Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie criticized President Biden's support for teachers unions, arguing it didn't help that the president is "sleeping with" a union member in reference to first lady Jill Biden, a longtime teacher, during the second Republican debate Wednesday night.
"Let's tell the truth, everybody, about what this is," Christie remarked. "The public school system is no longer run by the public. It is run by the teachers unions in this country. [American Federation of Teachers President] Randi Weingarten and her crew are absolutely strangling — they are taking the worst of their members and defending them rather than advocating for our kids."
"And when you have the president of the United States sleeping with a member of the teachers union, there is no chance that you can take the stranglehold away from the teachers union every day. They have an advocate inside the White House every day for the worst of their teachers, not for our students to be the best they can be. A president of the United States has to take on the teacher's union."
Jill Biden, who has been a teacher for decades, has continued working since President Biden took office in 2021. She is an English and writing teacher at Northern Virginia Community College.
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Christie's statement Wednesday night was then followed up by former Vice President Mike Pence boasting in a one-liner of his own that he has been sleeping with a teacher, his wife Karen Pence, for 38 years.
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"I'll stand up for the safety and the civil liberties of every American from every background and I want the American people to know that," Pence stated.
"But I want to answer the question as well that you just asked because by way of full disclosure, Chris, you've mentioned the president's situation. My wife isn't a member of the teachers union, but I got to admit, I have been sleeping with a teacher for 38 years — full disclosure. But education is a state and local function."
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The second RNC debate is being held at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California, is being televised on the FOX Business Network and UNIVISION.
To qualify for the debate, candidates were required to have at least 3% support in two national polls or 3% in one national poll as well as two polls from four of the early-voting states of Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina. Candidates also needed to show they had at least 50,000 individual donors.
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On Tuesday, the RNC announced where the seven Republican candidates participating in the debate will stand on stage. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is set to stand center stage flanked by former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, biotech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina, North Dakota Gov Doug Burgum and former Vice President Mike Pence.
