Former Republican New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie’s 2024 campaign is over, though it never got off the ground. The fact is that the 2024 Republican primaries never got off the ground. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis was incapable of chipping away at Donald Trump’s stranglehold on the GOP base and, therefore, unable to break loose in any threatening way.
Nikki Haley and Vivek Ramaswamy were never going to win either. Trump won the 2024 primaries when the FBI ransacked Mar-a-Lago in August of 2022. It’s over. Christie knew it and decided to leave a nasty note for Republicans as he exited the stage. In New Hampshire, the New Jersey Republican conceded his campaign was finished but also said Haley was going to get smoked. His swan song was riddled with the usual anti-Trump talking points and self-righteous guff (via Politico):
Christie’s abrupt exit less than a week before Iowa’s leadoff caucuses and less than two weeks until New Hampshire’s primary undoubtedly will help Haley in the Granite State, where she has surged into a clear second place in polls — and where Christie had threatened to divide the anti-Trump vote.
Christie did not endorse any candidate on Wednesday. And Haley has not reached out to Christie in recent weeks, according to a person familiar with their communication — or lack thereof. But she issued a statement Wednesday evening calling Christie a “friend for many years” and pledging to “fight to earn every vote.”
New Hampshire Republicans who are desperate to block Trump from the nomination — and who see the state as the only early contest in which they have a shot at diminishing his lead — had undertaken an intense pressure campaign in recent days to push Christie out of the race.
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On Wednesday, in front of a few dozen supporters who had gathered at a wedding chapel in Windham, New Hampshire — for what had been sold to some of them as an important policy speech — Christie conceded that he had no path to victory.
“I would rather lose by telling the truth than lie in order to win,” Christie said. “It’s clear to me tonight that there isn’t a path for me to win the nomination, which is why I’m suspending my campaign.”
The former governor has regretted his past support of Donald Trump; maybe this campaign was a way of exorcising that political demon for Mr. Christie. What doesn’t help is him calling out Republicans by name who have endorsed the former president. What good does that do besides making you look like a sore loser? These are elected lawmakers who are expected to get behind the leader of their party. It’s nothing new (via Axios):
Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie suspended his presidential campaign tonight, bringing an abrupt end to the GOP's only explicitly anti-Trump candidacy just five days before the Iowa caucuses.
Driving the news: Christie used his drop-out speech to excoriate — by name — Republicans who he said entered politics "for the right reasons" but have gone on to bend the knee to Trump out of cowardice.
That includes Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) and Rep. Tom Emmer (R-Minn.) — two Trump skeptics and members of congressional GOP leadership who have endorsed the former president in recent days.
"There will come a day when Donald Trump is gone, but your dishonor will remain," Christie warned in his blistering speech.
Oh, man, where do we go from here? Dishonor? Who cares if Trump wins in 2024? At this point, with the economy teetering on collapse, winning is all that matters, no matter what. The GOP must unite to kick Biden out of office, and Trump is our only candidate to do that. Should there have been a robust primary? It would have made things more interesting, but that didn’t happen. We’re going through a retread of 2016, where anti-Trump Republicans, the minority, are going through the stages of grief again. The ‘woulda, coulda, shoulda’s’ only waste time defeating the Left this cycle. Trump is the guy. Everyone else is not. It’s done. To smear people as dishonorable because you couldn’t convince them to back you for president is ego run amok. In the words of Andrew Breitbart, “If you can’t sell freedom and liberty, you suck.” And by extension, that principle extends to the interview process when it comes to picking a candidate, or salesman, to make that pitch to the electorate. Chris sucked.
The media reaction has been equally nauseating, as liberal reporters, who probably hate Christie’s guts, lament how he was robbed of a chance to deliver haymakers to Trump personally on a debate stage. His anti-Trump antics are what curried favor but with all the wrong people. The speech could also be considered a final goodbye to his career in public office.
MSNBC is BIG SAD because Chris Christie dropped out of the race.
— Nicholas Fondacaro (@NickFondacaro) January 11, 2024
Stephanie Ruhle says Christie "improved his legacy" because he denounced Trump. She says History will remember him for it and forget DeSantis and Haley.
Joy Reid laments Christie was unable to attack Trump on stage. pic.twitter.com/qswZr3dsG1
When MSNBC is lamenting the end of your campaign, you're doing it wrong. Goodbye, Mr. Christie.