Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal and former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum butted heads over how to treat GOP presidential front-runner Donald Trump during the “happy hour” Republican presidential debate on Wednesday.
“Personal attacks just please one person — Hillary Clinton,” Santorum said after Jindal bashed Trump at the start of the early CNN debate for the lowest polling candidates.
“I don’t think it helps when Republicans attack Republicans personally,” Santorum added.
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Jindal has become one of Trump’s most vocal critics in recent weeks, throwing a slew of insults at the former reality television star. On Wednesday he called Trump “a narcissist who only believes in himself” and said “he’s not serious.”
The debate at the Ronald Reagan presidential library opened with a question to Jindal about whether he had been violating Reagan’s famous 11th commandment — Republicans should not attack members of their own party.
“I’m in compliance with the 11th Commandment, I would tell my fellow Republicans let’s stop treating Donald Trump like a Republican” Jindal said.
“He is not a conservative. He is not a liberal, he is not a Democrat, he is not a Republican, he is not an independent.” he added. “He believes in Donald Trump.”
Former New York Gov. George Pataki defended his promise not to vote for Trump if the real estate mogul become the GOP nominee, despite signing a pledge to sign the nominee.
“I have not broken the pledge because Donald Trump is not going to be the Republican nominee — period. Flat out. I guarantee you that,” Pataki said.
Andrew Rafferty