Former New Jersey governor and 2024 GOP presidential candidate Chris Christie said that the Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump is driven by the force of fear.
Specifically, it’s a fear of being behind bars.
The former president faces the 37-count federal indictment in Florida for his alleged mishandling of classified documents, as well as the 34-count indictment in New York over alleged hush money payments to Stormy Daniels. There are more charges on the way, most likely, pertaining to the January 6th attack on the Capitol and his attempts to undermine and overturn the 2020 election.
“He’s scared,” Christie told The New York Times in a lengthy interview over the weekend. “Look, a guy like him, the last place you ever want to be in life is in jail because you give up all control, and he’s a complete control freak.”
Christie also predicted that Trump will, when push comes to shove, participate in the Republican presidential debates. This comes despite the former president having said that he would not.
“His ego won’t permit him not to,” Christie said. “He can’t have a big TV show that he’s not on.”
Trump, for his part, is reportedly considering “counter-programming” to draw attention away from the first GOP debate hosted by Fox News in August.
Christie’s unabashed criticism of Trump comes from a man with an interesting history with the former president. He was one of the first prominent Republicans to endorse Trump in 2016, and remained a member of Trump’s inner circle throughout his time in Washington. Now, however, he is not afraid to blast him in public.
