Scoop: Multiple sources with direct knowledge are telling me that @ChrisChristie will be announcing a run for President in the coming days. The campaign will be focused on New Hampshire and will have the financial backing of Mets owner Steve Cohen, among others. #NHPolitics #FITN
— Chris Ryan (@ChrisRyan603) May 18, 2023
I hear it’s lovely up there, and quite reasonably priced compared to Cape May. (Mitt Romney might not be thrilled to have Christie as a neighbor, but Mitt seems to take his shore vacations in California these days.)
And if he times things right, Christie could stop off on the way for the 100th anniversary of Laconia Bike Week, which should remind him strongly of the Jersey Shore!
Perhaps no Republican has suffered indignities at the hands of Trump like Chris Christie.
And nobody appears more motivated to go at him.
On how Christie 2024, despite having little to no chance, could matter.https://t.co/0jlNDaYQQF
— Aaron Blake (@AaronBlake) May 19, 2023
Christie has little shot at winning. But his clear motivation for taking down Trump, along with his particular talents, could still matter greatly.…
A December poll showed just 3 percent of Republican-leaning voters said they would be “very satisfied” with him as their nominee. A more recent poll showed fully 70 percent wouldn’t even consider him (the most of nine candidates tested). Even in New Hampshire, the state he would apparently focus heavily on, a recent poll showed primary voters disliked him 53 percent to 10 percent.
Yet signs are building that Christie will again decide to run for president at what is decidedly the wrong time — even more than 2016 was. And while he has insisted this isn’t just a kamikaze mission to take down Donald Trump, it’s difficult to see how it could amount to much else…
He was a staunch Trump critic in the 2016 primaries before his early endorsement was really the first big one to lend Trump mainstream credibility. Then Trump rather quickly subjected him to a series of indignities: the endorsement news conference, the apparent jab at Christie’s weight, the allusion to Christie’s travails as governor of New Jersey.
Christie lobbied harder than anyone to become Trump’s vice-presidential pick, but he was passed over in a way that seemed to surprise him. Then Christie took over Trump’s 2016 transition team, before being quickly pushed aside. Trump declined on multiple occasions to make him attorney general, the cabinet job Christie was most suited for, leading Christie to explain in early 2019, “He hasn’t offered me anything that I really wanted to do.”
But even those criticisms pale in comparison to what Christie is unleashing today. While other 2024 hopefuls avoid criticizing the man they’re trying to usurp for fear of alienating his base — witness what just happened with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’s (R) super PAC when it sent out a tweet attacking Trump’s CNN town hall comments — Christie is characteristically far less shy.
Just last week, Christie called Trump “a puppet of Putin.” He’s targeted Trump over being found liable for sexual assault in the E. Jean Carroll case. He has knocked Trump for being “afraid” of debates. And unlike others, he’s lent credibility to his comments by saying he would never back Trump again...
Notably, Christie’s probably best situated to do it. While Never Trumpers love Liz Cheney, and Asa Hutchinson and Chris Sununu appear ready to make such a case, Christie actually has a track record here that suggests it could matter.
You might recall perhaps the most significant debate moment of 2016 came in February, when Christie played a major role in ending what remained of Sen. Marco Rubio’s (R-Fla.) chances by casting a harsh spotlight on Rubio’s robotic answers. Would Rubio have beaten Trump? Probably not. Will it be as easy to embarrass Trump like that? No. But Christie is uniquely situated to try…
Last month:
.@ChrisChristie (sans bluecheck) is back in NH, speaking at New England College. Right off he is telling how Trump "failed." His voice drips w sarcasm, as he ticks off Trump's failures to repeal ACA, to fix immigration or to build a wall "that he bragged about endlessly"
— Trip Gabriel (@tripgabriel) April 20, 2023
Extra schadenfreude, for us Democrats: Christie lumbering into the Granite State would be a major blow to another Large Adult Repub with presidential ambitions…
News: @ChrisSununu meeting with @GovRonDeSantis tomorrow in New Hampshire which is actually the most boring part of my highly informative and entertaining piece https://t.co/4X0KbyHis0
— Tara Palmeri (@tarapalmeri) May 18, 2023
Ed Kilgore, not impressed:
The pro-choice, anti-Trump Republican would probably just help the ex-president win in New Hampshire. https://t.co/gV2TeH5jKO
— New York Magazine (@NYMag) May 19, 2023
Wonder what Vince McMahon is doing, now that he’s no longer running the WWE?
