As he exits the stage before any votes are cast, Chris Christie deserves credit and thanks for repeatedly saying what Republican primary voters need to hear.
Donald Trump is unfit for office.
Christie preached it wide and far, eloquently, reasonably and courageously.
The former New Jersey governor, who backed Trump’s campaign when the real estate mogul improbably won the presidency in 2016, refashioned himself for this cycle as a GOP voice in the wilderness, speaking harsh truths both to the primary electorate and to rivals vying for the nomination. There were some who looked upon his campaign as nothing but a crusade to damage Trump rather than a real run for the office. He denied that and spoke knowledgeably and reasonably about many of the other issues facing this nation. But even if it were true, so what?
Christie performed a needed service for American democracy. And he did so in hostile arenas, refusing to back down in the face of choruses of boos. He surely has lost a few friends along the way.
In opting to drop out before the New Hampshire primary on which he’d pinned his hopes, Christie said doing so now was a simple matter of concluding he had no chance to win.
Supporters of former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, such as New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu, had called on Christie to exit and endorse Haley.
But Christie understood the danger of backing Haley and then having her agree to serve as Trump’s running mate.
“You know, I made that mistake once, eight years ago,” he told a crowd in New Hampshire. “I made an endorsement decision based on politics … when I supported Trump. I’m not going to make the same mistake again.”
He’s called repeatedly on Haley and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, the two primary contenders to upset Trump for the GOP nod, to repudiate Trump the way he has. So far, they’ve refrained, afraid to anger the millions of GOP voters enthralled with him.
A particularly memorable moment in his short campaign was Christie’s dogged insistence, like the prosecutor he used to be, on a debate stage in December that DeSantis and Haley answer whether they considered Trump unfit to hold office. The cringeworthy few minutes featured Christie at his best. Asked repeatedly to answer that question directly, neither Haley nor DeSantis would.
It may be fruitless. It may be politically reckless. But if you’re someone other than Trump running for president as a Republican in 2024, you can’t sidestep or tippy-toe around the elephant (who’s not) in the room. You have to make the case forcefully to Republican voters that he’s unacceptable. The primary race is a referendum on Trump and his pernicious effect on the party, as well as his threat to the country. There’s no getting around that.
Christie was the only one on the GOP side who made that abundantly clear to the people who really ought to be the ones ending Trump’s disastrous political career and sparing the country a mind-numbing rerun of 2020: Republicans.
—Chicago Tribune Editorial Board/TNS