Christie, Trump exchange taunts over who’s the biggest loser

Trump, flanked by Chris Christie and Rep. Tom MacArthur, headlining a 2017 Bedminster, New Jersey fundraiser.

If you think it all seems a bit sad, Save Jerseyans, that’s because it is.

Here’s the timeline:

On Saturday, Chris Christie addressed the Republican Jewish Coalition conference in Las Vegas, Nevada and called on the GOP to move on from Election 2020 storylines.

Never being one to take a slight sitting down, President Trump fired off one of his familiar short-form email press releases (which replaced tweeting after his suspension) taking his former New Jersey ally to the woodshed.

“Chris Christie, who just made a speech at the Republican Jewish Coalition (RJC) in Las Vegas, was just absolutely massacred by his statements that Republicans have to move on from the past, meaning the 2020 Election Fraud,” wrote Trump. “Everybody remembers that Chris left New Jersey with a less than 9% approval rating—a record low, and they didn’t want to hear this from him!”

“I’m not gonna get into a back-and-forth with Donald Trump,” Christie fired back in an Axios interview posted Thursday. “But what I will say is this: When I ran for reelection in 2013, I got 60% of the vote. When he ran for reelection, he lost to Joe Biden. I’m happy to have that comparison stand up, because that’s the one that really matters.”

Christie is desperately trying to stay relevant.

Trump is trying to reassert his claim on voters who feel he was robbed (figuratively or literally) last time around.

Both men want to keep their options open for 2024.

Do we care? Should we care? To me, it feels as if both men sense that history is slipping away from them.

President Trump should be talking 24/7/365 about the economy, wokeness, and nothing else. Election 2020 is a settled issue for most people, but there are plenty of voters out there who are second-guessing their decision to trust Joe Biden with the keys to the White House. Republicans just proved in Virginia (and in many New Jersey races, too) that there’s a path forward – drilling down on education, parental control, and those “kitchen table/pocketbook” issues. Trump isn’t the one leading that charge by choice which is ironic since he reinvented the strain of conservative populism that’s revitalizing the party.

Christie, for his part, may be right this time around but it’s for the wrong reasons. It’s obvious to everyone that the man goes wherever he thinks he stands to gain the most. The future belongs to the Youngkin and DeSantis generation Republican politicians who are presently in the trenches. Christie’s constant sniping at his own team from his platform at liberal outlets like ABC, CNN and Axios isn’t helping repair his relationship with Republican primary voters.

They were and remain two of the most talented American politicians of the 21st century to date.

I’m not convinced that their current respective strategies aiming for relevance will pay dividends, and this debate over who’s the biggest loser screams of a past that (more irony here) Christie is arguing we need to move past.

Matt Rooney
About Matt Rooney 8405 Articles
MATT ROONEY is SaveJersey.com's founder and editor-in-chief, a practicing New Jersey attorney, and the host of 'The Matt Rooney Show' on 1210 WPHT every Sunday evening from 7-10PM EST.