Baud
Too much traffic.
bbleh
(insert Watanabe image/quote here)
Josie
Christie is sharp enough and sharp tongued enough to do the job if he is given half a chance. My worry is who would rise to take Trump’s place if he is cut down. It won’t be Christie.
lowtechcyclist
Somehow, Chris Christie and the verb ‘to summer’ don’t seem to belong in the same sentence.
Scout211
The Blake tweet:
Could is doing some heavy lifting right there. Not buying what Blake is selling.
Added: Christy is never going to matter. Trump reduced him to a squashed bug.
Joe Falco
If I was some asshole from New Jersey, I would be uniquely situated to try and knock that chump from New York City down a few pegs too.
Manyakitty
@lowtechcyclist: <insert Chris Christie in a beach chair meme>
Mike in NC
My family usually got a cabin or cottage somewhere around the lake every summer in the 60s. Good times.
schrodingers_cat
Rescue kitty went to the vet today, got poked and prodded. He got a clean bill of health. He could be anywhere from 6 months to a year and a half old. He is sleeping now.
Baud
@schrodingers_cat:
👍
Ceci n est pas mon nym
It’s kind of interesting that all the Republican B-team feel they’ve got a shot at 2024.
They don’t, but it’s interesting they feel they do. They obviously smell blood in the water. He’ll have to have a primary campaign instead of just being anointed.
I saw an actual Nikki Haley for President lawn sign a few days ago. In a very Democratic neighborhood near the college. “Nikki Haley” in smallish type, “for President” in teeny-tiny type. So I guess she’s got a voter in PA.
SpaceUnit
The GOP primary is gonna be like eight chimpanzees fighting to the death in a manure pit.
I’m so happy right now.
Baud
The value of Christie is that he will give permission to the media to run narratives about Trump that the media would ignore if a Dem talked about it.
MattF
I don’t harbor positive feelings towards Republicans, but Christie could be a partial exception to that rule. It’s quite possible that he’s actually learned a true lesson from his personal 2016 experiences— which is nearly unheard of—and he is smart enough and mean enough to actually damage Trump. Whether he really has the guts to do it, I don’t know. But we shall see.
ETA:@Baud: And, yes, he gets positive press coverage.
Edmund dantes
Why does Christie have more value than when he previously ran against the guy and got beat handily? I could buy thinking maybe Christie had some ability to take down trump if we didn’t already have proof that he failed at the job miserably last time.
mrmoshpotato
I love our never-ending election cycles! (Do I even have to note my sarcasm?)
Has anyone watched John Mulaney’s latest Netflix special? Is it good? I could use an uplifting laugh.
Edmund dantes
There is a ton of wishcasting going around that “this is the person to take down trump in the primary”.
the only person that can take down trump is someone that can steal his base by being even more trump than trump. And none of these gop saviors ever fits that bill. It’s always some pundit daydreaming for the party to wake up and not pick the guy they keep picking.
Frankensteinbeck
I am concerned that @Edmund dantes is right. Yes, I’m glad that someone is attacking Trump where he’s weak, but the point of attacking like that is to scoop up his base, who are still going to want you to beat up Trump AND be an overt white supremacist. That’s why DeSantis could have done it if he hadn’t been a spineless bag of limp offal, like a tunicate rotting on a trash barge. DeSantis had the ‘persecute minorities’ chops. Can Trump be weakened in the primary with attacks that don’t offer a ‘better’ alternative? I don’t know.
@Baud:
This is an interesting point. I can’t evaluate for or against it.
Bill Arnold
@MattF:
Not entirely clear. Given public information, It is probable that Trump nearly killed Christie by infecting him with SARS-CoV-2 during debate prep. He was hospitalized. Got the Regeneron monoclonal antibody cocktail through (Trump?) contacts; at the time was the only working treatment.
Bill Arnold
@Edmund dantes:
If it happens, it will be because one or more prosecutors have done the heavy lifting vs Trump. The possibility of which is a primary reason why they are making the effort.
Jackie
@mrmoshpotato: Maybe this will give you a chuckle:
“Rep. George Santos (R-NY), “the New York Republican under indictment for campaign finance violations, appointed himself as his own campaign treasurer Friday,” Bloomberg reports.”
Edmund dantes
@Bill Arnold: my money is still on Trump is the nominee barring his death.
No prosecution and appeals will be over before the 2024 election is over. And we saw that GoP elite continued to circle wagons on him on everything.
plus being attacked and takes down by the deep state and swamp and minority prosecutors will just be a further emboldening of his core primary voters.
