Chris Christie Gets a Super PAC Ahead of His Likely 2024 Bid - The New York Times
By: Maggie Haberman (nytimes)
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
The former governor of New Jersey, who has been at times both a confidant and a rival of Donald Trump, will have some outside help in his effort to win the Republican primary.
New Jersey's former governor, Chris Christie, is preparing to enter the 2024 Republican field.Credit...Kristopher Radder/The Brattleboro Reformer, via Associated Press
By Maggie Haberman
May 30, 2023, 3:00 a.m. ET
Allies of former Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey have formed a super PAC to support him in the nascent Republican primary,as he makes preparations for a likely campaign kickoff in the next two weeks, according to an official with the group and others briefed on the matter.
Mr. Christie's candidacy is likely to to focus in part on drawing a stark contrast with former President Donald J. Trump. Mr. Christie supported Mr. Trump in 2016 and worked with him during his presidency, but they split over Mr. Trump's claims on election night in 2020 that the race was stolen from him.
People who have been close to Mr. Christie for years are leading the outside group, Tell It Like It Is, which is laying the groundwork for an imminent announcement, one of the people briefed on the matter said. Brian Jones, an aide who advised Senator John McCain's presidential bid in 2008 and Mitt Romney's in 2012, will run the effort.
William P. Palatucci, a longtime adviser to Mr. Christie and a Republican National Committee member, will be the chair. Another long-serving adviser to Mr. Christie, Russ Schriefer, will oversee messaging as a senior adviser; and Brent Seaborn, a veteran data guru, will focus on voter targeting.
Maria Comella, an adviser who also was chief of staff to former Gov. Andrew Cuomo of New York, and Mike DuHaime, Mr. Christie's top political strategist in 2016, are expected to run an eventual campaign if Mr. Christie announces as expected. Anthony Scaramucci, the hedge fund adviser who served for less than two weeks as a communications director in the Trump White House and has become a vocal Trump critic, has said he will support Mr. Christie if he runs.
Mr. Christie"is willing to confront the hard truths that currently threaten the future of the Republican Party," Mr. Jones said in a statement. "Now more than ever we need leaders that have the courage to say not what we want to hear but what we need to hear."
ImageChris Christie is focusing his effort in the 2024 race on New Hampshire, where he held a town hall recently at New England College.Credit...Charles Krupa/Associated Press
Mr. Christie has said recently that he would run if he believed he could win, but he had indicated that there were organizational issues he needed to figure out. The existence of the super PAC and the pending announcement suggest those issues have been resolved.
A Christie candidacy is seen as a long shot in a Republican Party that has been remade in Mr. Trump's image eight years after Mr. Christie first ran for president. Mr. Trump vanquished him, and Mr. Christie dropped out after coming in sixth in New Hampshire, where he had staked his candidacy.
A central challenge of this campaign will be explaining to voters his transformation. He endorsed Mr. Trump in 2016, helped him with debate prep and acted at times as an informal adviser during his presidency. Then, in the earliest hours of Nov. 4, 2020, Mr. Christie split with him when he questioned Mr. Trump's declaration that there had been widespread fraud in the election.
"We heard nothing today about any evidence," Mr. Christie said in an appearance on ABC News. "This kind of thing, all it does is inflame without informing. And we cannot permit inflammation without information."
Since then, Mr. Christie has become a full-throated critic of Mr. Trump, talking as a former federal prosecutor about the former president's legal travails and describing him as a loser who can no longer command the crowds he once did. Mr. Christie's candidacy is being watched by donors who either like what he's saying or see him as the best opportunity to damage Mr. Trump, particularly from a debate stage.
And like some other candidates, such as former Vice President Mike Pence, Mr. Christie appears to be banking on the notion that there are enough vestiges of the old Republican Party to which he can appeal.
While New Hampshire is seen as a potentially favorable state where Mr. Christie could make inroads, his advisers are not expected to hang his candidacy on a specific state. Instead, he is expected to try to get as much media attention as possible with an unconventional campaign that will travel to places where his message is most appealing.
He will be coming into the 2024 race as the person with the most coherent case against Mr. Trump while arguing that the fight needs to be taken directly to the former president.
Mr. Christie is hoping to tamp down some of the grievance that has seeped into the roots of political discourse in the Republican Party since Mr. Trump became the party's nominee in 2016. Mr. Christie is approaching the race, allies say, with the goal of delivering a hopeful message.
But Mr. Christie has also repeatedly taken shots at Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida, the distant second to Mr. Trump in most public polls, describing Mr. DeSantis's fight with Disney in particular as an overreach.
"Where are we headed here now that, if you express disagreement in this country, the government is allowed to punish you? To me, that's what I always thought liberals did. And now all of a sudden here we are participating in this with a Republican governor," Mr. Christie said last month.
Maggie Haberman is a senior political correspondent and the author of "Confidence Man: The Making of Donald Trump and the Breaking of America." She was part of a team that won a Pulitzer Prize in 2018 for reporting on President Trump's advisers and their connections to Russia. @maggieNYT
A version of this article appears in print on , Section A, Page 20 of the New York edition with the headline: As Christie Considers Presidential Run, His Supporters Form a Super PAC. Order Reprints | Today's Paper | Subscribe48
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Trump accused Christie of giving him covid. I'm not sure Christie even responded .
