(Ezekiel Loseke, Headline USA) Former White House foreign policy advisor Peter Navarro challenged Republican presidential candidate Chris Christie to a wrestling match–debate hybrid on Thursday after Christie called former President Donald Trump a coward.
“Donny, you got so much to say, why don’t you say it directly to my face on the debate stage?” Christie wrote.
Donald Trump, the king of keyboard warriors.
Donny, you got so much to say, why don’t you say it directly to my face on the debate stage?
Or are you a coward? pic.twitter.com/UVPcTh1Yi3
— Chris Christie (@GovChristie) July 12, 2023
Christie, once a Trump ally himself who led the former president’s first White House transition team, soured on Trump after he was passed over for the attorney general post.
The one-time New Jersey governor has since become an outspoken Trump attack dog, routinely making appearances on leftist cable networks to lodge stink bombs at the current GOP frontrunner.
However, Trump’s team was not about to take the latest attack lying down, with Navarro invoking Val Kilmer’s Doc Holliday from the 1993 film Tombstone to offer himself as an alternative sparring partner.
Ok. Enough from @govchrischristie. I'll be your huckleberry. I challenge your fat ass and loud mouth to a presidential debate on the network of your choice — @foxnews, @cnn, @abc, @msnbc WTF rules. Oops, I mean WWF rules. @elonmusk and @OwnerFacebook can be the undercard.
— Peter Navarro (@RealPNavarro) July 13, 2023
“I challenge your fat ass and loud mouth to a presidential debate on the network of your choice,” Navarro told the heavyset RINO before making reference to another supposed cage match between tech billionaires Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg.
Several Twitter users followed Navarro’s lead, poking fun at Christie’s girth and questioning his ability to fight.
Are you available for a debate at the Golden Corral?
— Bikkerboy416 (@bikkerboy416) July 13, 2023
You are jumping weight class here Peter so just keep moving and don't let him sit on you. You'll be fine!
— Steve Johnson (@SteveJohns12554) July 13, 2023
He doesn't have the guts…. Well he has the gut, but not the courage
— The Himer (@_jhimes) July 13, 2023
One user suggested an alternative competition befitting Christie’s unique strengths, perhaps referring to Christie’s hot dog bill of over $80,000 in 2015.
You'd have better luck challenging him to an all you can eat hot dogs contest
— Scott (@Allvol69) July 13, 2023
Of course, in 2023, someone had to play the role of the schoolmarm and ruin the fun.
The grownups left the room a long time ago
— cycle2017🇺🇸🇺🇦 (@lahansen12) July 13, 2023
Licking his wounds, while attempting to get back on message by further goading Trump instead of engaging his surrogates, Christie, 60, told Piers Morgan that he was confident he could beat the 77-year-old ex-president in a UFC-style cage match, the New York Post reported.
“Talking of fighting, if you and Trump got in the ring—he loves his UFC and stuff like that, right?—if you got in the octagon, you and him, who would win?” Morgan asked.
“Come on,” Christie replied. “Guy is 78 years old [sic]. I’d kick his ass.”
Christie is currently polling in seventh place but said he had met the donor requirements to participate in an Aug. 23 debate sponsored by the Republican National Committee.
“I’ll fight Donald Trump anywhere he wants, in any arena he wants—whether it’s on a debate stage, or in the octagon,” Christie said.
Trump, who has a considerable lead over the other candidates, is not expected to participate in the first RNC debate, citing the hostile attitudes of the two Fox News moderators and a lack of incentive.
“When you’re leading by seemingly insurmountable numbers, and you have hostile Networks with angry, TRUMP & MAGA hating anchors asking the “questions,” why subject yourself to being libeled and abused?” he asked in an April Truth Social post.
