Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie unloaded on his 2024 rivals and the moderators of Wednesday night's GOP presidential debate, likening Donald Trump to "Harry Potter" villain Lord Voldemort while calling out his competitors for refusing to name the former president. The ex-governor, who waited more than 15 minutes to get a chance to speak, criticized the panelists and the moderators for being too soft on Trump, according to The Daily Beast. “It’s often very difficult to be the only person on the stage who’s telling the truth, and the only person who’s taking on [Trump],” Christie said, shaming his competitors for “acting as if the race is between the four of us.”
Christie, who previously told The Daily Beast he had no intention of dropping out of the race to make room for an anti-Trump challenger, went on to scold the moderators for not asking about the former president for the first 17 minutes of the debate, referring to him at "Voldemort," the evil fictional character "who shall not be named." He implied the rest of the field is "timid" when it comes to criticizing Trump, “maybe because they have aspirations, maybe those future aspirations are now, maybe they’re four years from now,” referring to a potential second Trump administration and the 2028 election. Christie also threw jabs at Trump directly, repeatedly calling him "unfit" to serve as president. Later on in the night, Christie shouted at Vivek Ramaswamy in a fiery exchange, torching the entrepreneur for repeatedly interrupting others and blasting him for insults he flung at fellow candidate Nikki Haley, The Hill reports. “This is the fourth debate that you would be voted in the first 20 minutes as the most obnoxious blowhard in America. So shut up for a little while,” Christie told Ramaswamy.
“We’re 17 minutes into this debate and … we’ve had these three acting as if this race is between the four of us.”
— The Recount (@therecount) December 7, 2023
— Chris Christie calls out his opponents for failing to address “he who shall not be named, Voldemort” pic.twitter.com/UzVVUIHsIC
