Chris Christie is punching back at Donald Trump after the former president responded to his campaign announcement with a juvenile video edit making fun of Mr Christie’s weight.
The former New Jersey governor appeared on CNN on Wednesday after launching his campaign with a town hall event at St Anselm College a night earlier.
During his interview, he was questioned by The Lead host Jake Tapper about a video Mr Trump posted on Truth Social of Mr Christie delivering remarks edited to appear as if the candidate is holding a plate of food while he talks.
Mr Christie responded that the move reinforced, for him, the childishness of his opponent.
“It just renewed in my own mind what a child he is. He’s a baby. Whenever you want to criticise him, in any way, that’s the way he responds,” Mr Christie said.
Likening that behaviour to that of a toddler, he added that Mr Trump should be “sent to [his] room, not to the White House”.
“It’s so juvenile. He is such a spoiled baby,” Mr Christie continued. He then noted that he had been struggling with his weight and health for many years, quipping derisively that Mr Trump was “breaking news” with his response.
Separately, Mr Trump accused the former governor of having a fixation on the word “small” during his town hall event in another Truth Social statement.
“How many times did Chris Christie use the word SMALL? Does he have a psychological problem with SIZE? Actually, his speech was SMALL, and not very good. It rambled all over the place, and nobody had a clue of what he was talking about. Hard to watch, boring, but that’s what you get from a failed Governor (New Jersey) who left office with a 7% approval rating and then got run out of New Hampshire,” barked the former president. “This time, it won’t be any different!”
It was, generally, a sign of the aggressive tone that both Mr Christie and Mr Trump plan to adopt in the GOP primary, which has heated up this week with the addition of three separate candidates in the field. Comparatively, their fellow candidates in the Republican primary have shied away from directly attacking the former president or responding to his own jabs at them.
Not so for the New Jerseyan two-time presidential candidate, who laid into his opponent during his appearance in New Hampshire this week and accused the entire Trump family of the same “grift” and corruption which they accuse the Biden family of undertaking.
He also tore into the former president’s record, characterising Mr Trump as an inefficient president who failed to address a number of problems — but namely immigration reform — during his four years in the White House.
