects a border breakthrough
Steve Scalise reveals what’s really happened since McCarthy’s fall
Why the era of the ‘Emerging Democratic Majority’ is collapsing
Why US politics has become must-see TV abroad
Why Democrats keep stubbing their toes on the working class vote
The GOP’s new strategy to win on abortion
How GOP moderates have Jim Jordan pinned
Biden deputy national security adviser lifts the fog of war in Israel
How to fight a president, please a billionaire, and save a newspaper
How the UAW strike swallowed Biden, Trump, and the 2024 campaign
Katherine Clark names the Democrats’ price to save Kevin McCarthy
Who’s really in charge? McCarthy, moderates, or the Freedom Caucus?
Revelations about Biden’s White House from the first inside account
How Doug Burgum plans to disrupt the GOP debate & scale his campaign
How to beat Trump in Iowa – and survive the state fair
What American leaders don't get about the new Europe
Create your
podcast in
minutes
It is Free
Tiny Desk Concerts - Video
The Axe Files with David Axelrod
Left, Right & Center
The Jason Stapleton Program
Podcast for America