Christie Grouses About Getting Passed Over for First 15 Minutes of Debate: ‘I’m Usually Not Somebody Who Gets Missed’

Republican presidential candidate Chris Christie complained about getting passed over for the first 15 minutes of NewsNation’s Republican primary debate on Wednesday after everyone present appeared to forget that he was there.

More than 10 minutes into the debate, and following a lengthy spat between Nikki Haley, Vivek Ramaswamy, and Ron DeSantis, Christie had yet to get a word in.

“I’ve got to get to Governor Christie. I haven’t forgotten about you, sir,” remarked Kelly, to which Christie replied, “Thank you, I’d really appreciate that. Good to see you.”

While it appeared that Kelly was about to ask Christie his first question, she instead asked Haley to respond to criticism from Ramaswamy and DeSantis about her pledge to crack down on social media anonymity.

It would be another two minutes before Christie was finally able to speak.

“This section’s over,” declared Kelly as Ramaswamy and Haley continued their verbal brawl. “Ok, Governor Christie.”

“Really? I’m usually not somebody who gets missed, but okay, let’s go,” Christie quipped.

Kelly continued:

Ok, I got you. Listen, you endorsed Donald Trump in 2016 and 2020. You gave him an A for his first term. Since then, however, you’ve turned on him, calling him a liar, a loser, a conman, and someone who cannot win. You’ve even said that you got into this race just to stop President Trump. His approval rating with Republicans is currently at 81%. Yours is at 25. Your best state is New Hampshire and, even there, two-thirds of GOP voters say they would be angry and disappointed if you won. Respectfully, governor, you have not stopped Mr. Trump, and voters may wonder how you could possibly become the nominee of a party that does not appear to like you very much.

Christie responded:

Well look, Megyn, it’s often very difficult to be the only person on stage who is telling the truth and the only person who is taking on what needs to be taken on. I look at my watch now, we’re 17 minutes into this debate, and except for your little speech in the beginning, we’ve had these three acting as if the race is between the four of us. The fifth guy who doesn’t have the guts to show up and stand here, he’s the one who, as you just put it, is way ahead in the polls, and yet I’ve got these three guys who are all seemingly to compete with, you know, Voldemort. He who shall not be named. They don’t want to talk about it.

The fact is that when you go and you say the truth about somebody who is a dictator, a bully, who has taken shots at everybody, whether they have given great service or not over time, who dares to disagree with him, then I understand why these three are timid to say anything about it.

He concluded, “Maybe it’s because they have future aspirations. Maybe those future aspirations are now or maybe they’re four years from now, but the fact of the matter is the truth needs to be told, and for us to go 17 minutes without discussing the guy who has all those gaudy numbers you talked about is ridiculous.”

Watch above via NewsNation.