Chris Christie lays out time frame for possible 2024 run
Ryan King
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EXCLUSIVE — Former New Jersey GOP Gov. Chris Christie laid out a time frame for when he will decide whether to jump into the 2024 race for president.
“Next 45 to 60 days,” he told the Washington Examiner, noting that a campaign is still something he is actively considering.
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Christie was vaulted to national prominence during his first term as governor, exhibiting a penchant for going viral on YouTube for his tough, frank talk. He ultimately opted not to run for president in 2012 despite polls showing him being competitive with then-President Barack Obama and was later unsuccessful in pursuing the 2016 GOP nod.
“I think running for president of the United States is an intensely personal decision. And that’s one that anybody who’s considering it should have the right to make on their own regardless of anybody else’s thoughts on it,” Christie said.
So far the Republican field has three main candidates — former President Donald Trump, former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy — with numerous others weighing a possible run.
Recently, former Maryland GOP Gov. Larry Hogan bowed out of consideration, noting concerns that a “pileup” of candidates could pave the way for Trump.
“I have enormous respect for Gov. Hogan. He’s my friend, and I have great respect for his decision,” Christie said. “I think it’ll be a significantly smaller field than it was in 2016. And I think that it would be good for us, given all the losing we’ve done over the last four years, to have a robust primary.”
Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) is considered likely to make the opposite decision, getting into the presidential contest. Polls show he is the most competitive with Trump at this early phase of the race.
Trump bulldozed his way through 16 Republican foes in 2016 and has been consistently pegged as the front-runner in a hypothetical 2024 GOP primary by a torrent of polls. But Christie sees signs that the former president’s political magic is fading.
“You have a number of people both in the race and considering the race against what is, in essence, an incumbent president. I think that tells you, just by definition, that he’s weaker than he was in the lead-up to 2020,” Christie said, contending that Trump has regularly “let us down.”
“President Trump said in 2016 that we were going to do so much winning that we would get sick of winning and ask him to stop winning,” Christie said before ticking through the GOP’s record of losses in 2018, 2020, and 2022. “With Donald Trump at the top of the ticket, you can be sure of the fact that we’ll have another four years of Joe Biden, and that to me is not acceptable for this country.”
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Recently, Christie opined on the war in Ukraine when Fox News host Tucker Carlson put out a questionnaire to potential 2024 aspirants. He affirmed his stance that the United States should stand by Ukraine. DeSantis drew backlash from some Republicans for describing the conflict as a “territorial dispute.”
“This is an authoritarian regime who is invading a sovereign democratic country and trying to take its land by force,” Christie said. “All we’re doing is helping the Ukrainians defend themselves.”
“If America walks away from that leadership role in the world, believe me, that vacuum will be filled by the Chinese and the Russians,” Christie added. “And that will not make it a safer or more secure world. I think on this, Gov. DeSantis is either hopelessly naive or hopelessly cynical.”