Trump sitting in jail is a martyr to the fanatics that make up the gop primary voters. A lot of gop elite and media pundits need to wake up and actually listen to all these Cletus safaris.
persistentillusion
@Jackie: Clever lad. Leaves him open to additional liability from a fiduciary standpoint.
VOR
Nope, not buying this anti-Trump story. In the end, Christie will fall in line for 2024 just as he did in 2016 and 2020. Trump wouldn’t even need to tempt him with the possibility of being the VP or Attorney General.
Anonymous At Work
@Josie: If Christie spends all the debates engaging with Trump and rips several cable-news-repeated barbs, who will that persuade of anything? There’s no persuadable audience for ripping Trump on anything.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Anonymous At Work:
Make Trump look weak/like a chump?
WaterGirl
@Jackie: It’s so interesting that the Republican party not only has this many pathological liars, but that they come in so many different flavors.
eclare
@MattF:
And don’t forget he got a nasty case of covid from working on debate prep with TFG.
ETA> Bill Arnold got there first.
bbleh
@Baud: Good point! (In addition to all the obvious ones about stimulus for the legal sector, hot air emissions for power generation, etc.)
Josie
@Anonymous At Work: You may be right. One thing that the Republican base hates, however, is a loser. If Christie can make Trump look like a loser, it’s a possibility.
Ruckus
To be honest I believe that the only things stopping SFB is that we beat him fair and square, or he refuses to continue breathing because his natural time has arrived. He is 77, over the average age for his generation, takes wonderful care of himself, watches his weight, eats healthy and has a remarkably calm personality. Oh wait, he doesn’t do/have any of those characteristics. His rants are becoming more unhinged. (And yes they weren’t all that hinged, ever) As a person not all that far behind him age wise he really doesn’t seem to be doing anything reasonable to even attempt to be anywhere in the same category as the man that beat him in the last election, who is only 3 yrs older than him and seems to be actually human. However, his father lived to be 93, his mom lived to be 88. Not saying his genes are reasonable, they sure didn’t help his personality, intelligence, slothness, IQ, humanity…
artem1s
So the March of the Wannabees has begun. I give JEB¡ another month before he’s begging for people to please clap.
prostratedragon
@Jackie: So he really can chew and walk gum at the same time.
Jackie
@prostratedragon: Yet TBD!
Maxim
Nothing can damage T***p with the base. But if Christie is genuinely willing to go after him consistently, he could score some points with independents.
As for all the people running, I assume a lot of them are building name recognition for 2028, by which time there’s a much higher likelihood that the orange menace will either be imprisoned or dead.
mrmoshpotato
@Jackie:
Overall, the whole George Santos thing pisses me off, but that is stupid enough that it’s hilarious. Thank you. 😃
karen marie
@MattF: You are kidding, right?
Scamp Dog
Someone nicknamed Christie the Outlaw Jersey Whale, and someone doctored up a version of the movie poster with his face at
Link
Rebels Dad
“Wonder what Vince McMahon is doing, now that he’s no longer running the WWE?”
Linda McMahon is tanned, rested, and ready. Her campaign slogan practically writes itself:
Linda! Why keep losing a state when you can lose a whole nation?
Rebels Dad
@Joe Falco: Being from Jersey is the only redeeming quality Christie has.
Steeplejack
@Scamp Dog:
TBogg coined the nickname, I believe.
Steeplejack
@Rebels Dad:
“Redeeming” is doing a lot of heavy lifting there.
Rebels Dad
@Steeplejack: “Redeeming” got a slipped disc in its back from that heavy lifting.
Roberto el oso
The GOP is Trump’s, to do with as he pleases. He will be the nominee. If he wins he will have 4 years to make sure he isn’t ousted when his term is up. If he loses he will attempt another coup. He will never go away or step down as the head of the party. There will be no one who will replace him while he is still alive. Tis a marriage sanctified in Hell, and is truly “till Death us do part”.
different-church-lady
Right, they are definitely not clearing the field for Trump.
MattF
@karen marie: I’m well aware that Christie is a nasty piece of work. I’m in favor of him damaging Trump.
NotMax
Alos-ran also runs.
::yawn::
Tony Jay
If Christie goes after Trump the Failure and Trump the Crook in the Primaries it might not hurt him with the MAGOP base (though it might, depending on ♾️ number of possibilities) but what it will definitely do is enrage the faketan fuckup, give the Media Republican-brand permission to cover Trump as a failure/crook, and, most importantly of all, it will entertain an awful lot of people who hate the bastard and would really enjoy seeing him volleyed in the nuts on prime time TV.
