The crowd audibly booed Republican presidential candidate Chris Christie as he tried to nickname former President Donald Trump at Wednesday’s primary debate.
Christie looked straight into the camera and threatened to begin nicknaming Trump “Donald Duck.”
“And I want to look at that camera right now and tell you, Donald, I know you’re watching,” Christie said. “You can’t help yourself. I know you’re watching. Okay? And you’re not here tonight, not because of polls and not because of your indictments. You’re not here tonight because you’re afraid of being on this stage and defending your record. You’re ducking these things and let me tell you what’s gonna happen. You keep doing that, no one up here is gonna call you Donald Trump anymore, we’re gonna call you Donald Duck.”
The audience did not take too kindly to the nickname by booing Christie. (RELATED: ‘Booing Is Allowed’: Chris Christie Says As Crowd Gets Hostile)
Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis also criticized Trump for not being on the debate stage.
“You know who else is missing in action? Donald Trump is missing in action. He should be on this stage tonight. He owes it to you to defend his record where they added $7.8 trillion to the debt, that set the stage for the inflation that we have,” DeSantis said at the start of the debate.
Christie is trailing behind Trump and several other candidate with under 3% favorability, according to FiveThirtyEight. Trump has continued to be the frontrunner of the race with 54% of support.