Don’t expect former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie to leave the Republican Party anytime soon, despite his constant dissatisfaction with its behavior.
Mr. Christie asserted that he is a Republican and will fight for his party.
“No, no, no,” Christie said Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press” when asked if he was leaving the Republican Party. “I’m ready to change the Republican Party. I’ll never stop fighting to change the party. I’m a Republican.”
Still, Mr. Christie, a longtime attack dog for former President Donald Trump, reiterated his longstanding resolve not to vote for the front-runner to become the Republican standard-bearer in the Nov. 5 presidential election.
Mr. Christie was less forthcoming about not voting for Mr. Biden.
“My promise to you this morning is that you will not vote for Donald Trump under any circumstances,” Christie said.
“I don’t think I’ll vote for President Biden,” he said later. “Do you want to rule that out? I can’t imagine doing that. If I had only two choices, I’d say Kristen. I’m going to run for Senate in New Jersey.”
Christie also did not rule out running as a third-party candidate.
Garden State Republicans accused Biden of failing to do his job, defended special counsel Robert Hur’s scathing assessment of President Biden’s frailty, and jurors found him to have a “poor memory.” It concluded that there was a high possibility that he would be seen as a “well-intentioned old man.”
Ho ultimately concluded that Biden “intentionally retained and disclosed classified material,” but declined to press charges.
Democrats have criticized the inclusion of references to Biden’s forgetfulness.
“The fact is that they had to explain why they didn’t prosecute in starting the report by saying that he intentionally and knowingly kept classified documents. Well, that’s it. It’s against the law,” Christie said.
“In some ways, I think it might have been better for President Biden to have been indicted than for that report to be released for his re-election campaign,” Christie later mused, adding that the report said the forgetful aspect of Biden was politically harmful. Biden.
Back in 2016, Mr. Christie endorsed Mr. Trump shortly after ending his own campaign seeking Republican support. Christie and Trump’s friendship dates back to the early 2000s.
Christie publicly acknowledged that he was interested in becoming Trump’s vice president or attorney general, but blamed Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, for crushing those dreams.
He has now expressed deep regret for supporting Trump and has become one of the Republican Party’s most prominent critics.
Mr. Christie speculated that Mr. Trump would be surrounded by supporters in his second term, unlike last time, when Mr. Trump selected aides to serve as guardrails to the presidency.
“When he took office in 2016, he was frightened. He was afraid of being president…he knew he wasn’t ready. As a result, he was afraid of being president. I started listening to good people,” Christie said.
“He won’t do that in a second term.”
Last week, Mr. Christie published his latest book, “What Would Reagan Do?” Life lessons from the last great president. ”
This book examines former President Ronald Reagan’s accomplishments and the current state of the Republican Party.
