Candidates Try To Punch Up In Undercard Debate

“I’ve done it twice as governor of New Jersey”. The time has come to cut the number of candidates down to a workable number.

“I would rank their overall debating skills as: Christie, Jindal, Santorum and Huckabee”, Bystrom said. Christie spoke for roughly 14 minutes total. Former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina was able to use her position in the first undercard debate to catapult herself into the top-tier of candidates, and a few hoped Christie might be able to bounce back. He was asked about unemployment and taxes.

“I think [Jindal has] been a wonderful governor… and I respect him for what he’s done, and I think all of us deserve that same level of respect”, he said.

Chris Christie immediately established a strong presence in the undercard Republican presidential debate Wednesday by blasting Democratic front-runner Hillary Rodham Clinton for what he described as a big-government economic agenda. “Nothing is free”, Christie said.

The tax code would be easier to understand under his plan Christie insisted.

“It doesn’t matter the stage, give me a real podium and I’ll be there to talk about real issues like this”, Christie tweeted prior to the showdown.

The Louisiana governor, however, directed most of his fire at Christie. He said nothing is for free. But I am not running against him.

“I think this is why so many people were frustrated from the last debate – with these silly questions”.

“When Secretary Clinton says there’s no crisis at the VA, that sends a hard message to veterans that she doesn’t get it and she doesn’t respect their service”, he said. “Because they’re not willing to back down”.

“Hillary Clinton’s coming for your wallet everybody”.

Bobby Jindal, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee and former Pennsylvania Sen. “Let’s elect a conservative”, he said, latter adding that a “big-government Republican”, would be just as bad as Mrs. Clinton, apparently referring to Mr. Christie. It was impossible to tell how much of his response was a joke and how much he might have actually meant. “But “liberal” is not one of them”.

It wasn’t quite CNBC, but all four Republicans were dismissive of a Fox Business Network moderator’s question about which Democrat in Congress they most admire.

In his closing statement, Christie doubled down on bashing Democrats and giving Republicans a pass.

“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.