Christie is a blowhard who has sucked up to Trump enough times to last several lifetimes.
He has no chance of winning either the GOP nomination or the general election.
Maybe Christie just wants to play spoiler with Trump.
Hallux's Law has but one rule: Make no predictions else the Muses will abandon you to the Sword of Damocles.
Christie killed his chances for this office when he turned into a Trump sycophant. The fact that he has recovered from that affliction does not change his inherent weakness of character.
I could never get over the bridgegate. Or whatever it was.
Not a fan of Christie. Would still vote for him before voting for the ice cream eating zombie that currently resides in the Whitehouse.
You will not have that opportunity. Our likely choices (as it stands now) are Biden and Trump. DeSantis has the best chance of pushing Trump aside so stay tuned.
Lesser of 2 evils......take 3
Unfortunately, for all of us.
what have you got against ice cream? You some kind of commie?
... and 'zombie' connotes such objectivity.
Maybe living dead would be better.
Depends on the flavor
I am usually not that big of a fan of ice cream. I did find one a little while back. It was just called Mango, it was almost like a sherbet. That was good. It was the only one in the case, I need to see of they got anymore.
I like it sometimes. I get cravings for it. But when I eat it before bed time I get nightmares
I'm not a fan of him either. I've always considered him a crooked schmuck and a opportunist.
You just described about every politician on the planet.
Want to become a successful politician? Check off your morals, ethics, and personal values at the first fund raiser. You may have to give up more the higher up the ladder of power you go.
Want to become a successful politician? Check off your morals, ethics, and personal values at the first fund raiser.
What a load of crap. There are ethical, moral, and valued politicians, they’re just not on your preferred side of the isle. Partisanship bends over backwards to try and ruin people like Elizabeth Warren with ridiculous labels like Pocahontas.
.......until they understand the system and how it works during their tenure and they figure out that is it truly about them (erroneously) and doing whatever it takes to achieve more "stature"............that aside from your preferred side of the aisle bullshit. To coin a phrase that is like sunlight to a vampire for a few of our membership, "both sides are guilty".
Tell me all about Elizabeth Warren’s guilt.
Beside being an extremist like one of our members describes as an "econo terrorist" (read wealth redistributionist) and her 1/1200 Native American Ancestry for going "to the head of the class", perhaps some of her property ownership..........net worth before and after getting to Washington? Like that stuff?
Thank you for proving my point. She’s just on the wrong side of the isle for you, therefore let’s go after Pocahontas.
Proving your point??
Is that what you got? You asked about her and her only and I answered. Throw another at me from "my side" of the "ISLE" (aisle) and I can do the same..........especially the before and after wealth since being elected. McConnell, Jordan, they all benefit and profit from their "position".
Yeah, and to you all those "ethical, moral, and valued politicians" are all leftist liberal Democrats right? If you are convinced of that then that's the real load of crap! At least I know it is on both sides of the aisle. Greed transcends party affiliation.
[removed] Pro-environment? Must be a TERRORIST!
Insult aside, where did environment come into the picture? [Deleted]
Oh, is that what I said? Of course there is corruption on both sides, but only one side puts George Santos in office.
I stand corrected - I did misread what kind of terrorist Warren is. What is important is that you define her as a TERRORIST!! Clearly she has evil tendencies!!
Not my definition but her actions and words speak for themselves
Not your definition, just the word you chose out of all the words in the English language. Got it.
Well let's see. She would, along with a few others, absolutely love to take from you and me and give it to others who will gladly take it. Would you rather a label such as crook? How about "it won't affect me much so why not" economy buster. Econo (having to do with economy/money) Terrorist (taking yours without your permission). That does about sum it up. Hat tip to JBB for coming up with the terminology.
Wow, such specificity on what makes her a terrorist. Since you no doubt define every Democrat along the same lines all day every day here, then every Democrat is a terrorist to you. With every post you only further prove my point.
That my friend is a fucking lie.............all of it.
So you can name some Democrats who would not “absolutely love to take from you and me and give it to others who will gladly take it”? Better be careful, you will lose cred with your right wing colleagues here if you have an answer for that.
[Deleted]
Riiiiiiight.
The only ethical politicians are Democrats...
Riiiiight. "Load of crap" indeed.
Partisanship bends over backwards to try and ruin people like Elizabeth Warren with ridiculous labels like Pocahontas.
Funny you would pick such an obvious grifter as your example of an ethical politician.
Seriously? That’s not even the least bit clever. Redeem yourself and cough up some names. [Deleted]
So obvious that you couldn’t be bothered to bring one up. Yawn.
What is taken from you without your permission?
If you are talking about taxes , your residency or citizenship in the United States is implied permission. No one has ever won a tax case by claiming that taxation is theft.
Right over your head…..again
I wrote the question in English.
If your "side" can do "but they're going to" so can the other. Thing is, there is a hell of a lot more danger of the left side's pipe dream coming true through dumbass legislation to their sheep "oh but it won't affect you a lot at all but it will help all especially (fill in the blank with the virtue signal du jour)" than there is/was the fruition of the cartoon.
Elections are always about making a choice from a limited pool of options. So, put against millions of others, Chris Christie is far from my first choice. But if the choice is Trump, DeSantis, or Christie, I’ll vote for Christie every day and twice on Sunday.