Chris Christie slams Trump, disparages other GOP rivals as he exits presidential race

Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie suspended his long-shot bid for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination Wednesday evening, saying he wanted to "make sure that in no way do I enable Donald Trump to ever be president of the United States again," a goal "more important" than his "own personal ambition." Trump's leading critic in the GOP field, Christie had staked his campaign on doing well in New Hampshire's Jan. 23 primary.

Christie's exit was expected to boost former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley, whose poll numbers are rising especially in New Hampshire, but he declined to immediately endorse any Republican rival. In fact, he seemed to rule out any such endorsement, telling his New Hampshire supporters that anyone unwilling to say Trump "is unfit to be president of the United States is unfit themselves to be president of the United States."

In what appeared to be a hot-mic moment broadcast on his campaign website shortly before he announced his departure from the race, Christie said Haley is "going to get smoked, and you and I both know it. She's not up to this." Christie also said Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) called him, "petrified" that he would do something, possibly throw his support to Haley, though the recording ended before he finished the thought.

Christie had suggested he wasn't dropping out of the race as recently as Tuesday, saying he would be "happy to get out of the way for somebody if they actually were going against Donald Trump," but none of them were. In a debate in Iowa on Wednesday night, Haley and DeSantis harshly attacked each other but only intermittently criticized Trump.

Haley commended Christie, "a friend for many years," on his "hard-fought campaign." DeSantis said on X he agreed "with Christie that Nikki Haley is 'going to get smoked,'" while Trump wrote on Truth Social that Christie's assessment of Haley was "a very truthful statement." On MSNBC, poll-crunching political analyst Steve Kornacki dissected whether Haley will inevitably get "smoked" by Trump, and gave a qualified maybe.