Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie turned up the heat on 2024 GOP presidential rivals Nikki Haley and Ron DeSantis, claiming that they have gone easy on former President Donald Trump, the current frontrunner for the nomination, and have not made their case against him.
Christie, who is attempting to be the last candidate standing against Trump for the nomination, has routinely attacked the 45th president, accusing the former UN ambassador and current Florida governor of refusing to really go after the former president, Fox News reported.
“Ron DeSantis and Nikki Haley have not made the case against him. They refuse to make the case against him. They’re scared to make the case against him,” Christie charged in a Fox News interview on the campaign trail in New Hampshire.
He added that “the one thing people say about me is I’m not.”
Fox News adds:
DeSantis and Haley are currently battling for second place in the latest national surveys in the 2024 Republican race and in the most recent surveys in Iowa, whose caucuses lead off the GOP nominating calendar.
As Christie runs a second time for the White House, he’s once again concentrating most of his time and resources on New Hampshire, which holds the first primary in the Republican schedule and votes second after Iowa. Christie is currently in third place in New Hampshire polls, far behind Trump and slightly trailing Haley.
Christie went all-in on his presidential campaign eight years ago in the Granite State. Ultimately, his campaign met with disappointment and ended with a distant sixth-place finish in New Hampshire, trailing far behind Trump, whose decisive victory in the primary propelled him toward the nomination and, ultimately, the White House.
The former New Jersey governor, who was engulfed in scandal toward the end of his tenure, was the first among the other GOP contenders in 2016 to endorse Trump and became a top outside adviser to the then-president. He also chaired Trump’s prominent commission on opioids. However, a rift emerged between the two following Trump’s unsuccessful efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss to President Biden. Over the past three years, Christie has transformed into one of the most vocal Trump critics within the Republican Party.
Throughout his campaign, Christie has dogged Trump and challenged him to show up to the GOP debates so they can square off face-to-face.
“I think the one person Donald Trump doesn’t want to have a one-on-one with is me,” Christie alleged.
“He’s not afraid of Nikki Haley,” Christie argued. “And he certainly made his feelings about Ron DeSantis known. He doesn’t look like he’s very intimidated by him. But the fact is, you don’t hear him saying that stuff about me. He doesn’t want to be on that stage with me.”
On Monday night, Christie joined forces at a town hall in Nashua, New Hampshire, with Republican Governor Chris Sununu, a widely liked governor and an outspoken Trump critic, who has indicated that he will endorse a candidate in the GOP nomination race after Thanksgiving.
He has narrowed his choices down to Haley, DeSantis, or Christie, all of whom he campaigned with in the Granite State this week.
Asked about what case he’s making to Sununu, Christie told Fox News: “Who does he want standing across from Donald Trump when this gets down to a one-on-one? Who does he think can take him on in a direct way? Who’s been saying the same things as Chris Sununu has been saying for the last couple of years about Donald Trump, trying to move the party in a new direction? And I think I’m the person who has the clearest, strongest voice on that.”
