Donald Trump skipped the debate stage typically relished by presidential candidates on Wednesday and instead appeared in an online interview peppered with his election lies, attacks on his rivals and lavish praise for the crowd of supporters he spoke to before they stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

Trump, who has repeatedly brushed aside democratic norms and embraced the inflammatory throughout his political career, said he was sitting out the first Republican presidential debate in Milwaukee because his poll numbers showed him far ahead of his rivals.

Instead, he used a pre-recorded interview with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson to make his case that everyone but him is irrelevant.

In the most inflammatory exchange, Trump seemed to indulge a suggestion from Carlson that Trump’s political opponents might try to end his life.

“They are savage animals. They are people that are sick. Really sick. You have great people in the Democrat Party, great people that are Democrats,” Trump said. “But I’ve seen what they do, I’ve seen the lengths that they go to.”