Chris Christie

Christie to Trump: ‘Stop Being a Coward,’ Hiding Behind ‘Your Failed Social Media Site’

September 21, 2023 by Pam Key Leave a Comment

Former Gov. Chris Christie (R-NJ), a candidate for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, said Thursday on CNN’s “Situation Room” that former President Donald Trump should stop being a “coward” by hiding behind his “failed social media site” instead of debating.

Christie said, “He doesn’t like when people stand up to him and call him out on the nonsense that he’s involved in. And I guess he had a bad night last night, maybe at some bad Chinese food or something, Wolf. Well, 11:30 at night, a little indigestion, decided to attack me.”

He continued, “Keep it coming, Donald. And by the way, if he had any guts, he’d get on the debate stage. And he’s got things to say about me. Stop hiding behind your social media site, your failed social media site, Donald, and start taking me on directly. Show up. Stop being a coward.”

Christie added, “If I had his record, I wouldn’t want to debate either. He said he was going to build a big, beautiful wall across the entire border of Mexico. He built 52 miles of new wall in four years. He said Mexico was going to pay for it, they never did. He said he was going to repeal and replace Obamacare. He had a Republican Congress. He couldn’t get it done. That’s not a record to be proud of.”

He concluded, “He also led to Joe Biden becoming the president of the United States. Lots of Republicans like me object to that as well, and we want to win the White House back. He’s afraid to get on the stage lastly because he doesn’t want to face me. I prepared him for the debates in 2016, in 2020, he knows what that’s like. He doesn’t want the American people to see it. I do. ”

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Christie: Trump Likely Committed ‘Witness Tampering,’ ‘Obstruction of Justice’

September 19, 2023 by Pam Key Leave a Comment

Former Gov. Chris Christie (R-NJ), a candidate for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, said Tuesday on FNC’s “Your World” that if an ABC News report on former President Donald Trump’s assistant were accurate, it would be “active witness tampering” and “an act of obstruction of justice.”

Anchor Neil Cavuto said, “Governor, we’re just getting reports. This is one from ABC News. I’m sure you’ve heard concerning the classified documents that Donald Trump had in his possession and an assistant who told ABC News that Donald Trump would write to-do lists on some of these classified documents. Your thoughts?”

Christie said, “Well look, this just shows the level of disrespect he was shown for the documents that were created with American men and women in both the military and in our intelligence community, putting their lives on the line to get that information. So the president can be fully briefed.”

He continued, “But to me, Neil, and I’ve read that report, and the worst part of the report is not, believe it or not in my mind, that he did this on the back of classified documents. The worst is when he called that assistant when she was going to go before the grand jury and said, “You don’t know anything about my boxes, my boxes of documents.”

Christie added, “I mean, that is active witness tampering. That’s an act of obstruction of justice. I mean, so if she’s telling the truth. Then we have more evidence that will be presented at the time of trial, and this case will be tried. And this is the guy that we want to make our nominee? This is the person we think can beat Joe Biden? He’s going to be spending most of March, all of March and most of April in a federal courthouse in Washington, D.C., defending himself rather than being out on the trail, taking it to Joe Biden. We need to nominate someone whose full focus will be on taking it to Joe Biden and defeating him and restoring conservative Republican values to the White House and to governance in Washington.”

He concluded, “And this is just another example of the drip, drip, drip of information that’s going to come out about irresponsible conduct by Donald Trump that’s going to be used by Democrats and others to take him on if he were the nominee. We need to stop that now. Thank him for his service. Send him back to Mar-a-Lago and Bedminster and get a nominee who can win this race and beat Joe Biden.”

Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN

Poll: Republicans Would Be ‘Most Disappointed’ to See Christie, Pence as the GOP Nominee

September 18, 2023 by Hannah Bleau Leave a Comment

Republicans and independents who lean independent would be most disappointed if either former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie or former Vice President Mike Pence emerged as the 2024 Republican nominee, a recent survey from the Economist/YouGov found.

The survey, which found former President Donald Trump leading the GOP primary by 39 points, asked respondents, “Would you be disappointed if any of these presidential candidates became the Republican nominee? Select all that apply.”

A majority of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents, 52 percent, said they would be most disappointed to see Christie as the nominee, followed by 47 percent who said they would be disappointed to see Pence as the GOP candidate of choice. Over one-third, 36 percent, said the same of former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, and nearly one-quarter, 23 percent, said they would be disappointed to see former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley or anti-woke businessman Vivek Ramaswamy as the nominee.

Eighteen percent said the same of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, and South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott and Trump came in with the smallest percentage expressing disappointment, as 17 percent said they would be disappointed to see either as the nominee.

The survey was taken September 10-12, 2023, among 1,500 U.S. adult citizens.

Republican presidential candidates (L-R), former U.S. Vice President Mike Pence, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis take a break in the first debate of the GOP primary season on August 23, 2023 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. (Win McNamee/Getty Images)

The results serve as a testament to Trump’s iron grip on the party, as both Christie and Pence stand as two clear Trump critics. In August, Christie asserted that the country has a “Donald Trump problem” and suggested Trump has authoritarian aspirations.

“I think what we have is a Donald Trump problem. Right now, what’s gone on is that people view Donald Trump synonymously with the Republican Party and that if you oppose Trump, that’s somehow favoring Biden,” he said during an appearance on CNN’s The Lead.

“Many Republicans don’t want to do that for very obvious reasons,” Christie continued, before asserting that Trump would like to be an authoritarian leader:

He’s the guy who thinks that Vladimir Putin is an excellent leader and brilliant. He’s the guy who thinks that President Xi is straight out of Hollywood. He’s the guy who thinks Kim Jong Un is wonderful. I mean, these are things that he’s said about the authoritarian leader, and that is because Donald Trump would like to be one himself. He likes that.

WATCH — Chris Christie: Trump Would Like to Be an ‘Authoritarian Leader’

Pence has also criticized Trump, angering many Trump supporters after essentially claiming that Trump put “himself over the Constitution” following Special Counsel Jack Smith’s indictment of Trump in charges related to January 6.

“Today’s indictment serves as an important reminder: anyone who puts himself over the Constitution should never be President of the United States,” Pence said in a statement at the time. “I will have more to say about the government’s case after reviewing the indictment.”

RELATED — Pence: I’m ‘Confident’ After the Debate that Trump Will Not Be the Nominee

Both Christie and Pence have consistently stood as the most unfavorable candidates in the Republican primary field, week after week in Morning Consult’s weekly poll analyzing the GOP race.