Chris Christie slammed former President Trump by name Tuesday for drawing an underwhelming crowd at the CPAC conference — and losing the 2020 election.
The former New Jersey governor openly mocked Trump for falsely claiming that he drew an overflow crowd of supporters at the right-wing love fest.
He also added a dig about Trump losing to President Biden, although Christie muddIed his facts a bit on that one.
“Despite Donald Trump’s lies, the room at CPAC was not nearly filled,” Christie tweeted. “As he still cannot accept that he is the only person outside Delaware to lose to Joe Biden, he cannot accept his half empty CPAC room.”
Trump, who is famously touchy about the size of his crowds, asserted that he drew a huge crowd for his keynote speech Saturday night. He even thanked fire officials for supposedly working overtime to accommodate the big numbers.
But journalists and rivals pointed out that there were plenty of empty seats at the suburban Washington D.C. venue.
Christie is the only potential Republican rival so far who needled Trump about his bogus full house claim.
The only two announced GOP presidenial candidates, ex-UN ambassador Nikki Haley and little-known biotech mogul Viviek Ramaswamy, both spoke at CPAC but steadfastly avoided criticizing Trump by name.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and ex-Vice President Mike Pence skipped the event altogether, drawing jeers from Trump. Both have mostly steered clear of confronting Trump.
It’s not exactly clear what Christie meant when he wrote that Trump is the only person outside Delaware to have lost an election to Biden.
Biden ran unsuccessfully for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1988 and 2008. He dropped out in 1988 before any votes were cast, and he dropped out of the 2008 race after a poor showing in the Iowa caucuses.
He won the vice presidency twice in 2008 and 2012 on tickets led by former President Barack Obama.
In his 2020 campaign, Biden lost some early caucuses and primaries but prevailed later in the campaign over a field of two dozen Democrats to grab the nod to take on Trump.
Christie, who prides himself on his outspoken style, is apparently seeking to stand out from the GOP crowd by showing no fear of taking on Trump, who remains the most popular and powerful figure in the party.
Christie has a mixed history with Trump. He gave then-candidate Trump an assist by effectively taking down rival Marco Rubio during the 2016 race and briefly led president-elect Trump’s transition team.
Christie also helped Trump prepare for his 2020 presidential debates with Biden.
He split from Trump over the false claims that the election was rigged or stolen, and criticized him further over his incitement of the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.
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