Christie Spars with Rubio in Last GOP Debate before New Hampshire Primary

Veronica Neffinger | iBelieve Contributor | Updated: Feb 08, 2016

Christie Spars with Rubio in Last GOP Debate before New Hampshire Primary

The Republican presidential candidates had their last debate before the New Hampshire primary last Saturday night. During the debate, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio is defending what some have called a rocky debate performance.

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, who has often criticized Rubio and other candidates for their inexperience in actual policy-making, went after Rubio in Saturday’s debate.

Rubio repeatedly commented on Barack Obama’s knowledge of where he is leading the country.

"And let's dispel once and for all with this fiction that Barack Obama doesn't know what he's doing,” Rubio said. "He knows exactly what he's doing."

Christie then jumped in while Rubio was repeating this same line, saying that Rubio was just spouting out rehearsed rhetoric and was not actually speaking from experience.

According to CBS News, however, Rubio remained confident in his debate performance.

"I would pay them [Democrats] to keep running that clip because that's what I believe passionately," Rubio said Sunday, in an appearance on ABC's "This Week with George Stephanopoulos." "We raised more money last night in the first hour that debate than any other debate," Rubio added. "As far as that message, I hope they keep running it and I'm going to keep saying because it's true."

Some New Hampshire voters have said Rubio’s performance has caused them to rethink who they will vote for, but others have said that, despite the spat with Christie, Rubio had a strong performance.

The crowd responded to his pro-life comments with cheering. 

Christie and others had said they were pro-life, except in the cases of rape or incest, but Rubio declared:

“On the issue of life, to me, the issue of life is not a political issue. It’s a human rights issue and it’s a difficult issue, because it puts in conflict two competing rights. On the one hand is the right of a woman to choose what to do with her body which is a real right,’ Rubio said. “And on the other hand is the right of an unborn human child to live. And they’re in conflict. And as a policy maker, I must choose which one of these two sides takes precedence. And I have chosen to err on the side of life.”

The New Hampshire primary is set for this Tuesday, February 9.

Publication date: February 9, 2016



Christie Spars with Rubio in Last GOP Debate before New Hampshire Primary