The Daily Observer London Desk: Reporter- Donna Robert
SALEM, N.H. — Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who has a long history of exacting revenge on politicians who cross him, has built a White House run that is almost exclusively a vendetta against former President Donald Trump.
His repeated broadsides against Mr. Trump have included mocking him for being hit with federal charges, saying he resembles a “stupid Corleone” in his alleged plotting to hide classified government documents. Mr. Trump has pleaded not guilty in recent arraignments.
“I’m from New Jersey, and I was a prosecutor. I’m somewhat familiar with organized crime. This caper looks like it was performed by the stupid Corleone,” he said on Wednesday.
He used the reference to “The Godfather” film at a town hall in Salem.
In the two months since launching his campaign, Mr. Christie has ridiculed Mr. Trump for acting like “a child,” said the ex-president “certainly” committing federal crimes and denounced him for backing Russian President Vladimir Putin despite the atrocities in Ukraine.
Mr. Christie had once counted Mr. Trump as a friend and ally. That was before Mr. Trump passed over the former governor and U.S. attorney for a top job in the Trump administration.
Mr. Christie now hopes his nonstop assault will chip away at Mr. Trump’s fan base, though it’s like trying to knock down a mountain with a hammer.
He has managed to climb up from 1% to as high as 8% in the polls in New Hampshire. But he’s still running a distant third place. He is more than 30 points behind Mr. Trump and at least 10 points behind Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.
At the same time, Mr. Christie’s relentless criticism of Mr. Trump is viewed skeptically by political pros who say the former governor is just following a pattern of exacting political revenge. Indeed, Mr. Christie previously turned on 2012 Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney, 2014 Republican gubernatorial candidate Rob Astorino and 2016 presidential hopeful Scott Walker.
Mr. Christie doesn’t deny he’s all about annihilating Mr. Trump.
“I am going out there to take out Donald Trump, but here’s why: I want to win. And I don’t want him to win,” he said at an event early in the campaign.
More than a decade ago, critics suspected that then-Gov. Christie was punishing Mr. Romney, the GOP standard bearer, when he embraced and lavished praise on President Obama on a New Jersey tarmac following Superstorm Sandy.
It was just weeks before the presidential election and Romney aides said the episode helped kill the campaign’s momentum by making Mr. Romney look sidelined and helpless while Mr. Obama looked heroic.
The aides said Mr. Christie acted out of revenge after being passed over as Mr. Romney’s running mate, which Mr. Christie has denied.
In 2014, Republican operatives in Wisconsin complained that Mr. Christie, then head of the Republican Governors Association, was withholding financial help for Mr. Walker’s reelection campaign for Wisconsin governor because both men had 2016 White House aspirations.
Mr. Astorino also accused Mr. Christie of withholding RGA funds from his struggling New York gubernatorial campaign. Mr. Astorino said Mr. Christie was in league with New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo following the “Bridgegate” scandal when lanes of the George Washington Bridege were inexplicably closed and caused major traffic jams in Fort Lee, New Jersey.
The closure was an alleged payback for the Fort Lee mayor not backing Mr. Christie’s reelection as governor. The incident led to federal conspiracy convictions against three top Christie aides.
Mr. Astorino suggested Mr. Cuomo “has something” on Mr. Christie, who was never charged or directly linked to the lane closure incident. At the time, Mr. Astorino was trailing Mr. Cuomo by 40 points and Mr. Christie said the RGA was not funding “lost causes,” despite pumping money into other longshot governor’s races.
Mr. Christie shot back at accusations he withheld funds for punitive and political reasons.
“I invested in people that could win. Rob Astorino, couldn’t win, never has won. And that’s why I didn’t invest in him. And by the way, I invested in Scott Walker in 2010, 2012 and in 2014,” he told during a campaign stop Wednesday in New Hampshire.
“With Rob Astorino, he simply couldn’t win,” he said. “My job as RGA chairman was to invest the money of our donors in winning campaigns.”
He listed Maryland’s Larry Hogan, Massachusetts’s Charlie Baker and Illinois’ Bruce Rauner as examples of GOP gubernatorial candidates he said no one thought could win but he backed with RGA funds and went on to win.
As for Mr. Trump, Mr. Christie has had a love-hate relationship with him dating back to the 2016 GOP presidential race, when the two hurled insults at each other on the debate stage. Mr. Christie shocked the political world by dropping out and becoming the first former GOP presidential candidate to endorse Mr. Trump in 2016.
He then turned against Mr. Trump in the week before the election, when a videotape surfaced of Mr. Trump making his infamous “grab them by the pussy” remark about his star status giving him carte blanche to molest women.
Mr. Christie called the remarks “completely indefensible.” His criticism put him in the doghouse with Mr. Trump, who passed him over for attorney general in favor of Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama and later William P. Barr.
Mr. Christie nonetheless reconnected with Mr. Trump during his White House term, defending him on the talk show circuit and serving as a behind-the-scenes adviser. He said he declined consideration for White House chief of staff in 2018 after the resignation of John F. Kelly.
The relationship between the two fell apart again after the 2020 presidential election. Mr. Christie advised Mr. Trump to accept defeat and concede to President Biden. Mr. Trump instead continued to fight Mr. Biden’s victory until the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol. The two men began trading barbs and insults after that, and Mr. Christie now calls Mr. Trump a liar and a coward who, if elected to the GOP ticket, will lose to Mr. Biden next year, as he did in 2020.
