New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie continued to keep his focus on Hillary Clinton amid barbs from Gov. Bobby Jindal and others during the GOP undercard debate Tuesday.
After Jindal leveled attacks on virtually the entire GOP field for not cutting government, Christie batted those claims away and trained his fire on Clinton, who he said is “coming for your wallet.”
“To the people out there, I want to guarantee you one thing real clearly — if you think that Mike Huckabee won’t be the kind of president who will cut back spending, Chris Christie, or John Kasich, wait until you see what Hillary Clinton will do to this country, and how she will drown us in debt,” Christie said as the crowd roared. “She is the real adversary tonight, and we better stay focused, as Republicans, on her.”
“The bottom line is believe me, Hillary Clinton is coming for your wallet everybody,” Christie said later in the exchange. “Don’t worry about Huckabee or Jindal. Worry about her.”
Christie was specifically responding to Jindal, who said there is not much difference between many in the two parties, adding that the GOP loses in national elections because they “try to be cheaper versions” of Democrats.
“There’s not much between [Republicans and Democrats]. The reason we keep losing is we try to be cheaper versions of the Democratic Party. What if the Republicans actually embraced our own principles?” Jindal asked. “Here’s the dirty little secret: You’re going to hear a lot of Republicans tonight in this debate and the next one talking about cutting government spending, it’s going to sound great. There’s only one of us that cut government spending.”
Jindal went on to blast senators in the race for giving long “speeches” in the Senate and the other governors in the race — saying he’s the only one running who has actually cut spending in their own state.
“Everybody else can talk about it. If they haven’t done it in their state capitols, what makes us think they’ll do it if we send them to D.C.?” Jindal said. “When politicians talk, we need to look at what they have done, not what they have said. Otherwise it’s a bunch of hot air … If Republicans want to win national elections, let’s be conservatives. Let’s be Republicans. Let’s not be a second versions of the liberal party.”
Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee went on to hit back at Jindal, telling him that it’s “just not accurate to say” that he’s only one that has cut government, a fact Jindal disputed, but only before Christie jumped in to pan the whole conversation and hit Clinton.
