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Don’t ask Chris Christie what “lane” there may be for him within the Republican main. Don’t ask how somebody polling at 1 %, who’s sharply important of Donald J. Trump, might probably win the 2024 nomination when the celebration base has no tolerance for assaults on the previous president.
“I believe there’s this fiction about lanes,” Mr. Christie mentioned on Thursday in New Hampshire, his second exploratory go to in a month. “There may be one lane, OK? There usually are not a number of lanes. On the entrance of that lane proper now could be Donald Trump. If you wish to win the Republican nomination for president, you need to beat Donald Trump and get to the entrance of that lane.”
Mr. Christie, the previous two-term governor of New Jersey and unsuccessful 2016 presidential candidate, was visiting the Republicans’ first main state as a part of a trial interval that he mentioned would culminate by mid-Might in a choice a couple of 2024 run.
He spoke to a small group of reporters who got here to look at him in a dialogue with a dozen individuals at a residential therapy program for drug-addicted pregnant ladies. Dependancy is a matter Mr. Christie has lengthy been enthusiastic about, and he visited the identical program, Hope on Haven Hill, eight years in the past whereas working for president. “I assumed earlier than Covid that that is the general public well being disaster of our technology, and I’m much more satisfied now the Covid has handed that it’s,” he instructed the group.
Afterward, he portrayed the go to as an train in reconnecting with individuals who had supported his 2016 marketing campaign, which ended abruptly after his sixth-place end within the New Hampshire main, regardless of intensive campaigning within the state. He additionally met this week in Washington with former donors and marketing campaign workers to gauge their reactions to a brand new run.
It’s clear that Mr. Christie sees potential in being essentially the most outspoken critic of Mr. Trump, whom he has bashed over 2020 election lies in addition to for Republican defeats up to now three nationwide elections.
However that tack could also be a dropping proposition. Republicans have been abandoning essentially the most distinguished Trump various, Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida, to rally across the former president. A ballot this week of doubtless Republican main voters in New Hampshire by the College of New Hampshire Survey Middle confirmed Mr. DeSantis falling to 22 %, from 43 % in a January survey by the identical pollster. Mr. Trump far outdistanced rivals, at 42 %. Mr. Christie was at 1 %.
“I don’t assume that anyone goes to beat Donald Trump by sidling as much as him, taking part in footsie with him and pretending that you simply’re nearly like him,” Mr. Christie mentioned. “I’m going to inform individuals the details about his presidency and about his conduct. In the event that they determine they need that once more, that’s as much as them.”
In a while Thursday, Mr. Christie held a city hall-style occasion at New England Faculty in Henniker, N.H. He spoke to about 100 college students and a smattering of adults seated in a semicircle of white folding chairs.
He ran by a menu of what he recognized as Mr. Trump’s coverage failures in workplace, then took purpose at his urging supporters to assault the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, which Mr. Trump passively watched on TV. “And when he noticed that, you understand what he did? He ate his well-done cheeseburger, and sat there and did nothing.”
He expressed disgust that Republicans would consider renominating Mr. Trump. “Donald Trump is a TV star. Nothing extra, nothing much less,” Mr. Christie mentioned. “And let me counsel to you that if we put it again to the White Home, the reruns can be worse than the unique present.”
Mr. Christie, who was some of the combative governors of the trendy period — desperate to joust with lawmakers, hecklers or New Jersey residents who confronted him in boards — claimed, nonetheless, that what the nation wanted is a return to civility, and he was simply the one to revive it.
It didn’t stop him, although, from getting in a jab at President Biden’s age. Ought to the president win a second time period, Mr. Christie urged, he would possibly effectively die in workplace and be succeeded by his vp. “A vote for Donald Trump,” he mentioned, implying that he would certainly lose, “is a vote for Kamala Harris.”
Taking questions, Mr. Christie was requested by an adolescent whether or not, given Mr. Trump’s try to subvert democracy, he would have voted for Hillary Clinton in 2016. Mr. Christie demurred. He nonetheless would have supported Mr. Trump, he mentioned, as a result of he most popular his insurance policies.
Afterward, voters mentioned that they appreciated Mr. Christie’s candor however that it was too early to decide to backing him.
“I hope he runs. I believe it’d be good to see him within the combine this yr,” mentioned J.P. Marzullo, a retiree and former Republican state consultant from Deering, N.H., who supported Mr. Christie in 2016. However he needed to play the sphere. “I’m nonetheless taking a look at another individuals proper now,” he mentioned.
Josh Merriam, 19, a pupil from Gilford, N.H., mentioned the night was “the primary presidential hearing-thing I’ve ever been to,” and mentioned his curiosity was piqued by Mr. Christie. “I do like Trump,” he mentioned, however then he quoted again Mr. Christie’s warning {that a} Trump vote was akin to a vote for Ms. Harris. That was not a prospect he cared to ponder.
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