There’s a feud brewing at the GOP and it’s being provoked by former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie. Christie, who left office with the lowest approval rating of any governor in the history of New Jersey is running for President in 2024. He tried it in 2016,
He eventually quit the race, throwing his support behind Donald Trump. Christie was one of Trump’s minions during his presidency. While the President never truly gave Christie the respect and attention he craved from the Commander-In-Chief, he stayed with Trump until the bitter end.
In October of 2020, Christie helped Trump prepare for his debate against Joe Biden. It was in those debate preps that Trump now blames Christie for giving him COVID-19.
Christie and Trump were together at the President’s last campaign event at his Bedminster estate where the media and Governor Phil Murphy criticized the former president because of the possible spread of COVID-19.
After that, it was all downhill for the relationship between Trump and his underling, Christie.
After all, the Trump administration’s end singled the start of a power vacuum at the top of the GOP and Christie felt he was the guy to take the reigns. By doing so, Christie began appealing to the anti-Trump royalty of the GOP establishments by attacking Trump. He tried to create space between himself and Trump by going after the President’s claim of election fraud, calling it a wild conspiracy theory that was never proven.
When simple distancing wasn’t enough, Christie went for the direct approach to goad Trump and win over Republican party elites who want things to go back to the way they were before Trump. Last week, Christie tried to rally the GOP against Trump by saying the party needs to move ahead without the former President.
Trump responded to Christie, mocking his failed run for president and low approval ratings as governor. Christie’s hook was set. He responded by bragging that he won he re-election, mocking Trump’s 2020 loss.
Chris Christie, in order to increase his stock value with GOP’s grand ole’ gang, the Bushes, Romneys, McCains, etc, he desperately needs a feud with Trump. Without the Trump feud, Christie has nothing to present to Republicans at the national level.
With a knock-em, sock-em drawn-out feud with Trump, Christie can begin branding his 2024 campaign as being the only firebrand in the GOP willing to fight Trump and Democrats at the same time. Without it, he’s just an ABC News contributor known mostly for Bridgegate, bringing his family to a state beach during a government shut down, New Jersey’s lowest-rated governor and an early loser in the 2016 election.
The thing is, most people who know Christie in his home state don’t want to hear about him anymore. They have had enough of Chris Christie after 8 years in office that saw police, fire and pension funds depleted, an excessive gas tax and for him being a setup man that allowed Phil Murphy to take power in 2017. Facing backlash from Christie’s 8-year reign of terror, his Lt. Governor Kim Guadagno had no chance to win and was able to come out from under Christie’s shadow to convince voters she was not an extension of the Christie agenda.
Whether or not Christie will ever poll into the double digits in the 2024 race is unknown, but the odds are against him and another New Hampshire exit is predicted by most New Jersey political insiders.