A former GOP Senate candidate — who filmed himself setting his MAGA hat on fire — says he'll donate $1 million to charity if Trump goes on a live debate with him in Arizona
- Former President Donald Trump was challenged to a debate by the Arizona businessman Daniel McCarthy.
- McCarthy blasted Trump and said he would donate $1 million to charity if Trump accepts his offer.
An Arizona businessman who ran for US Senate in 2020 — and who recently torched his "Make America Great Again" hat using a flamethrower — has challenged former President Donald Trump to a live debate at the latter's upcoming rally and offered to donate $1 million to charity if Trump accepts.
Daniel McCarthy, who ran for Arizona's Republican Senate nomination in 2020 but lost to former Sen. Martha McSally, tweeted a strongly worded video message for Trump on Wednesday.
"Hey, Donald Trump. This is Daniel McCarthy in Arizona. The world is waking up to your massive grift," McCarthy said while seated in the cab of a truck. "Please stop with the smoke and mirrors and with these audits.
"Stop with your fundraising, stop establishment-candidate endorsements," McCarthy continued. "Stop pushing this gene therapy, the sauce." It's not immediately clear what McCarthy was referring to.
He noted that Trump would be arriving in Arizona on January 15 for "another one of your do-nothing, rah-rah-session rallies" and suggested that Trump take 30 minutes of stage time to debate McCarthy or answer his questions in front of the former president's supporters.
The businessman, who, according to his biography, works in skin care and real estate, pledged that if the former president accepts, he can choose from six charities listed on his website to donate $1 million. The charities include a mobile anti-abortion "crisis pregnancy" center, a gun-rights lobbying group, and a legal defense fund for the "QAnon Shaman" Jacob Chansley.
Trump announced on Tuesday that he would be delivering public remarks at the Arizona rally after canceling a news conference at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida that had been scheduled for the anniversary of the Capitol riot.
In the video, McCarthy proceeded to verbally attack Trump's presidency. "Think about all the things you've done that you've not been held accountable for," he said.
"You ushered in medical tyranny. You exploded our national debt. You relinquished our sovereignty with the USMCA trade deal. You passed more gun laws than Obama did with Fix NICS," McCarthy continued, referring to Trump's 2018 signing of the US-Mexico-Canada trade agreement and a 2017 gun law.
McCarthy also said he believes he lost the 2020 Arizona GOP primary because it was "stolen."
He said Trump had failed to prevent election fraud — Trump's false claim that the presidential election was stolen from him — even though McCarthy said his team "months in advance warned you that we were stolen from in the Senate primary."
McCarthy went on to blast Trump further, saying that the former president surrounded himself with "swamp creatures for four years" and that he had set up his "most loyal supporters" — those detained in connection with the Capitol attack on January 6, 2021.
"I look forward to seeing you on January 15," McCarthy said, "Although I know you won't do it because you're a little bitch."
McCarthy is then shown exiting his truck and using a flamethrower to torch a MAGA hat.
McCarthy and Trump did not immediately respond to Insider's requests for comment.