What’s not to like?
Princess
@Tony Jay: yeah, all of this. There’s no downside.For us.
Geminid
@Tony Jay: There are plenty of “base” Republicans who don’t want Trump as the nominee, including some who voted for him in 2016 and 2020. They don’t have another candidate strong enough to beat Trump in the primaries, though. DeSantis can’t unless he shows abilities we have not seen.
Christie can’t either. Unlike Scott and Haley, he may be willing to attack Trump head on, but there are too many Trump loyalists for Christie to succeed. Christie could still further the erosion of Republican support among Republican-leaning Independents and some longtime Republicans.
So I hope Christie runs. Trump is basically a chaos agent, and Christie could be too. Like you say, he’ll have a good media platform for his attacks. If nothing else, he’ll suck up money from donors supporting him and donors opposing him. I want to see an expensive and divisive Republican primary season, and I think Chridtie would help make it one.
Tony Jay
@Princess:
@Geminid:
Yup, exactly. Short of the kind of inconceivable odds-shortening weirdness that doesn’t happen outside of the Hustler letters pages, Christie isn’t going to win any votes, but if he’s willing and able to ruffle Trump’s combaround and call him a delusional prick to his face, that’s enough to pop my corn.
Chris Johnson
@Josie: Trump can’t be cut down in the way you mean because he wouldn’t concede, so your worry isn’t practical. For him to yield to a worse fascist implies him yielding at all, and that won’t happen.
No matter how bad Trump gets, ANY splintering of the Republican field will drag them all down because Trump won’t concede. If he was going to concede it would’ve been in favor of Tucker Carlson getting into politics, and that hasn’t been happening. If Trump DIES watch for a greater fascist to suddenly appear, probably Tucker.
Also, watch for whether Christie hits Trump on Ukraine. If he’s going to correctly tie Trump to Putin, he’s going to be pro-Ukraine. I think Christie is gambling on being proven right, and it’s smart of him to do so. He’s a lot younger than the current crop of politicians. If he sees Putin (also much older and sicker than him) foundering, he’s probably jockeying for position in a post-Russia Republican Party.
Right now Russia is all in on destroying the USA through infighting. There are probably many Republicans ready to ask ‘what’s in it for us?’. Their job is becoming, die on the front lines, or go broke supporting Putin’s other wars. No chance that lasts for much longer.
Chris Johnson
@Edmund dantes: Russia’s busy. They’re losing to Ukraine, and desperately trying to cripple the USA, and Christie’s very likely to outlive Trump and Putin and McConnell and a whole crop of current political leaders.
He’s stalling. It’s realpolitik. It’s not really about him winning this time. He’s identifying a shift in power and has the cojones to loudly get behind what he thinks is a resurgent nationalist power base.
Authoritarian followers can flip. They don’t really give a fuck about Trump, or Putin, or any of that, they’re just chasing power and confidence and bold lies.
Christie can absolutely do that, and if he does it now and then somebody against him dies or collapses, it makes it look like he was right, like he did it. It makes him able to take credit for overthrowing a massive treason that he actually didn’t overthrow at all.
If he’s believed, he can take over and then he can close all the bridges he wants. He’s not DIFFERENT from Trump or Putin etc, he just has no reason to pursue their pet issues. He can be just as fascist, but with his own set of dictatorial preferences.
This would actually be better than being ruled by a Putin puppet, because that was getting ruled by a foreign country out to diminish American power projection. Christie might like American power projection, and put some of it back. The difference is he could make choices that don’t actively make America worse and more divided, but still bring it into fascism. I wouldn’t want him to be the next 4-term FDR, even if he stopped the decline. He’s still a fascist.
Chris Johnson
@Tony Jay: Great point! Prime time TV.
If Christie promises to kick Trump in the nuts on live TV, and Trump promises to kick Christie in the nuts right back, that’s basically politics as Jerry Springer.
That’s ratings gold in a way that’s completely different from the CNN town-hall fiasco. It’s a cage match. The Trump people won’t like that one bit, but offering to produce TV that’s about Trump bullying and battling like he had to do in 2016, but this time with a rival who for some reason is out for revenge and won’t sit down and shut up…
That’s way more like ratings gold than a bland and smug rally in favor of Trump. The Trump side wants the world to play nice now, and Christie is offering TV a chance to have 2016 again, but potentially with a different winner. Even if it’s rigged and he can’t win, that’s what they DO to get ratings. Will he dominate the King of Ratings?