Chris Christie promised he'd be coming for former president Donald Trump, and the federal indictment unsealed last week gave him the fuel to hit the ground running.
As many Republicans offered muted defenses or avoided the topic of Trump's legal woes, Christie made frequent appearances on cable news shows in the last few days and spent a good portion of a 90-minute CNN town hall attacking Trump on the eve of his arraignment.
Christie, the former governor of New Jersey, called Trump a "loser," a "child," and angry, vengeful, and sad at the Monday night town hall. He told moderator Anderson Cooper he's convinced that if Trump returns to the White House, "the next four years will be all about him settling scores." (Christie argued he would be a fighter for Americans if he was elected president).
The expected offensive comes after Christie, who launched a second presidential bid last week, tries to stand apart from a crowded GOP field. In the last few days, though, some GOP contenders have inched closer to criticizing the former president, though none at the volume of or as acerbically as Christie.
Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley on Monday called Donald Trump "reckless." U.S. Sen. Tim Scott (R., S.C.) described the federal charges as "serious allegations." Both were a shift in tone from their previous reactions to the indictment.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has defended Trump in the context of the indictment but amped up criticisms on other topics, including whether Trump is conservative enough for the party and how much the 76-year-old could accomplish in the one term he'd be limited to if he were elected.
A former federal prosecutor, Christie called the evidence in the indictment "damning" and the situation evidence of what he called Trump's inability to face that he lost the 2020 election.
"He cannot live with the fact that he lost to Joe Biden," Christie said. "... He wants to continue to pretend he's president, he wants the trappings around him, and I think one of those trappings is these documents. He flew the boxes up to New Jersey for summer vacation. What is this, like they're a family member? This is vanity run amuck."
Christie criticized fellow Republicans who say the charges are politically motivated.
"Everyone's blaming the prosecutors," he said. "He did it. It's his conduct."
Polling at 1%, Christie will have a steep climb to get out of the minor league bracket of GOP contenders. But his early attacks on Trump could gain him some momentum or persuade other candidates to be more aggressive toward the front-runner.
Christie reiterated on Monday that he believes the only path to the White House was through Trump and some of his comments — like repeatedly calling Trump a loser — seemed to echo Trump's own speeches.
"I've known him for 22 years. The only thing he understands is force," Christie said.
Through the town hall, Christie told a lot of personal stories about Trump, a close friend for years. A key ally to Trump's previous campaigns, he's now using some of those personal interactions as fodder for his run against Trump.
He talked about a 2017 Valentine's Day lunch in the East Wing with his wife and Trump, where he told Trump, "You didn't win, she lost," referencing Hillary Clinton. Christie told Cooper that Trump shrugged off his political advice to focus less on himself and more on the country then.
Christie also recounted getting COVID in 2020 after helping Trump with debate prep. In a story he's told before, Christie said Trump called him in intensive care and asked, "Are you going to say you got it from me?"
Christie did cover some policy in the town hall. He wouldn't say if he'd support a federal abortion ban, saying he preferred abortion rights be left up to the states. He also wouldn't commit to any support for changes to gun laws.
Asked whether President Joe Biden or Trump represented a bigger hazard to the country, Christie said, "It's a coin flip." If he was elected president, he said, he'd retain FBI director Christopher Wray, whom DeSantis has said he'd fire.
Several times he harkened back to his eight years as governor of New Jersey, at one point touting his dismantling and re-making of the Camden police department and a subsequent improvement in homicide rates there.
He said he had no involvement in the "Bridgegate" scandal that mired his political rise but said he'd learned to be more cautious about who he appoints to positions of power.
Asked what differentiates him, he said it was his ability to govern as a Republican in a blue state to get things done.
"We can all fight to get headlines," he said. "I'm pretty good at that ... but at the end, that does nothing for you."
