Christie slams Trump for skipping second GOP debate: Voters ‘have a right to hear from him’

Ex-New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie slammed former President Donald Trump for skipping the second Republican presidential primary debate.

In an appearance on Fox News, Christie painted the move as being meant to avoid speaking to voters, comparing the move to President Joe Biden’s 2020 presidential campaign, when he spent much of it out of the public eye. The former New Jersey governor vowed to track Trump down himself.

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“I said I was gonna give him two debates to show up. So he’s not going to show up at debate number two. So after debate number two, we’re going to have to go find him, I guess,” Christie said.

“No, look, we’ve got Joe Biden, who campaigned all these years ago in a basement. We now have Donald Trump who’s hiding behind the walls of his golf clubs and only going into very controlled circumstances where, you know, he doesn’t get to be asked questions by voters. I mean, I think this is incredibly disrespectful to voters. They have a right to hear from him about his record when he was president, about what his plans are if he were to be the nominee again, and he just is ignoring it,” he added.

When host Neil Cavuto asked what he would tell Trump if he found him, Christie said he would keep it private so as not to reveal his plan to Trump.

“It’s disrespectful for him not to, and quite frankly, it’s cowardly,” he continued, referring to Trump’s decision to skip the debate. “He doesn’t want to be on there because he doesn’t want to defend some of the things he’s done and said.”

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Christie then claimed that one of the central things Trump was afraid to address was “accepting Vladimir Putin’s endorsement.”

Christie appeared to be referring to Russian President Vladimir Putin condemning the several indictments of Trump, saying that it was a political move that exposes “the rottenness of the American political system.” Putin did not endorse or comment on Trump himself in the remarks.