Chris Christie won’t make it to the Iowa caucus next week. The former New Jersey governor will reportedly announce at a press conference on Wednesday that he is dropping out of the Republican presidential primary.
Christie’s decision to exit the race hilariously comes just one day after he vehemently denied speculation that he was set to exit the race. New Hampshire Governor Chris Sununu had suggested the Christie campaign was considering shutting down on CNN, prompting Christie to say in a radio interview, “It pains me to say this, but Gov. Sununu is a liar.
Christie’s announced his extremely long-shot, some might say inevitably-doomed presidential bid back in June. He previously tried to run for president in 2016 and at least managed to make it through the first two contests in Iowa and New Hampshire before dropping out with a whopping zero delegates. He promptly endorsed Trump afterwards.
Like many Republican politicians, Christie has tried being both toady and antagonist to Trump. In 2016, he was one of Trump’s fiercest critics during the primary, calling him unfit for office; after dropping out, he endorsed Trump and even briefly led his transition team after Trump won the presidency in 2016 (though he was fired only a few days after the election).
Christie continued to support Trump through his failed 2020 bid, though reportedly soured on the ex-president after the whole trying-to-overturn-the-election thing. As 2024 rolled around, Christie once again re-fashioned himself again as a vociferous Trump foe — for the most part.
He blamed Trump for rising antisemitism and Islamaphobia, and during a debate last August, emphatically stated he wouldn’t support Trump if he won the primary, but was convicted in one of the many court cases he’s currently facing. “Here’s the bottom line, someone’s got to stop normalizing this conduct,” Christie said. “Whether or not you believe that the criminal charges are right or wrong, the conduct is beneath the office of the president of the United States.”
Christie, however, wouldn’t go so far as to support Colorado Supreme Court’s decision to boot Trump from the state’s 2024 election ballots over his attempts to overturn the 2020 election. “I do not believe Donald Trump should be prevented from being President of the United States, by any court. I think he should be prevented from being the President of the United States by the voters of this country,” he said in a statement.
Surprising absolutely no one, neither Christie’s constant attacks, nor his little attempts show some semblance of loyalty, have had any real impact on Trump. The expected 2024 Republican nominee has repeatedly brushed aside the former governor with characteristically uncouth jokes. After Christie announced his doomed 2024 bid last year, Trump wrote on Truth Social: “How many times did Chris Christie use the word SMALL? Does he have a psychological problem with SIZE? Actually, his speech was SMALL, and not very good. It rambled all over the place, and nobody had a clue of what he was talking about.”
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