Trump Could Have Efficiently Prevented Dealing with Chris Christie On A Debate Stage

With Wednesday evening’s Republican Nationwide Committee debate doubtlessly the final one of many 2024 main season, the criminally charged former president might have notched one key victory: avoiding getting filleted onstage by Chris Christie.

The previous New Jersey governor created probably the most memorable second of the 2016 Republican main debates when he humiliated Florida Sen. Marco Rubio on a New Hampshire debate stage, and he had promised he would do the identical to Trump.

However Donald Trump skipped all 4 of the contests with out struggling within the polls, and the RNC has no present plans for a fifth debate ― that means Christie may by no means get the possibility to confront Trump about his Jan. 6 coup try, his failure to construct a wall alongside the southern border and even his option to knowingly infect Christie and others with COVID in late 2020.

Trump’s marketing campaign workers didn’t reply to HuffPost queries. Prime aide Chris LaCivita had beforehand advised HuffPost that Trump doesn’t spend any time in any respect worrying about Christie.

Christie has for months been arguing that Trump fears a face-to-face encounter with him.

“Obviously, he’s afraid. He’s afraid to get on the stage against people who are serious,” Christie stated in a Could radio interview with conservative host Hugh Hewitt.

A failure to host any additional debates would break from the RNC’s sample in 2016, when it held a complete of 12, with seven happening within the first three months of 2016 to coincide with voting within the early primaries and caucuses.

“Democracy demands transparency and accountability. Trump has avoided both, but not without the help of the GOP,” stated Jennifer Horn, a former chair of the New Hampshire state Republican Get together, who blamed RNC chair Ronna McDaniel for tacitly serving to Trump.

“While avoiding the debate stage, where he could be confronted about his past crimes and dictatorial plans for the future, he’s been campaigning on a message of authoritarianism and the destruction of the Constitution. All the while, Ronna is out there expressing the support of the party for him, regardless,” Horn stated.

An aide to McDaniel didn’t reply to HuffPost queries. However Henry Barbour, an RNC member from Mississippi, stated if the RNC doesn’t host debates earlier than the Iowa caucuses and New Hampshire main in January, others actually would.

“I think there is zero chance there won’t be more debates in January and February. The nomination is too important for that to happen,” he stated.

In 2016, Rubio had been hoping to enhance on his third-place Iowa end within the New Hampshire main. Within the Feb. 6, 2016, debate, although, Christie brutally mocked him for repeating a memorized line about President Barack Obama eager to weaken the US.

“There it is. There it is. The memorized 25-second speech. There it is, everybody,” Christie stated after Rubio repeated the road about Obama a 3rd time in only a minute.

Rubio as a substitute completed fifth in New Hampshire. Christie dropped out of the race the day after the first and endorsed Trump two weeks later, turning into Trump’s highest-profile supporter.

Christie continued backing Trump by way of his 4 years in workplace ― however then turned on him for mendacity in regards to the 2020 election after which making an attempt to overturn the end result to stay in workplace regardless of having misplaced.

Not one of the moderators of the earlier three debates has spent a lot time asking about Trump, who, regardless of dealing with 91 felony prices and a long time in jail if convicted, has been the polling because the front-runner all yr lengthy.

But even when introduced the chance to criticize Trump, the others on stage largely demurred. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ largest beef with Trump was apparently his determination to skip the debates. Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley’s harshest criticism involved the trillions of {dollars} added to the nationwide debt throughout Trump’s 4 years within the Oval Workplace.

Ohio businessman Vivek Ramaswamy, for his half, refused to criticize Trump in any respect, and as a substitute repeatedly praised him and declared him the very best president of the 21 century.

Even Christie, who made certain to ask for small-dollar donations throughout tv appearances particularly as a result of they might permit him to confront Trump on stage, didn’t dwell on Trump when he had the possibility.

Whereas he did say that Trump’s habits main as much as and on Jan. 6, 2021, disqualified him from the presidency, he additionally wove in a separate argument that his felony prosecutions made him unelectable in a basic election.

“Whether or not you believe that the criminal charges are right or wrong, the conduct is beneath the office of president of the United States,” Christie stated in the course of the first debate in Milwaukee to a refrain of boos.

In the course of the second debate on the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Southern California, Christie seemingly diminished the seriousness of his criticism by arguing that Trump’s “ducking” of the debates had earned him the identify “Donald Duck.”

By no means as soon as did he broach the story ― which he has recounted in media interviews and city halls ― of Trump’s determination to attend a debate prep session in September 2020, hours after testing optimistic for COVID. Trump didn’t inform Christie or anybody else within the room of the check end result, and all however one wound up contracting the illness, with Christie ending up near demise in intensive care.

Wednesday evening’s debate will happen in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, and might be carried stay on Information Nation, a brand new cable channel, beginning at 7 p.m. Central time. Additionally on stage might be DeSantis, Haley and Ramaswamy, with different candidates having dropped out or failing to fulfill the polling and fundraising standards.