GOP presidential candidate Chris Christie acknowledged for the first time since he declared his candidacy that he may not be in the race to win it, suggesting that he could throw in the towel far short of next summer’s Republican National Convention if he underperforms in a key early primary state.
The former New Jersey governor, who has failed to impress voters with his platform that consists solely of hating on former President Donald J. Trump, told the New York Times that if he fails to do well in New Hampshire, he could drop out.
“I can’t see myself leaving the race under any circumstances before New Hampshire,” he told the outlet “If I don’t do well in New Hampshire, then I’ll leave.”
Christie also suggested that a failure to catch fire in the Granite State – where he was thumped the last time he ran in 2016 – will likely have him heading for the exits, telling NewsNation host Chris Cuomo that while he doesn’t necessarily have to win in New Hampshire, he needs to finish in the “top four” which is “absolutely attainable,” according to the candidate.
“If you don’t do well in the first few states, you should get out of the race. Voters are speaking, money will dry up. I’m just being practical about it,” he told the former CNN anchor during an appearance on Thursday’s edition of “CUOMO,” explaining that even his Trump-hating donors have limits to what they’re willing to invest in the human torpedo whose plans to inflict a mortal blow on the former president’s campaign during a nationally televised debate have been foiled by the frontrunner’s declining to show up.
A major problem for Christie is that he DID show up at the first debate and was practically booed off the stage at the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee, WI last month.
.@VivekGRamaswamy whoops Christie’s fat ass all across the stage pic.twitter.com/RdojKphD3X
— BPR (@BIZPACReview) August 24, 2023
New Hampshire is critical to Christie and he has maintained a heavy presence there since he officially announced his candidacy in June at St. Anselm College, a symbolic location that was the site of Trump’s now-infamous CNN town hall that ultimately may have cost network boss Chris Licht his job.
“The future of this country is going to be determined here,” the candidate told the crowd at a local brewery, according to the New York Times. “If Donald Trump wins here, he will be our nominee. Everything that happens after that is going to be on our party and on our country. It’s up to you.”
Frustrated by being deprived of unleashing a killshot on Trump’s campaign on the debate stage, Christie recently suggested that he could soon resort to stalking his onetime ally.
If Trump continues to be a coward and refuses to debate, I’ll follow him around the country.
Wherever he goes, I’ll go.
You can bet we’ll end up debating one way or another.
Let’s take the fight to Trump: https://t.co/nduLJz8xAT pic.twitter.com/JM2yakYaBO
— Chris Christie (@GovChristie) September 12, 2023
“I’m not going to let him get away with being a coward and running away,” Christie told the New York Times. “It could be meeting him out in front of his event as he’s making his way in. It could be confronting him on his way out. It could be actually going to the event. It could be a whole bunch of options that we’re going to try. I’m not going to tell them exactly which one I’m going to do, because then he would have his staff prepared for it and try to stop me.”
“I can’t imagine that I’ll ever keep quiet,” he said. “I don’t think it’s in my personality, so I’ll continue to say what I believe is the truth.”
With his seat at ABC’s “This Week” still being kept warm, the bloviating Republican could prefer the less strenuous gig as a regular television pundit to the rigors of the campaign trail.
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