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Anti-Trump GOP governor tries to shove Christie out of NH race to aid Haley

January 1, 2024 | | Print Article

Chris Christie’s bid for the Republican presidential nomination is “at an absolute dead end” according to “never-Trumper” Gov. Chris Sununu (R-N.H.), so he should drop out of the race and back Nikki Haley.

“This is a two-person race,” Sununu said during an appearance on CNN’s “State of the Union.”

“Everyone understands that,” he continued. “He knows his voters who want to see Trump defeated are all coming over to Nikki Haley. In fact, the only person who wants Chris Christie to stay in the race is Donald Trump — think about the irony of that.”

As BizPac Review reported, Christie, who defended Haley against attacks from Vivek Ramaswamy during a GOP primary debate, has blasted the former U.N. Ambassador in recent days, calling her answer to a question about the cause of the Civil War — and answer that didn’t include slavery — dishonest.

“She’s smart and she knows better,” Christie told a campaign crowd in Epping, New Hampshire. “And she didn’t say it because she’s a racist, because she’s not. I know her well and I don’t believe Nikki has a racist bone in her body. … She did it because she’s unwilling to offend anyone by telling the truth.”

“The fact that Chris is out there trying to attack or trying to make waves, that’s not surprising,” Sununu said. “But at the end of the day, this is a two-person race.”

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People, Sununu argued, are “engaging” with Haley, while Christie “is only talking about Trump.”

“I know he says he wants to stay in the race to speak the truth about Trump… but right now, he probably wouldn’t even get any delegates in the state of New Hampshire if the race were today,” he predicted.

“If Chris is true to his message about defeating Trump, he’ll understand that the voters are coming [to Nikki Haley],” Sununu said, adding, “I think he’s going to make the right decision eventually.”

If Christie stays in the race, Sununu fears he will only take Haley’s “margin for the win.”

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“I think Chris is going to make a quick calculation” and drop out of the 2024 race, having “already upset all the pro-Trump people,” the governor said. “I think he’s a smart guy. He wants to have a voice in this party. He doesn’t want to go forward, upsetting all the anti-Trump people, too, because he overstayed his welcome and put his ego first.”

“I just think he’s going to make the right decision in the end,” Sununu said. “He wants to make sure this party comes together. … Chris Christie isn’t going to make up 30 points in the next three weeks. Nikki Haley can make up five or ten points and give Trump that defeat that no one thought was possible in the next few weeks. And I think that’s very likely to happen.”

Christie, however, is committed to spreading the “truth.”

“The events of the last few days fully solidifies the point that Christie has been making for six months,” a spokesperson for Christie said in a statement to the Washington Examiner. “That the truth matters, and if you can’t answer the easy questions, you can’t fix the big problems.”

But Christie’s version of the truth is unlikely to carry him to a New Hampshire win.

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“In a December poll from the Saint Anselm College Survey Center, Trump still had an edge in New Hampshire with 44%, but Haley had risen to 30%, coming within 14 points of the former president,” The Examiner reports. “Christie only registered 12%, which is a high for his campaign but still not enough to put him in a competitive position against either Haley or Trump.”

Melissa Fine
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