MANCHESTER, NH (AP) — Former New Jersey governor Chris Christie said Monday that Republicans need a candidate who can knock out Donald Trump in a single, brutal swipe, like the one Christie delivered to another rival in 2016.
Speaking in New Hampshire, Christie recalled a favorite moment from his failed presidential campaign: embarrassing Marco Rubio on a debate podium three days before the country’s first primary. After Christie challenged Rubio’s lack of experience, the Florida senator repeated himself twice in a chilling moment, closed by Christie saying, “There it is.” The memorized 25 second speech. There it is, everyone.”
Trump will never quietly step aside, said Christie, who is considering another run herself.
“You better have someone on that stage who can do to him what I did to Marco, because that’s the only thing that’s going to beat Donald Trump,” he said at Saint Anselm College’s New Hampshire Institute of Politics. “And that means you have to be fearless, because he will come back, right at you.”
Voters need to think about who has the skills and guts to do that, Christie cautioned.
“Because it won’t end nicely either way, its ending won’t be a calm and quiet conclusion,” he said.
While that debate moment was a highlight for Christie, he dropped out less than a week later after finishing a dismal sixth-place finish in the New Hampshire Republican primary that year. He quickly endorsed Trump and was a close on-and-off adviser to Trump during his time in the White House, but broke with the former president after Trump refused to accept his loss of the 2020 election.
Christie has since emerged as one of the few prominent Trump critics in his party and has used his position as an ABC political analyst to argue that Trump is much weaker today than he was in the past. On Monday, he accused Trump of leading Republicans into a “sinkhole of anger and retaliation.”
“Donald Trump said a few weeks ago, ‘I am your retaliation.’ Guess what everyone? No thanks. No dice,” Christie said Monday. “He doesn’t want to be my retaliation. That’s lame. The only one he cares about is him.”
Saul Shriber, 67, of Chester, said he voted for Christie in 2016, even though he wasn’t happy with the answer he got when he asked Christie, “When are you going to take down Trump?”
“I’ve got my schedule,” Christie said at the time.
“I thought, if there’s anyone on stage who could go after Trump, it would be him, the sassy kid from New Jersey,” Shriber said.
Recalling their Monday meeting, Christie said he and the other candidates had made a “strategic mistake” in thinking they would have a chance to beat Trump one-on-one. Instead, their campaigns quickly failed.
Shriber found that answer satisfactory and said he would support Christie again.
“If he chooses to speak to me honestly, I’m all for it,” he said. “I am willing to forgive.”
New Hampshire was the lynchpin of Christie’s 2016 campaign. The then-governor camped out in the state for months, occupying dozens of town halls — a form he became famous for in New Jersey, as his colorful commentary and spirited clashes with critics often went viral.
Christie said earlier this month that he expects to make a decision within 45 to 60 days.
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Associated Press writer Jill Colvin contributed to this report.
