Former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie is approaching his GOP run for President like the football player he once was. Football is a one-direction game — forward — and progress is measured in yards gained toward a goal that never changes: the end zone.
Christie’s end zone is the political disembowelment of GOP frontrunner Donald Trump — and so far Candidate Christie has been laser-focused on it. He does not stray from the Trump “character” issue, as he defines it, the thing — or lack thereof — that makes Donald Trump unfit to serve as President in Christie’s estimation.
Christie makes his case alone, but in a savvy move, he names those he considers to be on his team. “I’m happy to be with Rex Tillerson and with Jim Mattis,” Christie says, “and with John Kelly and with Mark Esper and with Bill Barr, who [Trump] called a ‘gutless pig.'”
It’s a team Christie claims membership on, made up of people Trump once empowered and later mocked.
“This is not character,” Christie says.
One of the cornerstones of faith is character. I’m not afraid to say the quiet part out loud. Donald Trump is not a man of character. We all know this. Stop hiding from the truth. pic.twitter.com/Yjr4gqm4Ol
— Chris Christie (@GovChristie) June 23, 2023
Being one among this mocked group, Christie makes it a point of pride to have been cast aside and denigrated by Trump.
Christie says Trump offered him the Chief of Staff job, but later said he didn’t trust him. Christie proposes this: if Trump didn’t trust him and offered him Chief of Staff, he’s an idiot; if Trump trusted him enough to offer him the job, then he’s lying.
The classic either-or means that Trump is either a “liar” or an “idiot,” Christie suggests, making the case with lawyerly logic that it has to be one or the other.
