Republican debate: did Chris Christie just declare war on China?

“We need a conservative, not a big government Republican”, said Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, perhaps the most aggressive participant in the so-called “happy hour” debate held at a theater in downtown Milwaukee.

Christie shined again when he responded by complimenting Jindal on his work and defending his own record by pointing out that he’s been re-elected as an anti-abortion governor in a blue state. According to Christie, it was because he didn’t view himself as running against Jindal, but running against Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton.

Huckabee and Christie were both dismissed from the main debate stage after not reaching the 2.5% threshold in national polls.

A separate survey released Tuesday delivered a more targeted blow to Christie: Quinnipiac University found that 61 percent of voters in New Jersey thought he should drop out, CNN reported.

Notable by his absence was SC Sen.

Michael DuHaime, Christie’s senior strategist, spoke to Yahoo News in the spin room following the debate. “I don’t”, Huckabee said.

The so-called “undercard debate” sponsored by Fox Business News, featured Christie, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, former Pennsylvania U.S. Sen. They care about who’s going to beat Hillary Clinton and who’s going to keep their eye on the ball.

“Christie has the traditionally recognized best debating skills – he looks directly at the camera; he is usually succinct, he uses the phrase ‘When I am your president;’ and he attacked Hillary Clinton, as the presumed Democratic nominee, a lot”, Bystrom observed.

“In a world where we have Al Qaeda and ISIS, the mullahs in Iran and Vladimir Putin, the woman who asks to run and represent all of United States says that her greatest enemies are people like you in this audience and us here”, he said.

Christie shrugged off attacks from Jindal that he was insufficiently conservative and argued that Clinton “is the real adversary tonight and we better stay focused as Republicans on her”.

“It’s not me playing a third-grade teacher and saying, ‘OK, you have to wrap up now, ‘” she said.

Huckabee said that if we can’t “feed ourselves, fuel ourselves and fight for ourselves”, there is no freedom.

While Carly Fiorina used the preliminary forum at the first debate in Cleveland on August 6 as a springboard to qualify for later prime-time debates, candidates in the past two undercards have failed to gain any traction in the race from their performances. “If politicians say they’re going to be conservative, say they’re going to cut spending, but they don’t do it, why should we send them to D.C.?” “I admire your social views, share the views, your records as governor tells a different story”, Jindal said.

Christie also made an appeal to law enforcement officers, saying he would support them more than President Obama had in the roiling debate over police shootings and police brutality. “It’s about actually cutting government spending, not just talking about cutting government spending”.