Chris Christie takes swipe at ‘weak’ 2024 contenders who are ‘sitting around to see what Trump does’

Chris Christie says he is considering running for president in 2024 and takes swipe at ‘weak’ contenders who are ‘sitting around to see what Trump does’

  • Chris Christie said Tuesday that he won’t wait for Donald Trump to announce if he’s running in 2024 to decide if he’ll also make a bid for the White House 
  • The former New Jersey governor said those who do wait are ‘weak’ 
  • ‘I’m also not going to be one of these people who’s going to say, ‘Well, I’ll wait to see what President Trump’s going to do,” Christie said in a podcast interview
  • ‘I’m not going to defer to anyone,’ he added. ‘And I think if you say you’re deferring to someone, that’s a real sign of both weakness and indecision’ 
  • The announcement comes as a new poll shows only 10% of New Jerseyans want Christie to run for president again after his failed bid in 2016

Chris Christie said Tuesday that he isn’t going to take into account whether or not Donald Trump is running for president again in 2024 as he considers launching another bid for the White House.

‘After 2022 is over, we’ll make a decision about whether we’re going to run or not – but I certainly won’t preclude it,’ Christie told the Ruthless podcast during an interview on Tuesday.

‘And I’m also not going to be one of these people who’s going to say, ‘Well, I’ll wait to see what President Trump’s going to do,” he continued. ‘I’m not going to defer to anyone.’

‘If I decide that it’s what I want to do and that I think I’m the best option for the party and for the country,’ the former New Jersey governor said. ‘And I think if you say you’re deferring to someone, that’s a real sign of both weakness and indecision and we’ve already got that in the White House I don’t think we need a Republican [to do that].’

Christie is one of the several Republicans rumored to be considering a run for the White House in 2024.

Former New Jersey governor and failed 2016 Republican presidential primary candidate Chris Christie said Tuesday that he won’t wait for Donald Trump to announce if he’s running in 2024 to decide if he’ll also make a bid for the White House

'I'm also not going to be one of these people who's going to say, 'Well, I'll wait to see what President Trump's going to do,'' Christie said during a podcast interview. 'I'm not going to defer to anyone... And I think if you say you're deferring to someone, that's a real sign of both weakness and indecision'

‘I’m also not going to be one of these people who’s going to say, ‘Well, I’ll wait to see what President Trump’s going to do,” Christie said during a podcast interview. ‘I’m not going to defer to anyone… And I think if you say you’re deferring to someone, that’s a real sign of both weakness and indecision’

Monmouth University poll released Tuesday shows New Jersey constituents who had Christie as their governor for eight years don’t feel he would be a good president.

Only 10 per cent of New Jerseyans want Christie to run for president again after his failed 2016 bid, while almost 6 in 10 say they don’t want him to enter the race. A whopping 31 per cent said they don’t care what he does.

Nearly half – 49 per cent – of respondents said they doubt Christie will even run in 2024, while 42 per cent think he will enter the race for the White House.

Trump has already said he will make an announcement on a potential run after the 2022 midterms. But Christie said the former president’s likely impending announcement won’t affect his decision on whether to run.

‘What happens in 2021 is of little relevance for the most part for candidates or potential candidates,’ Christie said, adding if he decided to launch a primary bid, the announcement would also come after the midterm elections.

Christie also took a swipe at Trump for being ‘reckless’ during his presidency, which he feels led to his reelection loss and potentially paved the way for Democrats to take a majority in the Senate and keep it in the House.

‘What I want to do is to try to lead the party in a productive and smart way,’ he said. ‘For us to continue to argue for populist type policies, but not to be reckless – not to be reckless in our policies, not to be reckless with our language. To be smart about it.’

‘There’s a recklessness to some of the things that happened over the last four years which came back to cost us suburban voters, which cost us the election,’ he added.

Christie said running in 2016 has helped him ‘realize what matters and what doesn’t.’

He said the GOP’s priority should be uniting against President Joe Biden’s agenda.

‘We’ve got to stop looking in the rear view mirror – 2020 is over,’ Christie said.

‘I don’t know everything that happened in the election, but I know this much: Joe Biden is living in the White House, he’s signing executive orders and speaking before joint sessions of Congress,’ he continued. ‘He’s the president, and what he’s doing is going to be irreversible if we let it happen.’

‘So conservatives should be uniting in their opposition to these policies.’