Politico: “The New Jersey GOP debate could have used a steel cage”
Politico: “The New Jersey GOP debate could have used a steel cage”
“‘We’re not getting the kumbaya night tonight that we did on Sunday,’ moderator David Wildstein said at one point, contrasting it to Sunday night’s dramatically more friendly Democratic debate.”
Last night, the GOP field of candidates for New Jersey governor met for the first time on the debate stage and, as predicted, things got messy. Like, comparisons to a cage match messy.
The tense meet-up comes after months of intra-party attacks, most notably between failed 2021 candidate Jack Ciattarelli and right-wing talk radio host Bill Spadea. Ciattarelli recently launched a websiteslamming Spadea as “phony MAGA,” and accusing him of not being loyal enough to Donald Trump, while a PAC supporting Spadea is running a digital adhammering Ciattarelli for his unsuccessful bids for governor in both 2017 and 2021, and calling to “stop the perennial candidates, the losers, and the RINOs.”
Read more here about the NJ GOP debate they’re calling “pretty much chaos”:
- “…the candidates were too busy attacking each other, yelling over one another and hurling insults.”
- “Donald Trump’s name wasn’t mentioned as much as I thought, but the political chaos he’s fostered infused the room.”
- “‘The guy’s a grifter,’ Jack Ciattarelli said of Bill Spadea, noting he paid himself $65,000 from his non-profit.”
- “‘Unfortunately in a debate as to who’s going to be the next best governor, the loudest, most disruptive, annoying person does not win,’ Spadea said.”
- “It was almost two debates in one, with Ciattarelli and Spadea, the apparent leaders in the race, going after each other while Durr and Bramnick had their own show off to the side.”
- “‘We’re not getting the kumbaya night tonight that we did on Sunday,’ moderator David Wildstein said at one point, contrasting it to Sunday night’s dramatically more friendly Democratic debate.”
- “Watch the debate here if you don’t want to shell out cash for pay-per-view to watch men bludgeon each other.”
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