GOP pugilist Chris Christie has promised to expose Donald Trump‘s weaknesses as a 2024 GOP presidential candidate as part of Christie’s own bid for the job. But the former New Jersey Governor — and former Trump supporter — must still court Trump voters who haven’t yet looked beyond the former president for fresh political options.
How do you slam Trump — or, more aptly, expose Trump’s perceived weaknesses among the larger electorate — without alienating his critical base? Christie has evidently calculated that one way is to use precise, nuanced language to tiptoe around explosive subjects like the 2020 election, which Trump has convinced a large swath of his followers was stolen from him.
FMR NJ GOV CHRIS CHRISTIE RIPS FMR PRES. DONALD TRUMP ON @AMERICANEWSROOM: "DOESN'T CARE ABOUT THE AMERICAN PEOPLE…"
— America's Newsroom (@AmericaNewsroom) June 14, 2023
"He's a failure. He's a failed leader. We gave him a Republican House, a Republican Senate, and he failed… he failed us by losing the House, by losing the… pic.twitter.com/AA33lj8v0k
Above is Christie, a former U.S. attorney who understands the nuances, calling Trump a “failure.”
That’s a damning characterization, but Christie remains slyly careful not to say that Trump “lost” the White House, presumably to avoid angering the “big lie”-believing voters he needs to turn if he hopes to have a chance at the GOP nomination.
“He’s a failure,” Christie says, “He’s a failed leader. We gave him a Republican House, a Republican Senate, and he failed… he failed us by losing the House, by losing the Senate, and by turning over the White House to Joe Biden, and the most liberal administration and ineffective administration since Jimmy Carter. Is that the type of leadership we want?”
Though he is beating up Trump rhetorically, Christie’s phrasing is designed so that it would ring true even to a January 6 rioter — he accuses Trump not of losing the White House, but of “turning over the White House to Joe Biden.”
Christie’s language matches precisely what MAGA Jan 6ers believe Trump should not have done — that is, in two words, “turn over” the White House — despite election results that favored Biden.
Christie says quite clearly that Trump failed “by losing the House, by losing the Senate” — but when it comes to the White House, Christie doesn’t use “losing” but chooses insurrection language instead, saying essentially that what Trump failed to do was stay in the White House and not cede the Oval Office to Biden.
Trump, he says, failed by “turning over” the presidency, not by losing it. It’s a small difference in language choice, but it’s no accident.
The slick language is a change for Christie, who doesn’t subscribe to the so-called “big lie” and has said repeatedly that the election wasn’t stolen, as in the clip above. But “turned over the White House” is a phrase built to signal different things to different people, and Christie is now casting his net as wide as he can.
