'Decision based in fear': Chris Christie says Trump is afraid to face criticism at first debate in Milwaukee

WASHINGTON – Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie on Thursday accused Donald Trump of being afraid to stand on stage and face attacks from fellow Republicans at next month's first presidential primary debate in Milwaukee.

In an interview, Christie likened Trump to a bully and suggested the former president and current Republican front-runner's indecision over whether to attend the Milwaukee debate, scheduled for Aug. 23, stems from the knowledge that he will be scrutinized.

"He is afraid," Christie told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel at the USA TODAY bureau in downtown Washington D.C. "And if he doesn’t show up, it will purely be a decision based in fear, no matter what else he says.”

“Every bully is afraid until somebody in the playground comes up to them and puts their hands up and says, ‘Yeah I’ll take you on, let’s go,'" added Christie, who has been the most vocal opponent of Trump in the GOP presidential primary field.

“He’s used to walking around with his chest puffed out, yelling and screaming and cursing on Truth Social and thinking everybody’s going to go, ‘Oh, I’m not going to mess with him.’”

Christie's comments come just over a month before candidates take the stage at Fiserv Forum in downtown Milwaukee and as questions remain about exactly who might appear at the event expected to draw millions of viewers.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis this month said he plans to attend the debate, and others like entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, former United Nations ambassador Nikki Haley and South Carolina U.S. Sen. Tim Scott appear likely to meet the stringent polling and donation requirements to qualify to participate.

Christie recently announced that he qualified and plans to attend.

Trump, however, has suggested he might not. "When you have a big lead, you don’t do it," Trump said Sunday on Fox News when asked if he'll participate in the debate.

“We have a lead of 50 and 60 points in some cases," Trump added. "You’re leading people by 50 and 60 points, and you say why would you be doing a debate? It’s actually not fair. Why would you let somebody that’s at zero or one or two or three, you know, be popping you with questions?”

In Wisconsin, Trump remains the top choice for Republicans in 2024. A Marquette Law School poll released last month showed Trump favored by 31% of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents in a primary. DeSantis polled at 30%, and former Vice President Mike Pence came in third at 6%. Christie polled at 1% in the survey.

Christie, who previously backed Trump, has not tried to hide that his early campaign's focus has been set squarely on the former president. In his media appearances, he's largely asked questions about Trump. And he frequently responds to the former president's latest controversial comments.

"I understand what this race is," Christie said Thursday. "That's why I'm running the race the way I am. I'm not trying to act like my 4-point plan on fill-in-the-blank is what you guys want to write about... I'm running the campaign in the way where I'm trying to win. And it's to beat him."

If Trump appears on stage in Milwaukee, Christie is sure to use that time to go after him.

He told the Journal Sentinel he is "uniquely positioned" to defeat Trump in a debate, noting he helped Trump prepare for presidential debates in 2016 and 2020, against Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden, respectively. And he pointed out that he has known Trump for 22 years. He supported the former president in both 2016 and 2020, eventually breaking with Trump following the false claims of election fraud and efforts to overturn the 2020 results.

Christie said he has no interest in being friends with Trump anymore, and he is sure Trump feels similarly.

The third reason he's positioned to take on Trump? "I’m from New Jersey," Christie said. "Guys from New Jersey are used to dealing with obnoxious people from New York regularly, and it doesn't throw us in any way.”

Some prominent Republicans are urging Trump to attend the debate.

Republican National Committee Chair Ronna McDaniel recently said Trump would be making “a mistake” if he chose not to debate in Milwaukee. And Reince Priebus, the host committee chair for the 2024 GOP convention in Milwaukee, predicted Trump will attend the debate in August.

"He's also a person who would not shy away from creating a debate environment that could exceed 20, 25 million people viewing," Priebus told CBS 58 this week. "He knows that. And if he already thinks that he's going to do well in a debate, and he already knows that over 20 million people would watch it, I think it'd be very difficult for him to say no."

For Christie, qualifying for the Milwaukee debate was "step one" in his campaign. The event will have the biggest audience that any candidate has been in front of so far in the early race, he noted, and will provide the opportunity to "make an impression on people who care enough to turn on their TVs and watch it.”

"When I decided to run, I said to my team: I don’t want us to focus on anything else — don’t bring me policy paper, don’t bring me media schedules, don’t bring me anything else you want me to consider — until we get to 40,000," Christie said of the individual donor threshold needed to qualify for the Milwaukee debate.

"Almost two weeks ago, when we got to 40,000, I got on a phone call with the senior team and said, ‘Alright. Now we’re a real campaign. Let’s start doing the things real campaigns do.’ That’s how important it is," he added.

"To me, it’s seminal," he said. "If you don’t make it, you shouldn’t stay in the race. You just shouldn’t. There’s no pathway to victory for somebody who can’t make the debate.”

On Thursday, he gave it a "50/50" chance that Trump will be in Milwaukee on Aug. 23.

"You’ll just watch over the course of the next month,” Christie said. “I’ll just continue to invite him.”

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Christie says Trump is afraid to face critics at GOP debate in MKE