Chris Christie said he wanted to talk directly to Donald Trump, who he “knew” was watching Wednesday’s Republican presidential debate.

So he looked straight into the camera at the man who wasn’t there and said Trump wasn’t brave enough to show up. And if that behavior continues – as it probably will – people are going to stop calling the former president Donald Trump.

“We’re going to call you Donald Duck,” he said.

There were some boos from the crowd.

Even by the low bar standards of today’s politics, Christie’s Donald Duck reference seemed a bit silly. You almost expected Ron DeSantis to use the opening to attack Disney, but DeSantis, as we have seen, is not exactly a humorist.

Other issues pop up, but Christie’s lane, if you will, is attacking Donald Trump. On that, he is relentless and quite single minded. The question was about crime, but it took the former governor only a few seconds to swing around to Trump and Donald Duck.

But where is it getting him?

At both debates so far, there were boos and obvious unhappiness in the crowd when Christie sharply criticized Trump. The former president’s support is simply not going away – even among those who for now are backing other candidates.

Christie remains in the low single digits in most national polls, although he’s doing better in New Hampshire, where he’s spending most of his campaign time. Still, he’s far behind the “duck.”

It is hard to see that changing.

Leaving Donald Duck aside for the moment, parts of the debate among seven candidates were quite chaotic, It is a tough thing to moderate, but just like at the previous skirmish a month ago, the moderators at times lost control. More than once, multiple candidates talked over each other, producing an indistinguishable racket.

One question that pierced the din was about women’s reproductive rights.

It was noted by the moderators that just about all Republicans are pro-life, but the nation is not. Six state referendums have been held on abortion since the overturning of Roe v. Wade and the abortion rights side has won every one.

So how does the GOP cope with this in 2024?

Christie said he would do what he did in New Jersey, noting that he vetoed funding for Planned Parenthood 14 times in eight years.

OK, but things have changed.

At the time of Christie’s constant vetoes, abortion rights were protected across the United States. Now that they are not, this becomes a bigger and a more personal issue.

And very simply, Republicans don’t have a good answer here.

The former governor was not finished created waves with his verbiage and not surprisingly, it involved the teachers’ union.

Responding to a question on education, Christie said a problem is that schools are run by the teachers’ union. And he will take on that union as president, just as he did as governor.

He continued:

“And when you have the president of the United States sleeping with a member of the teachers union, there is no chance that you can take the stranglehold away from the teachers union every day.”

Huh?

Yes, Jill Biden, the First Lady, has been a teacher. But what Christie said had to strike many viewers as a bit crude.

He should have stuck to cartoon characters.