Chris Christie has said that the notion that he’s set to drop out of the race for the 2024 presidential nomination is “crazy” despite his dwindling poll numbers and his failure to qualify for the next Republican debate.
The former New Jersey governor and Trump ally turned top critic of the former president appeared on MSNBC’s Morning Joe, saying that “anybody thinks I’m getting out of this race, they’re crazy”.
Mr Christie argued that Mr Trump’s mounting legal woes will lead to President Joe Biden winning re-election, adding that he wasn’t ending his campaign in the face of calls from other Republicans that he call it quits, The Hill noted. New Hampshire Governor Chris Sununu, who has endorsed former Trump UN Ambassador and South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley, appeared on CNN on Sunday arguing that the Christie campaign is at a “dead end”.
“Eventually, I think a large number of Republican voters are gonna say, ‘This is destined to reelect Joe Biden,’” Mr Christie said on MSNBC. “That’s something that I think one of the only things that unites most Republicans is that they don’t want to reelect Joe Biden. And so I’m gonna continue to fight this as the only person who’s taking him on directly, and [Nikki Haley] can play for his vice presidential nomination.”
Mr Christie rejected concerns that he didn’t qualify for the Iowa debate on CNN set for 10 January between Ms Haley and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, noting that he hasn’t campaigned in the Hawkeye State.
“I’ve hit every mark that you needed to make that have been artificially set either by the [Republican National Committee] or by some of the networks, and the only place where I didn’t mean it was a place like Iowa where I hadn’t campaigned, run one TV commercial or even showed up,” he said.
In FiveThirtyEight’s polling average of New Hampshire as of 3 January, Mr Christie was at just over 11 per cent, compared to Ms Haley at 25.7 per cent and Mr Trump at just over 44 per cent.
In national polling, Mr Christie is at 3.4 per cent, compared to Ms Haley at 11.2 per cent, Mr DeSantis at 12.1 per cent, and Mr Trump at 61.8 per cent.
“I view this as a fight for not only the soul of my party, but for the soul of our country, and who we’re going to be, what kind of government do we want? And so, why should that fight be determined by polls? I’d rather have people vote,” Mr Christie said on MSNBC.
“And if I lose, then I’m gonna have to reevaluate, you know, all of this, but I haven’t lost anything yet,” he argued.
Mr Christie also slammed his competitors for committing to pardoning Mr Trump if he’s convicted and they’re elected president.
Appearing on The View on Wednesday, Mr Christie said “no” repeatedly before host Joy Behar was even finished asking if he would pardon the former president.
“As a governor, I issued pardons,” he noted. “And one of the things you have to do is look at the person. The person has to accept responsibility for what they did. Do you think Donald Trump will ever accept responsibility for anything he did?”
“It’d be really the easiest pardon decision I would ever have to make as president,” he added. “You don’t accept responsibility? Too bad. Go to jail.”
On CNN, commenting on Ms Haley saying she would pardon Mr Trump, Mr Christie said: “As a governor, you can’t make these decisions on pardons before you hear what the trial is, what the evidence is.”
He said that for a pardon to be issued, there needs to be “acceptance of responsibility. He’ll never accept responsibility. He never has, never will. So look, she’s pandering”.
