Chris Christi is the last guy who should be talking about taking on Donald Trump.
The former New Jersey governor failed to do so in 2016 when he as a presidential candidate had the opportunity in the GOP presidential primary.
Now contemplating another run for president, Christie wants a do over, telling Republicans he wants to do to Trump what he did to Florida Sen. Marco Rubio back then.
In Christie’s telling, his mockery of Rubio back then forced Rubio to drop out of the crowded field of GOP presidential candidates.
”You better have somebody on that stage who can do to [Trump] what I did to Marco because that’s the only thing that’s going to defeat Donald Trump,” Christie said.
Christie, one of the party’s bright stars back then, was highly critical of Rubio, who he saw a potential threat saying, among other things, that Rubio had no substance.
Christie, who is contemplating running for president again, made his remarks at a St. Anselm College Institute of Politics town meeting last week.
After dumping on Rubio, Christie, known for his New Jersey bluster, went after Trump. He said that in order to take down Trump a candidate needed “to have the skill to do it.
“And that means you have to be fearless because he will come right back at you. So you need to think about who’s got the skill to do that. And who’s got the guts to do it. Because it’s not going to end nicely. No matter what, his end will not be calm and quiet.”
Christie trading insults with Trump is like a New Jersey wiseguy going after a wiseguy from Queens, even after Trump was indicted on dubious and politically tainted charges. I’d bet on Trump, despite the indictment.
While Rubio did drop out of the 2016 race shortly after the New Hampshire GOP presidential primary, so didn’t Christie.
Trump won that primary with 35% of the vote. Rubio came in fifth and Christie came in sixth.
Christie, who would “take on” Trump in 2024, endorsed and campaigned for him in 2016. Looking back Christie called his support of Trump “a strategic error.”
Unmentioned was that many people, including Christie, expected that Trump would reward Christie with a cabinet appointment, perhaps attorney general, or Secretary of Homeland Security or ambassador to Italy. It did not happen.
As it was, Trump named Christie as head of his transition team but shortly fired him for alleged mismanagement and the lingering fallout from the so-called Bridgegate scandal. He replaced him with Vice President-Elect Mike Pence.
Trump, or his advisers, were apparently concerned over the conviction of two top aides to then Gov. Christie for shutting down the George Washington Bridge to punish a political opponent and the city he represented.
Christie, who avoided attacking Trump back then, now appears to suffer from what the late great columnist Charles Krauthammer in French used to call esprit de l’escalier, or “the wit of the staircase.”
This is a dig or a retort or a remark a person thinks about after the opportunity—or debate–has passed and he is on the way out the door. That’s Chris Christie.
And Chris Christie must be the least of Trump’s worries. Nor is Trump worried about Nikki Haley, his former UN ambassador, or with entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, the only two announced candidates running against Trump, who has already announced.
Waiting in the wings, of course, is Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, Mike Pompeo, Trump’s former secretary of state, Mike Pence, his former vice president, and who knows who else.
All of them in one way or another, owe Trump. And there is probably no way any one of them can take down Trump and survive. Trump and his base are too strong for that.
The only man who can wreck Donald Trump is Donald Trump.
But Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s political and pathetic Trump indictment has made Trump even stronger. Consider it a campaign contribution.
Peter Lucas is a veteran Massachusetts political reporter and columnist.
