Republican presidential candidate Chris Christie was met with boos and yells as he walked on stage at the Florida Republican Party’s Freedom Summit on Saturday.
“Now look, every one of those boos, every one of those cat calls, every one of those yells will not solve one problem we face in this country,” Mr. Christie said. “And will not make this country better. Your anger against the truth is reprehensible.”
The former New Jersey governor told the crowd mostly filled with supporters of former President Donald Trump that their actions were “petty.”
“When you think about the problems that our country and this world is facing, when you think about that, this type of pettiness is beneath the process of electing a president,” he said.
To get the attendees to listen to him he said, “If your arguments are so strong, if your arguments are so great, and mine are so bad then just keep quiet.”
“Let me make my awful arguments and then you can just reject them out of hand,” he said.
He told the audience that they “fear the truth.”
“The problem is you want to shout down any voice that says anything different than what you want to hear,” he said. “And you can continue to do it. And believe me, it doesn’t bother me one bit.”
Mr. Christie said the “atrocities that are going on in Israel” are what they should be talking about and where they should be putting their anger.
“We should make sure that every candidate running for president makes it very clear to every American and every citizen of the world, the United States will stand undivided with the state of Israel and we will defeat terrorists all around the world,” he said.
Several GOP presidential candidates are on the lineup for the summit in Kissimmee, including Mr. Trump, Mr. Christie, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina, North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum and former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson.
• Mallory Wilson can be reached at mwilson@washingtontimes.com.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.