Chris Christie has promised to take the fight to Donald Trump when he launches a long-shot Republican presidential campaign next week. It seems like he’s less motivated by potentially clinching the nomination than he is in going at Trump.
Either way, his approach is not endearing him to conservative media.
In the eyes of Fox’s Sean Hannity (a close Trump ally), the former New Jersey governor just wants to “bludgeon” Trump. He said so on Friday, adding that he did not want to give Christie any airtime on his show.
“I have no problem giving airtime to any of the candidates who want to come on and give their point of view,” Hannity said. “But I’m looking at Chris Christie, he left office as governor of New Jersey, 13% approval rating, 14% in another poll, and I’m looking at this and I’m saying, ‘OK, you’re only getting in this race ’cause you hate Donald Trump and want to bludgeon Donald Trump. I don’t see Chris Christie actually wanting to run and win the nomination. He views it as his role to be the enforcer and to attack Trump. That’s not a very inspiring agenda, and I don’t even know if I’m interested in facilitating or listening to him babble on when he left office with nobody in New Jersey even liking him.”
Harsh words from Hannity are matched by the recent friendly outing for Trump in a recorded Iowa town hall; Iowa of course is the first primary state for the GOP.
Though Christie, for his part, has denied he is a “paid assassin”, aiming to take Trump down, he has made plain that he hopes to put his pugilistic political skills to good use. He told Politico that Trump “can’t be a credible figure on the world stage; he can’t be a credible figure interacting with Congress; he will get nothing done.”
Either way, Christie has a tall mountain to climb; Trump has consistently polled incredibly well, and remains far ahead of his seemingly only true rival in Florida Governor Ron DeSantis.
