During a discussion this Thursday on MSNBC, former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, who is running in the GOP presidential primary, shared some of his perspective on former President Donald Trump. Christie remains among the only Republicans in the 2024 race willing to consistently criticize Trump, though all of them are ostensibly running against him for the party’s presidential nomination for next year’s election.
“I can only assume it’s because they’re auditioning for what they pray will be a future vice presidential nomination or a Cabinet bid in a Trump administration,” Christie remarked, when asked about the difficulty seemingly experienced by most other leading Republican candidates on the question of distancing themselves from Trump’s behavior after the 2020 election. “The problem for them is going to be: Donald Trump’s never going to be president of the United States again. And it becomes more and more clear to me every day that folks around this country, especially independents and disaffected Republicans, are not going to rejoin the Trump coalition based upon his conduct over the last three years since he left the presidency.”
Polling supports this assertion, as many Americans either approve of charges Trump has faced or believe Trump should exit the race altogether after facing some of these allegations of criminality. Polls that directly measure prospective voters’ opinions in the event of a rematch next November between Trump and incumbent President Joe Biden find the two close to each other — not Trump way out in front, as he characteristically asserts.
Trump will be surrendering for processing in Georgia on Thursday after getting hit with criminal charges as part of a sweeping indictment alleging a criminal conspiracy targeting the state’s election results from 2020. A total of 19 defendants, including prominent names like Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell, were included in the case. Trump will be under formal restrictions on making threatening comments — including in the form of reposts from other accounts on social media — that are directed towards a variety of individuals tied to the case.
Chris Christie on why others can’t acknowledge “basic truths” about Trump:
“I can only assume it’s because they’re auditioning for what they pray will be a future VP nom or Cabinet bid … The problem for them is going to be Trump’s never going to be Pres of the U.S. again …” pic.twitter.com/ihwJYQYgsP
— The Recount (@therecount) August 24, 2023
