Friday on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” host Joe Scarborough slammed the criteria for next week’s Republican presidential debate hosted by the Fox Business Network that is preventing GOP presidential hopeful Gov. Chris Christie (R-NJ) from participating on the main stage.
Scarborough noted Christie currently has the “hot hand” and compared him to a flailing Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), who despite lagging in many indicators will be participating in the main debate over Christie.
“I think it’s pretty stunning,” Scarborough said. “If you look at how Chris Christie has been doing over the past few weeks. Look at the campaign. Look at the fact he has a video out that is viral. It’s got millions and millions of hits. Look at the that fact, as Jennifer Horn, the chairwoman of the New Hampshire Republican Party said – this guy is in the top-tier in the first in the nation primary – the most important primary in America and along with Marco Rubio is actually moving faster up to the top than any other candidate. And yet he is knocked out of the debate, and I mean no disrespect to Rand Paul – but you have Rand Paul, who has literally sold 500 books in the first two weeks of his publication.”
“Mark Halperin, this debate process just got stranger,” he continued. “You know, CNN figured out a way to get Carly Fiorina in their debate when she had the hot hand. Everybody assumed that the hottest guy in New Hampshire and one of the hottest guys in social media this week would also get in. This is a decision that is flabbergasting.”
Scarborough also questioned one of the polls keeping Christie out, which he argued based on it’s performance in the last presidential election cycle, shouldn’t be a consideration.
“Again you have to look and see – we’ve always said, anybody that knows how politics works – these national polls are beauty contests,” he added. “The question is, ‘How are you doing in Iowa? How are you doing in New Hampshire? How are you doing in South Carolina? And how are you doing in your home state? Those are the best indicators. I think also Katty Kay, one of the things that’s so stunning is Chris Christie was actually kept out because of a poll by Investors’ Business Daily, which was rated the worst poll — the worst polling outfit in all of the 2012 campaign. So you talk about a sample that’s not — and we’re not carrying Chris Christie’s water. None other than Nate Silver, my dear and close personal friend Nate Silver, who I’ve been in fights with forever – Nate was the guy that scored them the worst and every professional polling outfit agrees. And yet, this is keeping Chris Christie — the guy with the hottest hand off the debate stage.”
Follow Jeff Poor on Twitter @jeff_poor
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