Former President Donald Trump was scheduled for a sit-down interview this week with CNBC “Squawk Box” co-host Joe Kernen, but he’s since canceled the appearance.
Kernen, who’s often defended the former president, announced the development on-air Tuesday.
“Well, Trump canceled and he was going to come on,” he said with a touch of indignation. Kernen added that he’d told Trump aides that Trump’s appearance could be a way to one-up Vice President Kamala Harris, who didn’t accept Kernen’s invite.
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Then he mused that Harris now has a chance to flip the script.
“I didn’t talk to [Trump] personally — but I said we’ve offered the vice president and she’s not coming on, but now he’s canceled,” he explained. “So now she could come on and we could say we offered it to the Trump camp, but they’re not.”
A Trump spokesperson told CNN he canceled due to a scheduling conflict.
That’s the second time Trump has backpedaled on a previously scheduled interview with a major outlet this month.
CBS News’ “60 Minutes” planned to have Trump on earlier this month, but the Republican presidential nominee “decided not to participate,” the program said, despite having initially agreed to an interview.
In a furious rant, Trump instead called the century-old network “A THREAT TO DEMOCRACY” and demanded it lose its broadcast license.
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Harris, meanwhile, has embarked on a media blitz with recent interviews on “60 Minutes,” “The View,” and “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.”
She also sat for a live interview on “The Howard Stern Show” and appeared on “Call Her Daddy,” a popular podcast, with a possible appearance on “The Joe Rogan Experience” being discussed.
And on Wednesday, Harris is expected to sit for an interview with Fox News’ Bret Baier ― a development that Trump sure seems mad about.