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WASHINGTON – Chris Christie took his crusade against Donald Trump to CNN’s airwaves Monday, saying the former president’s legal problems and character issues render him unfit for another term in the White House.
A Trump return to the presidency will only be about “settling scores” rather than helping the American people, Christie told a CNN town hall event staged in New York City.
“He has shown himself … to be completely self-centered, completely self-consumed, and doesn’t give a damn about the American people, in my view,” Christie said.
The Republican Party in general, particularly Trump’s primary challengers, should also go on the attack, Christie said, if only because of Trump’s recent failures in national elections.
Citing Republican setbacks in the 2018, 2020, and 2022 congressional and presidential elections, the former ally of Trump said that “he hasn’t won a damn thing since 2016; three-time loser.”
He later repeated: “Loser … loser … loser.”
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Trump: ‘Boring’ Christie
Trump, who spent the night in Miami ahead of his Tuesday arraignment on obstruction of justice charges, has mocked Christie as a loser who is at 1% in Republican polls.
After watching a Christie town hall in New Hampshire last week, Trump said on his Truth Social website: “Hard to watch, boring, but that’s what you get from a failed Governor (New Jersey) who left office with a 7% approval rating and then got run out of New Hampshire. This time, it won’t be any different!”
The documents case
In critiquing Trump over his legal issues, Christie focused on Trump’s recent indictment over classified documents. Other items – the previous indictment over hush money, and the prospect of more indictments over his efforts to overturn the 2020 election – did not come up during the CNN town hall.
The evidence in the current indictment “looks pretty damning,” Christie said. Trump stands accused of improperly taking sensitive and classified information from the White House and obstructing justice by hiding the documents from investigators who had subpoenaed them.
“He is voluntarily putting our country through this,” Christie said. “It’s his conduct.”
Christie said he suspects Trump kept the documents in order to “show off” to friends and associates, never mind that he was not legally entitled to them.
Debate lane
CNN set up a town hall-like set-up in one of its studios in New York City. The network gathered together a group of Republican voters from the first four primary states, as well as New York and New Jersey.
CNN is sponsoring a series of town halls with Republican presidential candidates, starting with a much-criticized May 10 event with Trump.
Christie also taunted Trump into joining Republican debates later this year. Trump has suggested he may skip the debates because so many opponents are trailing him badly in the polls.
If Trump does refuse the first debate in Milwaukee on Aug. 23, Christie said he will have “a lane” to attack him without a response; that will force Trump to show up for a second session in California in September.
Chris Christie age comments: ‘Nobody beats father time’
Christie may not qualify for the debates, given his standing in the polls, and no doubt hopes that his full-throated attack on Trump will help inflate his numbers.
It’s all the more remarkable because few prominent Republicans played a bigger role in helping Trump win the presidency in the first place.
After dropping out of the 2016 race, Christie became one of the highest-profile Republican to endorse Trump’s anti-establishment campaign. Trump later considered Christie for the running mate slot before picking Mike Pence.
In the general election race, Christie helped Trump prepare for his pivotal debates with Democratic opponent Hillary Rodham Clinton. For a time, Christie headed up the Trump transition team, but was replaced by Pence.
“Very few people were as publicly invested in the success of Donald Trump as I was,” Christie said in a book called “Republican Rescue: Saving the Party from Truth Deniers, Conspiracy Theorists, and the Dangerous Policies of Joe Biden.”
Christie later said he was “wrong” about Trump, and began to turn against him during his protests of the 2020 election that led to the insurrection of Jan. 6, 2021.
During the CNN town hall, Christie said Trump’s post-2020 lies about the conduct of the election undermined faith in the system, and “is the most destructive thing he’s done.”
At times, Christie combined his criticism of Trump with attacks on Democratic President Joe Biden – including their ages.
The 60-year-old former New Jersey governor said that, if Biden and Trump are both re-nominated, their combined age will be 160 – simply too old for the demands of the presidency.
“I’m sorry guys,” Christie said. “Nobody beats Father Time.”
Christie and Kushner
There has long been tension between Christie and members of Trump’s extended family.
When he was a U.S. attorney in New Jersey, Christie prosecuted the father of Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law. Charles Kushner wound up in prison on charges of tax evasion and attempts to intimidate a witness against him.
Jared Kushner is no fan of Christie, and vice-versa. Since launching his 2024 campaign, Christie has added Kushner and his wife Ivanka to his list of attacks on the former president.
“The grift from this family is breathtaking,” Christie said at a New Hampshire town hall. “It’s breathtaking. Jared Kushner and Ivanka Kushner walk out of the White House, and months later get $2 billion from the Saudis.”
The other candidates
The aggressive New Jersey governor didn’t attack just Trump; he also went after other Republican candidates who are vying to become the alternative to the frontrunner.
At one point, Christie criticized Ron DeSantis for avoiding criticism of Trump over the indictment, saying they are hoping to inherit the former president’s support in case he is chased from the 2024 race.
“They’re playing political games with you,” Christie said.
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