Appearing in a CNN town hall Monday, Chris Christie hit his Republican rivals who are afraid to take on Trump, asking, “How do you beat someone if you won’t talk about him? How do you beat them if you won’t distinguish yourself from them?”
Christie said he and others made a big mistake in 2016 when they went after each other instead of Trump, allowing him to win the nomination.
“I will not let it happen this time. I am going to take him on directly . . . because he’s the leader,” he said. “This is what I don’t understand with the other candidates who won’t even say his name. I watched that Joni Ernst Roast and Ride. It was like [Trump] was Voldemort from Harry Potter. Nobody wanted to mention his name.”
“Say his name,” urged Christie several times, asserting that while some of the candidates are playing politics, some are afraid.
“They’re afraid of him. Look what he does,” said Christie, adding that the only thing Trump responds to is force: “The only thing he understands is coming right at him and making your case.”
According to the former New Jersey governor, Republican voters must be confronted with the argument that Trump is a three-time loser.
“When did we get to the point we’re always blaming our adversaries for the weakness of our candidates?” Christie said. “‘Oh, it’s the Democrats’ fault, it’s the DOJ’s fault, it’s this person’s fault, it’s the media’s fault.’ How about it’s his? He hasn’t won a damn thing since 2016.”
“Three-time loser,” added Christie, “2018, we lost the House; 2020, we lost the White House; we lost the United States Senate a couple weeks later in 2021; and in 2022, we lost two more governorships, another Senate seat, and barely took the House of Representatives when Joe Biden had the most incompetent first two years I’d ever seen in my life.”
“It’ll be different this time? Why? Why will it be different this time? Those arguments need to be made,” he said.
Christie, a former federal prosecutor, also said the indictment in special counsel Jack Smith’s classified-documents probe is “a very tight, very detailed, evidence-laden indictment, and the conduct in there is awful.”
Christie estimated that only a third of the evidence that Smith has is in the indictment.
“There will guaranteed be a lot more. When you’re a prosecutor, you never put every card on the table before the trial,” Christie said.
He added that other candidates shouldn’t talk just about what they perceive to be the weaponization of law enforcement. They shouldn’t avoid the question of Trump’s behavior with the classified documents, he said.
“This conduct is inexcusable,” Christie said of Trump. “He is voluntarily putting our country through this.”