‘Time to go’: Chris Christie told candidates who don’t make the first debate to drop out

Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie has a blunt suggestion for some of his rivals for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination that they likely don't want to hear.

Christie says that for the candidates who "haven’t made the stage" at the upcoming first GOP presidential primary debate, "it’s time to go."

Christie, in a Fox News Digital interview in New Hampshire emphasized that the debate "means a lot for me and every other candidate. It’s going to be the biggest audience any of us have spoken before in a long time. It’s important for people to get to know you, to know who you are, what you want to do for the party and for the country. And that’s exactly what I intend to do.”

But Christie, a master of in-your-face politics who's making his second White House run after an unsuccessful bid in 2016, stressed, "If you don’t make the debate stage, you should leave the field. I think it’s that simple. That’s the first winnowing process." 

Pointing to the RNC's polling and donor thresholds in order to qualify for the initial Fox News hosted debate in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Christie said, "I think these objectives were fair ones to reach, to be able to get on the stage. And if you haven’t made the stage, I think it’s time to go."

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