First Republican debate LIVE updates: GOP candidates take the stage at 9pm – with Trump’s interview with Tucker Carlson set to air at same time

Rep. Mike Waltz says he’s open to other candidates getting in office to build on former President Donald Trump’s policies.

A surrogate for Trump, the former Green Beret is in Milwaukee cheerleading for the absent former president, and said foreign policy will be a key factor in the debate and 2024 election.

‘One, I want to hear what they’re going to do about the greatest threat that this country has ever faced, which is the Chinese Communist Party,’ he told DailyMail.com on Wednesday. ‘I think the bottom line is the next president very conceivably could be a wartime president. God help us if it’s Joe Biden.’

‘Obviously I want President Trump to be there to build on his policies,’ the Florida congressman said. ‘But if the other candidates are going to make the case that it’s going to be them, I want to hear how they’re going to do that economically.’

President Joe Biden’s presidential campaign ripped Donald Trump’s ‘softball’ interview with Tucker Carlson before it aired Wednesday.

‘In his softball ‘interview’ posting tonight, Donald Trump will again make clear that he’s running on the same extreme and deeply unpopular MAGA agenda the American people have rejected time and time again,’ Biden’s campaign spokesman Kevin Munoz said.

‘Instead of explaining his broken promises to Wisconsin… we’ll likely hear him double down on his most out-of-touch positions, including his support for wild, debunked conspiracy theories.’

The statement came after Carlson tweeted out a ‘debate night’ image of himself and Trump at the ex-President’s private Bedminster, New Jersey club.

Munoz also said, ‘That same extreme and unpopular agenda will be on display in Milwaukee later tonight by MAGA Republican candidates doing their best impressions of Donald Trump. The American people rejected these extreme ideas in 2018, 2020, and 2022 – and they will again in November 2024.’

Tucker Carlson released a highlight video of his upcoming interview with Donald Trump meant to run as counterprogramming to the first Republican debate on Wednesday evening.

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The debate kicks-off at 9:00 p.m. ET, but Trump’s pre-recorded interview will start five minutes before that at 8:55 p.m.

The clip shared to the social media site now known as X shows Carlson opening with questioning why Trump decided to skip the debate with eight other Republican candidates.

The former President has repeatedly said debating these low-polling candidates is beneath him.

In the video, Trump tells the former Fox News host that their interview through a forum called Tucker on X will probably get ‘bigger ratings’ than the debate.

GOP hopeful Vivek Ramaswamy, 38, cheekily told DailyMail.com ‘I’ll consider it’ when asked Tuesday if he planned to rap on the debate stage.

The biotech entrepreneur has been rising in the polls – leapfrogging Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis in several surveys – and likely needs a breakout moment at Wednesday night’s GOP debate to keep the momentum going.

And the one talent he’s previously deployed to make a statement has been his rapping skills.

Earlier this month at the Iowa State Fair, Ramaswamy ended an early morning event with Iowa’s Gov. Kim Reynolds by performing a rendition of Eminem’s Lose Yourself.

While a student at Harvard, the now presidential contender had a side-hustle as a libertarian-minded rap artist who went by the stage name ‘Da Vek.’

Gov. Doug Burgum showed up for a debate venue walk-through on Wednesday on crutches after suffering an injury during a pick-up game of basketball with his campaign staff.

The 2024 hopeful’s plans were up in the air after he was rushed to a Milwaukee-area emergency room on Tuesday.

Burgum, a wealthy former software executive, showed up to Fiserv Forum arena a few hours before the debate on crutches.

He posted to Twitter, now known as X, an image in a boot and on crutches at the debate venue with the caption: ‘I’m in.’

Joe Biden, after Pilates and spin classes on Wednesday, said he would watch the Republican primary debate Wednesday night – even though frontrunner Donald Trump opted to skip the event.

The President joked he had no expectations from the first formal gathering of Republicans attempting to defeat him in next year’s election.

‘I’m going to try to see — get as much as I can, yes,’ he told reporters earlier on Wednesday.

Asked what his expectations were, Biden smiled broadly and laughed: ‘I have none.’

Biden speaks to reporters while holding a blueberry smoothie after Pilates and spin classes on Wednesday in Tahoe, California. The President said he will watch the GOP debate