Christie: It was a mistake to endorse Trump in 2016
Former New Jersey governor Chris Christie said in a new ad released Thursday that he had been wrong to endorse Donald Trump in 2016.
“I have an admission to make,” Christie said directly to the camera in the 60-second ad, part of a series his campaign is running in New Hampshire, where he has staked his campaign on a strong showing. “Eight years ago, when I decided to endorse Donald Trump for president, I did it because he was winning, and I did it because I thought I could make him a better candidate and a better president. Well, I was wrong. I made a mistake.”
Christie endorsed Trump in 2016 after ending his own presidential campaign, and he went on to be a powerful surrogate. His campaign argues that, while several Republicans who previously supported Trump are now running against him for the party’s nomination, Christie is the only one willing to say he erred by supporting Trump in the first place. He suggested in the ad that this was evidence of his “character.”
“Now, we’re confronted with the very same choice again,” he said in the ad, which was first reported by Axios. “Donald Trump is ahead in the polls, so everyone says, ‘Anyone who’s behind him should drop out, and we should make our choice Donald Trump versus Joe Biden.’ Well, Joe Biden has had the wrong policies, and Donald Trump would sell the soul of this country. Neither choice is acceptable to me, and it shouldn’t be acceptable to you.”
Over the past few weeks, an increasing number of Republicans — most prominently New Hampshire Governor Chris Sununu — have called on Christie to end his campaign. Their argument is not for a rematch between Trump and Biden, but rather for narrowing the field of Trump’s primary opponents to a single candidate who can defeat him and prevent such a rematch.
Sununu and many Republican donors and strategists think that candidate should be Nikki Haley, the former South Carolina governor.
Christie is polling better in New Hampshire than in other early voting states — he is averaging about 11 percent there, good enough for third place ahead of Florida Governor Ron DeSantis — but he is still far behind Haley, who is herself far behind Trump. Christie says Haley is not sufficiently distinguishing herself from the former president.