Chris Christie’s recent criticism of former President Trump was both amusing and entertaining. During an interview, he described Trump as a power-hungry, bitter man who urged him to declare bankruptcy for the State of New Jersey when he was governor. Christie even imitated Trump in a manner similar to Alec Baldwin’s impersonation on “Saturday Night Live”. He also attacked Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner for their family’s breathtaking grift, which included a $2 billion investment from Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia – a fund led by Kushner, whose father Christie had helped put in prison when he was a prosecutor.
However, while I enjoyed seeing him take on his former ally and embrace the “Resistance” movement, I’m concerned that his criticism may not win him the right-wing support he needs to win a Republican nomination. While he did criticize Trump for failing to build the border wall and repeal the Affordable Care Act, many of his criticisms were decidedly centrist. He spoke out against Trump when it came to “idolizing” Putin and extorting President Zelensky of Ukraine, admitted that Joe Biden deserves admiration for uniting Europe against Russian aggression, praised John McCain, talked about the importance of compromise and even agreed that Trump had traumatized the country.
But Christie’s stances on other issues may not be so well-received. For instance, he spoke about the need to protect pharmaceutical innovation and lauded Pfizer’s investment in mRNA vaccines when asked about drug prices. While I appreciate that he’s not catering to his party’s Covid skepticism, I don’t think this will sit well with the Republican electorate. He also stated that reproductive justice should be left up to individual states to enact laws as permissive or as restrictive as they want. This might be a sound stance for a general election, but it’s sure to be less appealing to influential right-wing activists.
So, what is Chris Christie up to? Some speculate that he wants to redeem himself after his embarrassing embrace of Trump by taking him down during a debate, just as he did to Marco Rubio in 2016. However, to qualify for debates, Republican candidates must meet several criteria, including having at least 1% support across multiple polls, at least 40,000 individual donors from 20 states or territories, and pledging to support the Republican nominee. The problem is that even if Christie clears the polling and donor thresholds, he’s already vowed never to support Trump again, and his entire campaign is premised on Trump’s utter unsuitability.
Perhaps former Bush administration official and Insider NJ columnist Alan Steinberg was on to something when he speculated that Christie might eventually run as an independent, given that it is almost impossible for Christie to secure the 2024 G.O.P Presidential nomination. “Would he be willing to accept the role of the presidential candidate of a 2024 center-right independent party?” Steinberg asked in April. If Trump becomes the nominee and runs against Biden once again, which most Americans do not want, the demand for independent third-party candidates is likely to be significant.
