MANCHESTER, N.H. — Former President Donald Trump mocked Chris Christie, one of his rivals for the Republican presidential nomination, over eating habits and weight Tuesday.
“Don’t call him a fat pig,” Trump playfully admonished an audience member who shouted out during a speech at a high school gym in Windham, N.H. “You can’t do that.”
Trump was apprising the audience of recent polls that show him leading when he first mentioned the former New Jersey governor, who was once one a close adviser.
“Christie, he’s eating right now,” Trump said. “He can’t be bothered.”
That’s when a man in the crowd shouted out to prod Trump.
“Sir, please do not call him a fat pig. I’m trying to be nice. Don’t call him a fat pig,” Trump said. “You can’t do that.”
Christie, who pulled into a tie for second place in the state with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis in a New Hampshire Journal poll released Tuesday, has been a sharp critic of Trump.
In a full-page ad in the Union Leader Tuesday, a super PAC supporting Christie accused Trump of being “afraid to debate” because the former president has not committed to competing in the first GOP debate in Milwaukee later this month.
Christie aides did not reply to a request for comment about Trump’s remarks. The former governor was due to campaign in the state Tuesday and Wednesday.
But in an interview on Fox News in June, Christie addressed Trump’s previous comments about his weight with a quip.
“Oh, like he’s some Adonis?” Christie said.
During Monday’s rally in a gym that lacked air conditioning, Trump repeated his lie that the 2020 election was “rigged” and “stolen.”
He also called the indictments against him — in New York, Florida and Washington, D.C. — “bulls—.”
That prompted the supportive crowd to begin chanting the word.
Source: | This article originally belongs to Nbcnews.com
