ALEX LLOYD GROSS FILE PHOTO/DELAWARE VALLEY NEWS.COM Chris Christie from an event in 2016.
by Alex Lloyd Gross
June 8, 2023
Former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie announced another bid for The White House yesterday, from New Hampshire. It was at a small town hall event that he said the only way to the presidency is through Donald Trump. According to Christie, he can beat him. “Trump is now like a re run of Seinfeld. The jokes are the same but they are not as funny”, he said.
Christie was jovial and low key. He did not lose his temper or tell anyone to “Shut Up” like he did at the Jersey Shore on the boardwalk when he was confronted by a teacher. Or when he responded to a heckler at a Chicago Cubs game by getting in his face. To that end, Christie can be brash, and almost Trump -like.
Christie has to convince 50 states that he is the one for the job. Assuming he is the nominee, Christie hopes that people will not dig too deep into his New Jersey history. He refused to raise the minimum wage to $15.00/hr citing job loss and other rhetoric. His successor did raise it and none of the fear mongering doomsday plots have come to pass. In fact there is a worker shortage in New Jersey. Friends and political co-horts of Christie did a “traffic study” on the George Washington Bridge, which shut down traffic in Fort Lee. Christie drove up to Fort Lee and personally disavowed any involvement in that.
To his credit when Hurricane Sandy hit New Jersey, he went straight to President Obama for federal help. He got it and did not let politics get in his way. He made the flippant comment about a bucket and mop when asked why he was not helping the clean up efforts a few weeks after the storm hit. He can be brash when put in a corner.
During his announcement, Christie spoke of Trump. ““Beware of the leader in this country, who you have handed leadership to, who has never made a mistake, who has never done anything wrong, who when something goes wrong it’s always someone else’s fault. And who has never lost”.
Go back to 2015 and 2016 when Christie made his first bid for presidency.His campaign was not successful and he dropped out. In the spring of 2016 he held a rally near Trenton for Donald Trump, who helped the Christie Campaign pay it’s bills. The two were arm in arm and Christie could not say enough good things about “his friend” Donald Trump.
Christie caught a bad case of COVID and was hospitalized. It is presumed he caught it at a White House event in 2020. This was at the time that the President Trump was downplaying the virus. Christie wanted a position in the Trump administration, but was kept to the side by Jared Kushner, who saw his father , Charles, sent to prison for tax fraud. Christie was the US Attorney in New Jersey at the time.