After CNBC posed a question about government regulating fan sites promoting wagers on fantasy football, Jeb Bush took the opportunity to remind the crowd that he was winning his fantasy football league.
“I’m 7 – 0 in my fantasy league,” Jeb replied. “Gronkowski is still going strong. I have Ryan Tannehill, Marco is my quarterback; he was 18 for 19 last week, so I’m doing great.”
But Chris Christie had zero patience for Jeb Bush’s comments and the question that led to it.
“Wait a second, we have $19 trillion in debt, we have people out of work, we have ISIS and al-Qaeda attacking us, and we’re talking about fantasy football?” he asked incredulously. “Can we stop?”
Christie’s moment sparked wild cheers from the debate audience as he continued.
“How about this? How about we we get the government to do what their supposed to be doing—secure our borders, protect our people, and support American values and American families,” he said. “Enough on fantasy football. Let people play, who cares?”
Christie has shown a keen instinct about when to interrupt a pointless, tangled debate moment to thunder about the real issues. In the last CNN Republican debate, he took the opportunity to interrupt Donald Trump and Carly Fiorina fighting over her business record to point out that the American people cared less about their bickering and more about the real issues.
Debate audiences have reacted favorably to those moments, reminding moderators to keep the questions focused on the issues.