While previewing the Republican hopefuls who will be on the Fox News debate stage on Wednesday, Kayleigh McEnany encouraged Chris Christie to take it easy on Trump — if not, she warned, it could blow up in his face.
“Fox & Friends” aired a segment that included host Ainsley Earhardt asking the former White House press secretary questions about the respective candidates who will take the debate stage on Wednesday evening in Milwaukee.
McEnany and Earnhardt started with former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and his tumultuous relationship with former president Donald Trump, the heavy frontrunner who’s opted not to take part in the first Republican debate of this cycle..
“I mean, he is attacking him left and right,” Earhardt said of Christie’s campaign strategy. “First of all, why doesn’t he like him?” the Fox News host asked McEnany. “What happened?”
“It’s anyone’s guess,” replied the former White House press secretary. Christie also served in the Trump White House.
“But if you look at polling,” McEnany continued, “CBS said 9 percent think candidates should attack Trump,” while “90 percent say, no, don’t attack Trump. Focus on yourself.”
McEnany said that if Christie “focuses exclusively,” on the former president throughout the debate, it’ll be a “kamikaze mission” for the former New Jersey governor.
Attacking Trump may “win over a very small segment of the party,” but McEnany again invoked that “only 9 percent of voters want to see that.”
The debate will be co-moderated by Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum and will be airing on Fox News at 9 p.m. Eastern, 6 p.m. Pacific. Rather than debating, Trump plans to release a pre-taped interview with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson.
The candidates expected to attend include former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, former Vice President Mike Pence, tech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott, former Ambassador Nikki Haley, North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum and former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson.
