GOP presidential candidate Chris Christie was not pleased with how Wednesday night’s first Republican debate was moderated by a pair of Fox News anchors.
“I think the weakest moment for me was the weakest moment for everybody … which was that that stage was completely out of control,” Christie said during an appearance on CNN. “And I’m disappointed that the moderators didn’t play a stronger hand in controlling what was going on.”
The Republican former governor of New Jersey, who is polling well behind former President Trump, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and others in the field, added, “there were a couple of folks on stage last night who felt that you go over time, every time. That they could interrupt and had a right to speak on every issue.”
He also criticized Fox moderators Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum directly, saying, “that’s where the moderators have to say no and shut them down. And that didn’t — that didn’t happen.”
“And so, what it led to was — what it led to was there being no sense of control or focus on the debate during large portions of it,” he said.
CNN anchor Poppy Harlow noted Christie had the second-largest amount of “talk time” during the debate.
Many political and media observers praised Baier and MacCallum during and after Wednesday night’s debate for the strength of the questions they asked and the way in which they responded to the assertions being made by the candidates.
Wednesday night’s debate grew raucous at times, with Baier admonishing the crowd at one point for excessive noise being made during questions about Trump.
Updated: 10:46 a.m.