Christie joins White House race
WASHINGTON: Republican former New Jersey governor Chris Christie jumped into the 2024 race for the White House on Tuesday, positioning himself as a political knife-fighter and the only candidate willing to take on frontrunner Donald Trump.
Mr Christie, who filed his paperwork with the Federal Election Commission before an evening announcement in Manchester, New Hampshire, presents a novel challenge as the only Republican contender so far willing to land genuinely damaging blows on the former president.
The 60-year-old Newark native came sixth in New Hampshire seven years ago and eventually endorsed Mr Trump, serving as a key adviser before the pair fell out over the tycoon’s refusal to accept his 2020 election defeat.
At his announcement in New Hampshire on Tuesday evening, Mr Christie depicted Mr Trump as self-obsessed and dishonest.
The former US president, Mr Christie said “always finds someone else and something else to blame for whatever goes wrong, but finds every reason to take credit for anything that goes right”.
And Mr Christie argued last month that the de facto Republican leader was “afraid” of debating serious opponents.
Mr Trump has indicated that he may skip at least one of the first two Republican primary debates, expressing a reluctance to share the limelight with lower-polling rivals.
“If he really cares about the country — and I have deep questions about that — but if he really cares about the country, then he’s going to get up there, and he shouldn’t be afraid,” Mr Christie told conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt.
Mr Christie has assailed Mr Trump on all manner of issues, highlighting the escalating criminal probes targeting the embattled billionaire, trashing his false claims of election fraud and dubbing him “Putin’s puppet” over his isolationist stance on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
John Ellis, a former head of the Fox News Election Night Decision Desk, told AFP that while a bigger field benefits Mr Trump, Mr Christie’s candidacy could put the top-polling candidate on the back foot.
“Because he will attack Trump relentlessly, Christie’s campaign will get a tonne of coverage in the mainstream press, which may help him do well in New Hampshire,” said Mr Ellis.
Mr Christie’s launch comes a day after former vice president Mike Pence filed the paperwork for his own White House bid, setting up an unusual scenario in which two former running mates becoming rivals.
The evangelical Christian was planning an official campaign launch for yesterday in the early voting state of Iowa — joining an already crowded field that includes Florida governor Ron DeSantis, Mr Trump’s closest competition.
Ex-governors Nikki Haley and Asa Hutchinson are also in the race.