Somehow the Establishment GOP is yet to understand that the MAGA base is both very large relative to those who will vote for warmongering neocons and that it is furious when those Establishment hacks deign to try and attack former president and likely 2024 candidate Donald Trump.
Showing the Establishment’s ignorance of that reality were both former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie and former Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson, both of whom were taught prompt lessons by booing crowds when they attacked Trump.
Hutchinson, for his part, claimed both that Trump will be found guilty and that, when he is, Republicans need to continue to defend the judicial system instead of reacting angrily to such a decision. “There is a significant likelihood that Donald Trump will be found guilty by a jury on a felony offense next year,” Hutchinson began.
He continued, “That may or may not happen. Before you vote in March, and it might not make any difference to you, but it will make a difference for our chances to attract independent voters in November. It will make a difference for those down-ticket races for Congress and Senate, and it will weaken the GOP for decades to come. As a party, we must support the rule of law.”
He then added, “We cannot win as a country without integrity in the White House. And while some will ignore that destructive behavior of the former president, I assure you we ignore it at our own peril. The next generation will not look favorably back on this time.”
Predictably, the crowd didn’t take well to those comments, whether because they impugned Trump’s integrity or because of the insinuation that they should trust a system that seems, to many on the right, to be pointed squarely at them. So, instead of golf-clapping for Hutchinson’s low-energy campaign pitch, the raucous crowd booed him for over a minute.
Chris Christie had a similar experience with the decidedly pro-Trump crowd at the Florida Freedom Summit. He attempted to argue with the crowd as it booed him for attacking Trump, going so far as to insult the members of the base booing him and calling its anger “reprehensible.”
As the crowd kept up a steady drumbeat of booing for minutes on end, Christie responded with insults of his own, saying, “Your anger, your anger, your anger against the truth is reprehensible.” He continued, “As people watch today, if your arguments are so strong, if your arguments are so great and mine are so bad, then just keep quiet.”
He continued, saying, “Let me make my awful arguments, and then you can just reject them outta hand. But the problem is you fear the truth. The problem is you wanna shout down any voice that says anything different than what you want to hear.” He then claimed the crowd’s anger didn’t bother him, saying, “Believe me, it doesn’t bother me one bit.” His unpleasant grimace and condescending tone, however, indicated that it did in fact bother him a good bit.
Watch Christie here:
JUST IN: Chris Christie has nearly a 2 minute argument with the crowd at the Florida Freedom Summit after the crowd continuously booed him.
Instead of continuing with his speech, Christie decided to chastise the crowd.
“Your anger, your anger, your anger against the truth is… pic.twitter.com/QEcRCCPfeE
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) November 4, 2023
