Chris Christie, who sought the GOP nomination through attacks on Trump, drops his bid

Former Gov. Chris Christie is pulling the plug on his presidential campaign before a single primary ballot has been cast.

After taking nearly 10 minutes to again lambaste former President Donald Trump, the Republican front-runner, who has been the primary target of Christie's campaign, the former New Jersey governor made the news official.

“It is clear to me tonight that there isn’t a path for me to win the nomination,” Christie said. “I am suspending my campaign.”

Christie said that before he decided to run, he and his wife, Mary Pat, were watching this race come together and were “really concerned no one would tell the truth about what’s really at stake and no one would tell the truth about Donald Trump.”

He said it takes ambition to run for office, but that “can’t be what governs decision making,” and he let that happen in 2016 when endorsing Trump but won’t do it again.

The former governor said “being booed for telling the truth is a badge of honor” and that the “most important issue is the character of the candidate.”

Christie said that if Trump had been in office on Sept. 11, 2001, he would “have run to the bunker” and “put himself first.”

“America is great. It was great long before those red hats show up, and it will be great long after they are consigned to history,” Christie said.

Hot mic: Christie critiques Nikki Haley

Christie announced his departure from the race at a town hall event in Windham, New Hampshire, on Wednesday. Before the announcement was set to begin, Christie could be heard speaking with someone about the state of the race for the Republican nomination.

“They don’t want to hear it. They know we’re right,” Christie was heard saying on an apparently hot microphone, moments before his town hall started. “We couldn’t have been any clearer. We couldn’t have been more direct or worked any harder.”

He went on to say former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley is "going to get smoked.” “You and I both know it," Christie said. "She’s not up to this.”

He noted that he had spoken with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, whom he described as “petrified.”

Sought GOP nomination by attacking Donald Trump

The former governor has waged a one-way war of words on Trump since announcing his candidacy in June.

Priding himself on being the anti-Trump, at least this time around, didn’t help Christie with prospective voters in early primary states.

A Monmouth University poll released last month found that just 2% of Republican voters were interested in seeing Christie on the ballot and that he is broadly viewed in the negative, 12% favorable and 65% unfavorable.

Whether it was on the debate stage with the other Republican contenders — always sans Trump, of course — or along the campaign trail, Christie has made an effort to build his image as the antidote to Trump.

Though the former governor was among the first to endorse Trump in 2016 after calling off his own presidential ambitions and even helped him prepare for debates ahead of the 2020 election, their relationship soured.

During his recent campaign, Christie called Trump, his former friend, “angry” and “vengeful,” saying the former president would spend a potential second term “settling scores” against enemies real and perceived.

“He’s shown himself to be completely self-centered, completely self-consumed,” Christie said of Trump. “He doesn’t give a damn about the American people.”

A former U.S. attorney, Christie has said he believes there is more evidence than what has been laid out in the indictments against the former president.

Christie said it was “vanity run amok” and “ego run amok,” adding that Trump “cannot live with the fact that he lost to Joe Biden” and that he “wants to continue to pretend he’s president.”

Earlier efforts to seek higher office

This isn’t Christie’s first failed attempt at running for the nation’s highest office. After being courted for a run in 2012, Christie made an effort for the 2016 race but was beaten in the New Hampshire primary by Donald Trump. The defeat swiftly shut down his candidacy.

Christie soon jumped on the Trump bandwagon and helped the former president prepare for debates in the run-up to his victory. Christie also worked to help Trump in preparation for debates in the 2020 cycle, in which the 45th president lost to Joe Biden.

Since leaving office, Christie has returned to his roots as a lawyer. He’s also served as a political analyst and legal contributor for ABC News. He has worked as a lobbyist in Washington and has a seat on the board of directors of the New York Mets.

Christie, a two-term governor, had legislative wins including instituting public employee health and benefits reforms, the complex merger of Rutgers and the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, and the overhaul of the criminal justice system, which notably eliminated cash bail.

He reached new heights in popularity due to his response to Superstorm Sandy but is perhaps better remembered for controversy than for policy.

During his bid for reelection in 2013, “traffic problems in Fort Lee,” the political revenge scheme that is now known as Bridgegate, brought about a downturn in Christie's public approval and was viewed by many as a derailing factor in his chance at securing the presidential nomination in 2016. Christie was never found to have known about or had involvement in the revenge plot.

Others might remember photos from July 2017, when Christie and his family spent a holiday weekend at the beach during a state government shutdown.

Before his time as governor, Christie served on the Morris County Board of Freeholders and was U.S. attorney for New Jersey from 2002 to 2008.

Katie Sobko covers the New Jersey Statehouse. Email: sobko@northjersey.com

This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Chris Christie drops GOP presidential bid