Even with out former President Donald Trump being on the controversy stage Wednesday night time, the frontrunner was nonetheless very current within the minds of his Republican rivals.
Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who has been essentially the most vocal critic of the previous president, slammed his fellow candidates for not calling Mr. Trump out by title, saying he isn’t Voldemort or “he-who-shall-not-be-named,” referring to the antagonist within the Harry Potter sequence.
“He is unfit. This is a guy who just said this past week that he wants to use the Department of Justice to go after his enemies when he gets in there,” Mr. Christie mentioned on the debate in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, hosted by NewsNation. “And the fact of the matter is, he is unfit to be president, and there is no bigger issue in this race … than Donald Trump.”
Mr. Christie attacked Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who wouldn’t outright say if he thought Mr. Trump was unfit for one more time period as president.
Mr. DeSantis did criticize Mr. Trump for not utilizing his govt powers to fireside Dr. Anthony Fauci and FBI Director Christopher Wray throughout his time period as president. He additionally mentioned the previous president didn’t deport as many unlawful immigrants as he mentioned he was going to.
“Some of these policies he ran on in ’16, I was cheering him on then, but he didn’t deliver it,” he mentioned.
He additionally made a remark concerning the age of Mr. Trump, 77.
“I don’t think he’s as bad as Biden was at all,” he mentioned. “But I do think that over a four-year period, it is not a job for somebody that’s pushing 80. We need somebody that’s younger, we need somebody that’s going to be able to go in there and clean house on Day One, and do it for two terms.”
Entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy has been a constant cheerleader for the previous president. He criticized his fellow candidates on stage for “licking Donald Trump’s boots for years for money and endorsements.”
He additionally mentioned he doesn’t suppose that Mr. Trump is “the real enemy.”
“It’s not even Joe Biden,” he mentioned. “It is the deep state that at least Donald Trump attempted to take on.”
Former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley hit Mr. Trump on the way in which he dealt with relations with China.
“This is where Trump went wrong,” she mentioned about his relationship with China. “Trump was good on trade. But that’s all he was with China because here he allowed fentanyl to continue to come over. He would give them technology that would build up their military and hurt us.”
“He allowed the Chinese infiltration for them to buy up farmland to put money in our universities and to continue to do things that were harmful for America,” she continued. “We now have a spy base in Cuba and police stations. And Trump didn’t do anything about it.”
She additionally criticized him for the way a lot he added to the nation’s debt.
“As much as everybody wants to talk about how Donald Trump had a good economy — $9 trillion in debt he did just in four years and we’re all paying the price of that including those mortgage prices,” she mentioned.
Mr. Trump has certified for all 4 GOP debates however has not attended any. On Tuesday, he attended a city corridor in Iowa hosted by Fox News host Sean Hannity.
