Christie’s 2024 offer should make criticism of Trump a central focus

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Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie’s 2024 bid will likely put his criticism of Donald Trump front and center, offering a test of the GOP’s appetite for an explicitly anti-Trump nominee.

Christie’s expected presidential bid has been met with skepticism by Republicans, some of whom suggest his candidacy is just a vanity project, while others are quick to point out that Christie, while he is now a vocal critic of Trump, worked closely to help re-elect the former president. in 2020.

But even some of those Republicans recognize that the former New Jersey governor’s boxing style could impact the field and potentially even damage Trump in some way.

“If it’s not a vanity campaign, I think his value … is that he can go out there and throw some hard punches and maybe other candidates on the pitch can benefit from that,” the official said. GOP strategist Jason Cabel Roe, who has worked on presidential campaigns. for Sens. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) in 2008 and Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) in 2016.

Much of the 2024 GOP field has largely avoided confronting Trump as Republican candidates navigate the delicate dance of adopting positions and policies that were popular among conservatives under the Trump administration while differentiating themselves from the former president himself.

While presidential primaries typically see candidates attacking each other, Republican candidates in 2024 are also acutely aware that attacking Trump could risk alienating the voters they will need to win who still admire the former president. .

But unlike most GOP 2024 players, Christie didn’t shy away from taking jabs at the former president. After disappointing midterm results last November for Republicans, the former New Jersey governor pointed to a number of Trump-backed candidates who lost their races, saying it was a “huge loss for Trump”.

“And again it shows that his political instincts are not about the party, they are not about the country, they are about him,” he added at the time.

During Trump’s CPAC appearance earlier this year, Christie also snapped a photo of the former president and the size of his audience watching his speech.

“You saw the scenes at CPAC, that room was half full,” Christie said in March. “The reason I don’t think the rallies are happening…I don’t think the rallies would be as big as they used to be.”

Brian Seitchik, an Arizona-based GOP strategist and alumnus of the Trump campaign, thought Christie’s anti-Trump stance could have long-term benefits if another Republican secured the nomination and won the presidency, but suggested that ‘He wasn’t likely to win over GOP voters for Christie himself.

“If Trump loses New Hampshire, Christie will be part of it, but I just don’t see voters rewarding him accordingly,” Seitchik said.

“Now that could lead to a future Republican candidate and president rewarding him with [naming him] attorney general, which isn’t a bad consolation prize, but it’s hard to see how Christie becomes the [nominee] playing the role of junkyard dog in this race.

GOP strategist Keith Naughton suggested that Christie would focus primarily on Trump rather than some sort of different vision for the party.

“I don’t think he’s really going to offer any type of alternative platform or anything, I think he’s going to mostly talk about Trump and try to fight him,” Naughton said.

At the same time, party members recognize that Christie’s feistiness has been effective in the past and could eventually topple Trump by a few pegs. Christie took a number of jabs at Rubio during a debate in New Hampshire in 2016, slamming him for reverting to a “25-second memorized speech”, and was credited with severely damaging the candidacy President of the Florida Senator.

Rubio went on to place fifth in the New Hampshire primary while Christie placed sixth, with the Florida senator acknowledging he didn’t do well on debate night.

Unlike most of the peloton, Christie is also the only one to have previously debated Trump in 2016. He also helped the former president prepare for the debate in the 2020 cycle, giving him greater insight into the pros and cons. outs of Trump’s thinking on a debate stage.

Republican strategist and former Christie aide Colin Reed has suggested that forcibly going after Trump would benefit him.

“History shows that simply sitting back and waiting for Donald Trump to implode is not a recipe for political success,” Reed said.

“The one thing that I think sets him so far apart from the rest of the field is that he won’t shy away or turn away from criticism of the former president by explaining why [Trump’s] not the right candidate to become the next president,” he added.

Reed also pushed back against the idea that Christie’s candidacy wasn’t serious, saying that “he wouldn’t go into this business if he didn’t think there was [a] viable path for its own candidacy.

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Other Republicans also stress party members need to have an open mind about the burgeoning field, saying it’s too early to rule out candidates like Christie.

“Donald Trump is the frontrunner, and when he first showed up, nobody gave him a chance. And so I think there’s some of those same conversations going on about Mike Pence, n “Isn’t it? If Donald Trump is somehow to be unseated or falter, the race potentially resets,” GOP strategist Doug Heye explained.

“…DeSantis is probably in the strongest position of anyone, but if the race resets, nobody is smart enough to know exactly which way it will go. And so it is premature at this point to write off someone, especially someone with the political and communication skills of a Chris Christie,” he added.

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