Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie is planning to throw his hat in the ring for the Republican presidential nomination next week. To call him a long-shot candidate is putting it gently: In 2016 he finished sixth in the New Hampshire primary, which he had staked his candidacy on, and since then he has done little to improve his standing in the GOP.
But Christie still has an opportunity to make a splash in the primaries — and the direction of American politics. He’s signaling that he intends to be the Trump slayer in the race by focusing his combative energy on bashing former President Donald Trump for, among other things, his lies about the 2020 election. The strategy is unlikely to give Christie a path to the nomination, but it’s something that no major politician in the GOP has seriously attempted since Trump’s rise. If Christie wounds Trump, or at least forces the rest of the party to take clearer positions on the 2020 election and the Jan. 6 insurrection, his candidacy could be a force for good.
Christie has said that this time around he wants to channel that same gladiatorial instinct against Trump.
Christie was never a serious contender for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination, but he made his mark as a brawler. In one of the most famous moments of the primary, he hammered Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida repeatedly over his policy record and his repetitive talking points at a debate days ahead of the New Hampshire primary. “See, Marco, the thing is this: When you’re president of the United States, when you’re governor of a state, the memorized 30-second speech where you talk about how great America is at the end of it doesn’t solve one problem for one person,” Christie said. Many political analysts — and Rubio himself — believe that Christie’s barbs helped crater Rubio’s chances in a critical primary and helped clear a wider path for Trump, who won the race.
Christie has said that this time around he wants to channel that same…
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