Chris Christie tried quacking his audience up at Wednesday night’s Republican primary debate, bestowing on the absent Donald Trump a new and cringe-inducing nickname. Taking a page from Trump’s playbook—when in doubt, call your opponents names—the former New Jersey governor turned a question about crime into a dunk on the former president. Turning to the camera and addressing Trump directly, Christie said, “I know you’re watching. Okay? And you are not here tonight. Not because of polls and not because of your indictments. You’re not here tonight because you are afraid of being on the stage and defending your record. You’re ducking these things.” He continued, looking increasingly pleased with himself: “And let me tell you what’s going to happen. If you keep doing that, no one up here is going to call you ‘Donald Trump’ anymore. We’re gonna will call you ‘Donald Duck.’” It was apparently a canned zinger, with Christie’s official X account tweeting out a winking gif of Donald Duck and tagging Trump’s account while the former governor was still on the stage.
