Are Chris Christie's attacks on Donald Trump theater? Or cunning strategy? | Stile

Eight years ago, presidential hopeful Chris Christie couldn’t resist the opportunity to humblebrag about his relationship with his “very good personal friend” Donald Trump.

“He is a great American. He is a quintessential American," Christie said, to the delight of a town hall audience in New Hampshire. “What you see on TV — that’s who he is. It’s not like he is faking it. That’s the whole deal, man. Going to dinner with Donald Trump is exhausting. You are tired at the end of it because he is on all the time.”

That was the beginning of a long, tumultuous ride through Trumpworld, one that would take Christie from the trusted Trump whisperer to his latest incarnation: the Trump slayer. Christie is now posturing himself as the one Republican who has the mouth and moxie (and the thick skin) to call the former president out during the 2024 presidential primary for his failures and lies — and defeat him.

The Bridgegate-battered Christie who once deferred about his volatile dinner partner is holding nothing back about the volatile ex-president whose election denialism spurred an insurrection. As the rest of the Republican field avoids confrontation with Trump, Christie is publicly saying all the things Republicans grumble about Trump in private.

'The only person he cares about is him'

After the Manhattan district attorney indicted him on charges related to a hush money scheme involving a porn star last month, Christie had this to say:

“It’s pretty obvious that’s not the character of somebody we want sitting behind the desk in the Oval Office.”

After Trump’s brazen “I am your retribution” remark, Christie responded with mockery and accused him of narcissism.

“Here’s why it wouldn’t be him: because he doesn’t want to be my retribution," Christie told an audience at St. Anselm College in New Hampshire last month. “That’s baloney. The only person he cares about is him. And if we haven’t learned that since Election Day of 2020 to today, then we are not paying attention.”

And then there was this jab in response to Trump’s suggestion that he might skip debates in the primary. Christie called him a coward.

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“He’s afraid to get on the stage against people who are serious," he told the conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt last week.

Christie’s critique comes as he ponders a second run for the Oval Office, a decision he told Hewitt that he’ll make in the coming weeks. His first campaign, in 2016, didn’t end well — he pulled the plug after finishing in a disappointing sixth place in the primary in New Hampshire, a state Christie had virtually moved to in hopes of scoring a momentum-building early primary victory.

Instead, he left town and became the first establishment Republican to endorse Trump, a move that gave Christie a seat on the bumpy Trump bandwagon for the next six years. He would go from being on Trump’s shortlist for vice president to being summarily dismissed as the transition director just days after Trump’s victory. He would later prep Trump for a 2020 debate, only to land in an intensive care unit at Morristown Medical Center with COVID-19. And now, he’s permanently exiled from the House of Trump, lashing into him as he once did against teachers' unions at New Jersey town halls.

It’s a reprise of the Christie show — all venom and sound bites, all the time.

Theater or strategy?

But questions loom: Is this just theater? A way for Christie to boost his speaking fees? Or is it a legitimate strategy to seize the nomination in a party where Trump still retains the loyalty of 35% to 40% of the GOP, despite the impeachments and indictment and the other legal troubles clouding the horizon?

In New Hampshire, which he has already visited and will likely remain a frequent stop if he jumps into the race, Christie’s brazen, frontal attack on Trump has garnered notice and appreciative reviews from the never-Trumpers. At least someone in the timid GOP field has the gall to publicly shout that the gaudy emperor has no clothes, they say.

“The role as a sort of provocateur and in calling out Trump is out there for the taking, and he seems to be the most aggressive. He gets a very good response from the anti-Trumpies when he comes up," said Thomas Rath, a former New Hampshire attorney general and senior adviser to past Republican presidential candidates. “I know the night of St. Anselm (appearance) that folks called me afterward and said, ‘It's about time somebody said that.’ ”

But Andrew Smith, director of the University of New Hampshire Granite State Poll, noted that Christie’s withering criticism of Trump might stir resentment and backlash from MAGA hard-liners — and Trump himself. A recent poll found Trump opening a 20-point lead over Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis in the most recent poll. Trump’s support since the New York indictment has only grown since a survey in January. (Christie notched just 2% in the same poll.)

“When he attacks Trump, he's antagonizing a big chunk of the Republican base here," Smith said. “It really puts Christie in the role of the guy who's got to take the hits and take the hits early on … So being in the front line of fire is not necessarily a safe place to be.”

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Another problem is Christie’s past close association with Trump. Why should voters suddenly flock to Christie after his Road-to-Damascus revelation about Trump when he was partly responsible for helping create the Frankenstein's monster now looming over 2024?

And if Christie believed that the alleged Stormy Daniels affair makes Trump unsuitable for the presidency, it certainly didn’t deter him from helping Trump try to reclaim the White House in the fall of 2020, when he helped prepare Trump for a debate against Democrat Joe Biden. The Stormy Daniels story was four years old by then.

“Chris Christie's got to explain his infatuation with Trump (from) the last time," Rath said.

Yet some establishment Republicans are willing to forgive his Trump-enabling past as long as he continues to prosecute the case against Trump in public. At this point, they see Christie as a long-shot candidate at best, but whether he chooses to remain an attack dog on the sidelines, raising the alarm of a second Trump presidency, or becomes a candidate, they're glad he’s in the arena.

“You know, so, as part of this process, it is important for there to be to be evangelists and prophets who are preparing the way and making the case," said Fergus Cullen, a former New Hampshire Republican Party chairman and never-Trumper.

But Brian Dooley, a commercial real estate specialist and a Christie admirer, said Christie could win the battle and defeat Trump in a fierce, mudslinging primary battle, but might be too damaged by the fight. It’s a factor to be weighed, he argued.

Do voters "find some other candidate in the pack that comes along at that time who is not as scathed and scarred as Christie?” Dooley wondered.

To Bill Palatucci, a longtime Christie friend, much of the early, pre-primary analysis of Christie’s chances is steeped in conventional wisdom. He noted that Christie defied it before. He was, after all, a conservative, pro-life Republican who rose to national prominence from a blue bastion in the Northeast.

“I don't think it's as simple as Trumpers and never-Trumpers," he said. “I think there are people who are sympathetic or have been supporters of the former president in the past who will want to want to turn the page.”

Charlie Stile is a veteran New Jersey political columnist. For unlimited access to his unique insights into New Jersey’s political power structure and his powerful watchdog work, please subscribe or activate your digital account today.

Email: stile@northjersey.com 

Twitter: @politicalstile

This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Chris Christie attacks on Trump strategy for 2024 presidential race?