Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie filed paperwork to operate for president, injecting a dose of anti-Trump criticism into a Republican primary area that has mostly been hesitant to cross its main applicant.
Christie, 60, was established to individually announce his campaign Tuesday evening during a town hall function in Manchester, New Hampshire, the point out exactly where his past presidential bid arrived undone.
Christie placed sixth in that state’s 2016 major and dropped out of the race soon thereafter. In a shocking transfer, Christie endorsed then-applicant Donald Trump just days later. He went on to aid prep Trump for his debate against now-President Joe Biden in the 2020 contest.
But his assistance for Trump dried up shortly following, as the previous president, following his decline to Biden, fed his supporters a firehose of conspiracy theories and bogus claims of popular voter fraud while pushing to overturn his defeat.
Like quite a few Republicans, Christie criticized Trump immediately after a violent mob of the then-president’s supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, derailing the peaceful transfer of energy to Biden. But while significantly of the GOP institution softened its stance on Trump in the ensuing months, Christie held up his criticism.
“I believe he is a coward and I feel he is a puppet of [Russian President Vladimir] Putin,” Christie claimed very last thirty day period in reaction to Trump’s reviews about the Ukraine war in the course of a CNN city hall.
Christie, whose intense takedown of Sen. Marco Rubio in a 2016 Republican discussion was a spotlight of his campaign, has stressed the require for Trump’s current challengers to forcefully confront him on the debate stage.
“You greater have any individual on that stage who will do to him what I did to Marco, mainly because which is the only detail that is heading to defeat Donald Trump,” Christie explained in March.
“It’s not likely to close nicely no issue what,” the previous governor stated of Trump. “His finish will not be a calm and peaceful summary.”
Christie has advised in new months that he wouldn’t operate until he sees a feasible path to victory. To quite a few political watchers, that path stays unclear.
Polls of the possible main race demonstrate Christie garnering very little help from Republican voters. A new Monmouth University study uncovered Christie was the only declared or potential GOP applicant to get a internet negative favorability score, 21% to 47%, from Republican voters.
Christie’s announcement arrives significantly less than two months after Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis officially joined the Republican primary race, starting to be the prime non-Trump contender. South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott entered the primary that exact week. Previous Vice President Mike Pence is anticipated to be part of the fray on Wednesday.
Allies of the previous New Jersey governor just lately released a super PAC, Explain to It Like It Is, to guidance his operate for president.
Christie was elected governor of the traditionally blue condition in 2009 and served for two terms, the maximum authorized beneath expression limit procedures.
He received countrywide consideration in 2012 for his reaction to Superstorm Sandy, which battered his point out and triggered billions of pounds in harm. Christie’s vocal praise for then-President Barack Obama’s aid amid the crisis angered some of his fellow Republicans, but the governor’s polling quantities surged in the wake of the storm.
Individuals substantial approval ratings would crater by the end of Christie’s second phrase, which was marred by his relationship to the 2013 “Bridgegate” scandal.
In September of that yr, commuter lanes have been shut down on the George Washington Bridge connecting New Jersey and New York for various days in retaliation in opposition to a mayor who refused to back again Christie’s reelection bid. The lane closures prompted massive traffic jams.
The Supreme Courtroom in 2020 reversed fraud convictions from two of Christie’s aides who experienced performed vital roles in the scandal.
Christie was succeeded by Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy, who received a second time period in 2021. Christie joined ABC Information in 2018 as a political contributor. In 2020, he was hospitalized with a intense case of Covid-19 that he claimed put him in an ICU for a week.
