Republican presidential candidates on Wednesday disagreed over whether they would support Donald Trump for president if he is found guilty in any of his felony cases.
At the first 2024 Republican presidential primary debate, moderator Bret Baier asked the candidates to raise their hands if they would support Trump if he wins the nomination and is found guilty on any of 91 counts.
All the candidates except Chris Christie and Asa Hutchinson said they would vote for Trump despite a guilty verdict.
POLL: Should Trump be allowed to run for office?
"Look, here's the bottom line," Christie offered. "People's got to stop normalizing this conduct. OK, now, whether or not you believe that the criminal charges are right or wrong, the conduct is beneath the office of President of the United States."
The crowd responded with jeers.
"And you know, this is the great thing about this country," Christie scolded the audience. "Booing is allowed, but it doesn't change the truth."
Vivek Ramaswamy suggested Christie was espousing leftist views.
"And if people at home want to see a bunch of people blindly bashing Donald Trump without an iota of vision for this country, they could just change the channel to MSNBC right now," he quipped. "We're skating on thin ice, and we cannot set a precedent where the party in power uses police force to indict its political opponents."
Christie retorted, "You've never done anything to try to advance the interests of this government except to put yourself forward as a candidate tonight."
"I did it as governor, and I am not going to bow to anyone when we have a president of the United States who disrespects the Constitution," he added.
