Chris Christie Flips Out On Debate Question About Fantasy Football

Things got testy multiple times at last night’s GOP debate, with the candidates repeatedly going off on the CNBC moderators for asking what they perceived to be biased or inane questions (even as they generally failed to provide substantive answers to the substantive questions). Toward the end, things went off the rails again when Jeb Bush was asked if daily fantasy sports needs government regulation.

Bush took it as an excuse to brag about his 7-0 fantasy team (quarterbacked by Ryan Tannehill), and then New Jersey governor Chris Christie jumped in to blast the question.

“Are we really talking about getting government involved in fantasy football? 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? Can we stop? Can we stop? Seriously?”

I’m guessing Christie’s team isn’t 7-0—and he may or may not understand the distinction between fantasy football and DFS.

“Let people play,” Christie said of the shady, billion-dollar business that has been rocked by insider-trading scandals and which refuses to regulate itself, even as a trustworthy daily fantasy industry could provide a wedge for the full, legalized sports betting that Christie has so strongly supported. “Who cares?”

[CNBC]