Republican presidential candidates Vivek Ramaswamy and Chris Christie went back and forth Wednesday about former President Donald Trump’s legal issues during the first GOP primary debate.
Christie was explaining why he would not support Trump as the Republican party nominee when Ramaswamy jumped in and defended Trump, who was not present at the debate.(RELATED: Crowd Goes Wild After Ramaswamy Says ‘Climate Change Is A Hoax’)
“This is the great thing about this country, booing is allowed but it doesn’t change the truth,” Christie said as the crowd booed him for criticizing Trump.
“President Trump, I believe, was the best president of the 21st century. It’s a fact. Chris Christie, honest to God, your claim that Donald Trump is motivated by vengeance and grievance would be a lot more credible if your entire campaign were not based on vengeance and grievance against one man,” Ramaswamy responded, causing the crowd to erupt with applause.
“And If people at home want to see a bunch of people blindly bashing Donald Trump without an iota of vision for this country, they can change the channel to MSNBC right now, but I am not running for president of MSNBC. I am running for president of the United States. We’re skating on thin ice and we cannot set a precedent where the party in power uses police force to indict its political opponents. It is wrong. We have to end the weaponization of justice in this country,” Ramaswamy asserted.
“Let me tell you something. You make me laugh because you sit here and answer, you sit here and answer,” Christie interrupted as the crowd booed again.
“In your book, you had much different things to say about Donald Trump than you’re saying here tonight.”
“That is not true,” Ramaswamy shouted.
“It is very true. I read it,” Christie said.
“There’s a difference between bad behavior and illegal behavior, Chris, and you as a prosecutor should know better,” Ramaswamy said.
“I know a lot better than you do. You’ve never done it, like you’ve never done anything to try to advance the interest of this government except to put yourself forward as a candidate tonight. Here’s the thing, we stood up for law and order, I did it as U.S. attorney, I did it as governor and I am not going to bow to anyone when we have a president of the United States who disrespects the Constitution,” Christie shot back.
“You can get your MSNBC contributorship in three months,” Ramaswamy said when the crowd interrupted Christie with boos.
“These are politicized indictments and we have to call out the truth,” Ramaswamy added.
Trump is expected to turn himself in Thursday after he was indicted by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis for allegedly attempting to overturn Georgia’s 2020 election results.