So, Christie is running? He seems to be talking an awful lot lately about how he and he alone is the only gladiator capable of entering the arena and slaying the political dragon known as Donald Trump.
That line of thinking is fanciful and somewhat naive to believe a guy who dropped out early in 2016 and then endorsed Trump will be the alternative Republicans are looking for in 2024.
But, as it is, Christie is talking up his political reputation as the only one who stands a real chance against Trump on the debate stage:
Christie, famous for his acerbic remarks, knows the former president well and is comfortable going on television with ready-made sound bites about Trump that make headlines.
On Monday, he said the GOP field needed a candidate who would go after Trump and do what Christie did to Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) in a 2016 debate, when he questioned Rubio’s lack of experience and mocked the senator for using the same “25-second memorized speech” over and over.
“You better have somebody on that stage who can do to him what I did to Marco [Rubio], because that’s the only thing that’s gonna defeat Donald Trump,” Christie said during a town hall at Saint Anselm College on Monday.
“And that means you gotta have the skill to do it,” he added. “And that means you have to be fearless because he will come back and right at you.”
If memory serves, Christie didn’t spend much time if any attacking Trump during the 2015-2016 GOP primary debates. He was a Trump ally at the time and the biggest takeaway was watching his strike against Marco Rubio during a debate in New Hampshire.
Here’s a trip down memory lane from February 2016 when the infamous Christie-Rubio battle went down in the Granite State:
For six minutes, everyone else on stage was merely a placeholder at the lectern while Rubio stumbled in the face of a direct attack and Chrstie continued delivering blows one after another. That was the beginning of the demise of Rubio’s chances in 2016 and he would then go on to directly attack Trump during a later debate and end up making a fool out of himself.
The question is whether you can picture Christie and Trump engaged in a similar argument on a debate stage in 2024.
Sure, Christie is direct, but so is Trump. In the above clip, Rubio was sort of outmatched by a guy whose personality is ingrained with direct confrontations, he seems to enjoy it. Rubio, on the other hand, was definitely caught off guard and was unable to land a punch in response.
All of this is to ask, will Christie make a dent in the 2024 race or merely become part of the sideshow circus he accuses Donald Trump of being?
If your sole reason for entering the race is not to extol the virtues of your agenda for America or vow to solve problems but aims to only be focused on taking down another candidate, that’s usually not a candidacy voters will get behind. In essence, it’s running an entirely negative campaign rather than trying to explain why you (Christie) would be a better option than Donald Trump in 2024.
Would it be great tv for viewers? Some seem to think so:
“[Trump] loves a good fight. Well, so does Chris Christie,” said Jim Merrill, a New Hampshire-based Republican strategist and former senior adviser to Rubio’s 2016 presidential campaign. “I think his comment last night about ‘you want me on that stage,’ it would be must-see TV, that’s for sure.”
“..deep down in places you don’t talk about at parties, you want me on that stage, you need me on that stage…”
– Chris Christie
Sure, alright. If Christie wants to position himself as the Trump slayer, good luck with that. Ted Cruz tried to do the same thing in 2016 and failed along with John Kasich.
As the late great Rush Limbaugh often said about Trump, no one can separate Trump from his base, except for Trump himself. From the outside, there is no way to pry supporters away from him. Try as he might, Christie’s vendetta would likely wind up damaging himself more than he damages Trump.
Either way, it’ll be good TV.
