Former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie. NPR/AP.
Chris Christie, the former governor of New Jersey, has ended his campaign against Donald Trump for the 2024 Republican nomination. NPR. Christie was never popular and was polling at 3.6% in national polls, while Trump was polling at 61%. Though Christie was a foe of Trump in the 2016 race, he made up with the President during his first term. However, Christie turned on Trump over perceived mishandling of the 2020 election results and January 6th. Unlike other candidates in the race, Christie made his campaign entirely about Donald Trump, which proved to be unpopular. The announcement that he was dropping out of the race was overshadowed by a hot mic moment where he trashed fellow non-Trump candidates. He said that Nikki Haley had "punched above her weight" but also said "she's going to get smoked". He also said that Ron DeSantis is "petrified".
My Comment:
I have always disliked Chris Christie, even back when he was the governor of New Jersey. Much of it is his policies on gun rights during his time as governor, New Jersey has extremely strict and obviously unconstitutional gun laws and Christie was just fine with that. His transformation into the supposed Republican that says worse things about Donald Trump than the Democrats do was not unexpected.
And to prove that I do actually criticize Trump when he makes a mistake, letting Chris Christie into his circle was a major one. Christie is, if nothing else, an opportunist and when he thought it would advantage him to support Trump he did. When he thought he could wrangle his way to the oval office by criticizing him, he did. And I am sure if Trump wins the Presidency in 2024 Christie will come slithering back on his belly to try and get back into his good graces.
The problem is that Trump has a decent chance of doing so. His belief that he can cut a deal with anyone belies the fact that some people are just rotten to the core, like Chris Christie. It has helped him in the past as he was able to cut deals with more rational and less evil people, like Kim Jong Un and Vladimir Putin, but Christie was always going to betray him.
Christie's obvious flaw is ambition. I don't think the man has any principles whatsoever. He does what he thinks will help him, not what he thinks is right, if he thinks anything is wrong at all that is. He didn't support gun rights because he thought it would harm him. He has flip-flopped on Donald Trump three times now and I fully expect him to do so again. I don't believe for a second that he is actually outraged about January 6th, he just used it as an opportunity to advance his own agenda, much like the Democrats.
As for Christie's campaign, it's probably not a good idea to run against a popular de facto incumbent with no actual plan for the country other than stopping the popular incumbent. The only time he got into the news is when he said something outrageous about Trump. He never had any real policy and his only real purpose was to bash Trump. Say what you want about Ron DeSantis and Nikki Haley but at least they have actual policy positions and can talk about things other than Donald Trump.
Christie's hyper focus on Trump hurt him in other ways. His only real chance of being the candidate, a long shot at best, was to win in New Hampshire, which Trump will win but with Nikki Haley in a healthy 2nd place. But Christie never really attacked Haley, which is a massive mistake. Though I despise the man, I do know that he has the ability to destroy week candidates but he never really tried to do so against Haley. Doing so would have at least given him a slim chance but he didn't and now he has dropped out. Given her pretty obvious weakness as a candidate and the fact that everyone, including Trump, has treated her with kid gloves, it was a missed opportunity for him.
Speaking of Haley, she's probably the biggest benefactor of Christie dropping out. With Ron DeSantis floundering and Haley getting propped up by the media it's likely that Christies few supporters will go to her. Though it's possible that they won't, Haley hasn't been anywhere near as vulgar and shrill when it comes to Trump and Christie's supporters might now trust her to be anti-Trump enough.
I do have to say that Christie did accurately describe his also-ran opponents during the hot mic moment. Haley is going to get smoked by Trump, that much is obvious. And Ron DeSantis is petrified, to the point where he's rumored to drop out after he fails in Iowa. It's the only amusing thing that Christie has done this entire campaign.
As for Christie, I don't think he has a political career after this. Despite my reservations, I doubt that Trump will let him anywhere near his 2nd Administration, and I can't see him entering into the 2028 race. Everyone hates the guy and I can't see him ever winning a race at the national level. His only hope is to do the news show circuit as the token "Republican" who does nothing but attack his fellow Republicans and there is a lot of competition for the role. If we are lucky, Christie will fade into well deserved obscurity.
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