Now Chris Christie, the only Republican in the primary who loudly criticized Trump, is also giving up. Now only one candidate has a chance of beating Trump.
You can’t say Chris Christie didn’t try again. “Imagine Trump as president on September 11th,” he said that evening during his campaign appearance in New Hampshire. “He would have run to his bunker to get himself to safety. He would have put his own fate above that of the country. And anyone who dares not say that he is unfit to be president of the United States is himself unfit “To be president.”
In the previous months, Christie, the former governor of New Jersey, had emphasized this again and again: Trump is actually a coward.
At his farewell appearance yesterday, Christie also tried the story: “Imagine Hamilton and Adams and Washington and Franklin sitting here tonight,” a reference to the nation’s founding fathers. “Do you think you could imagine that we were actually having a discussion like this: whether a convicted felon should be president of the United States.
Christie gave the warning – for free
The Republican Christie also made this clear again and again during the election campaign: Trump is a danger to the country, to democracy, a man who belongs behind bars.
All the warnings and scolding and swearing didn’t work. Christie has thrown in the towel. In Iowa, where the first primaries take place on Monday, he never made it above three percent in the polls. In New Hampshire, where elections take place on January 23rd, he rarely made it above ten percent. Trump is clearly ahead in both states.
Trump’s spokesman was not entirely wrong in his obituary for Christie that evening: Christie had suffered a disgrace in Iowa and was also unpopular with voters in New Hampshire.
There is another reason why Christie, like many other candidates before him, is giving up before the primaries actually begin. The pressure from the few moderates in the party and some major sponsors became too great. If he was serious about preventing Trump, then he had to let Nikki Haley take the field against Trump, they argued. Then you have to join forces to support the moderate candidate who has a remote chance of beating Trump.
He indicated how little Christie himself thinks of Haley in a “Hot Mic” moment that evening. He was caught saying: “She’s going to be destroyed (by Trump). She just doesn’t have what it takes.”
In fact, Christie’s withdrawal shows once again that Republicans have little tolerance for a candidate who dares to attack the absolute ruler Trump. Everyone who did it was driven out or kicked out or gave up: Liz Cheney, Mitt Romney, Paul Ryan. Now also Christie.
In the primary campaign, Christie actually attacked Trump constantly, which no one else dared to do, not Ron DeSantis, not even Nikki Haley. This is all the more remarkable because Christie was once Trump’s friend and supported him eight years ago. Christie today sees Trump not only as a coward and a threat to democracy, but also as a notorious liar, an egomaniac, a would-be dictator, a friend of Putin – and he warned the party loudly and clearly: With him we are going to ruin .
In the evening, Christie, who likes to present himself as a warrior, became emotional again: He quoted Benjamin Franklin, who once warned that the Americans would now have a republic if they were able to protect it. “Benjamin Franklin’s words have never been more relevant than they are today,” Christie said. “The last time they had this relevance was during the Civil War.”
However, his party has little use for such warnings. With just days to go before the Iowa caucus elections, it looks like Trump will win them resoundingly.
