Chris Christie, Watching 24 Run, Shoots DeSantis

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Chris Christie, the former governor of New Jersey, criticized Gov. Florida’s Ron DeSantis as a faux conservative at an event in Washington on Tuesday, one of a series of meetings and stops as he considers a second Republican presidential campaign.

The comments, made at an event hosted by media outlet Semafor, were among a wide range of topics Mr. Christie touched on, including abortion rights and his feelings about dating President Donald J. Trumps lies about the 2020 election.

Mr. elbowed Christie is Mr. DeSantis for his efforts to target Disney, a leading Florida business, in a fight that Mr. DeSantis passed legislation banning teaching and classroom discussion about gender identity and sexual orientation in some grade schools.

Mr. Christie suggested that the efforts of Mr. DeSantiss to restrict Disney goes against traditional conservative principles about small government.

I don’t think Ron DeSantis is conservative, based on the actions toward Disney, he said. Where are we headed now that, if you express dissent in this country, the government will now punish you? To me, that’s what I always thought liberals did, and now all of a sudden here we are participating in this with a Republican governor.

Who Will Run for President in 2024?

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The race is about to begin. Four years after a large number of presidential candidates ran, the field for the 2024 campaign is starting small and will likely be headlined by the same two men who ran last time: President Biden and Donald Trump. Here’s who’s entered the race so far, and who might still be in the running:

Donald Trump. The former president is running to retake the office he lost in 2020. Although somewhat reduced in influence within the Republican Party and facing several legal investigations, he has maintained a large and committed base of supporters, and he may be helped in the primary by multiple challengers who split a limited vote against Trump.

Nikki Haley. The former governor of South Carolina and UN ambassador under Trump presented herself as a member of a new generation of leadership and emphasized her life experience as a daughter of Indian immigrants. He has long been seen as a rising star of the GOP but his appeal to the party has stopped short of his on-again, off-again embrace of Trump.

Asa Hutchinson. The former governor of Arkansas is one of a relatively small number of Republicans who have openly opposed Trump. Hutchinson denounced efforts by former presidents to subvert the 2020 election and said Trump should drop out of the presidential race.

Marianne Williamson. The self-help author and former spiritual advisor to Oprah Winfrey is running for a second term. In his 2020 campaign, the Democrat called for a federal Department of Peace, supported reparations for slavery and called Trumpism a symptom of a disease in the American psyche that cannot be cured by political policies.

At another point, he ridiculed the escape of the Disneys from the efforts of Mr. DeSantiss to appoint a board to oversee it, using references to Xi Jinping, the Chinese leader, and Russian President Vladimir V. Putin.

That’s not the guy I want sitting across from President Xi and negotiating our next deal with China, or sitting across from Putin and trying to sort out what’s going on in Ukraine, if you can’t see a corner created by Bob Iger for you, Mr. Christie said. (Mr. Iger, a longtime Disney chief, returned as Disney chief executive last year.)

Mr. Christie is meeting with his staff and some donors and seeking input from the public, as he aims to decide in the coming weeks whether to run for president.

If he runs, he will start at a disadvantage in a party that has been redefined by Mr. Trump. But while Mr. DeSantis stumbled from time to time before formally entering the race, some anti-Trump voices in the Republican Party have become more interested in a Christie candidacy.

Incessantly ridiculed by Mr. Trump is Mr. DeSantis, while Mr. DeSantis largely refused to push back on Mr. Trump. A television ad from the super PAC supporting Mr. DeSantis took issue with Mr. Trump for attacking Mr. DeSantis, a fellow Republican; Mr. Trump has never been bothered by such raised eyebrows.

But Mr. Christie is ready to confront Mr. Trump and Mr. DeSantis, who are meeting with lawmakers in Washington on Tuesday.

A senior member of Mr. DeSantiss, who was not authorized to speak publicly, responded by insulting Mr. Christie and said he would attack a winner.

Mr. Christie and Mr. Trump went from friends to foes to allies after Mr. Trump became the nominee in 2016, defeating Mr. Christie and all the other rivals in the New Hampshire primary. He is the chairman of Mr. Trumps transition team before top Trump aides and Mr. Trumps son-in-law fired him after Election Day; however, Mr. Christie remained aligned with Mr. Trump. The president considered him as chief of staff at one point in late 2018, but Mr. Christie removed himself from the running.

Mr. Christie told the crowd that Mr. Trump has reached the point of no return with his lies that the election was stolen from him.

There’s a difference between going around politics to try to put yourself in a better position before the vote happens and after the vote happens saying it was rigged, Mr. Christie said.

He also blamed Mr. Trump declaring in a recent speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference that I am your retribution to people who believe they are wrong.

I think a president should be our inspiration, not our retribution, Mr. Christie said.

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