Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie is expected to announce his 2024 presidential bid next Tuesday in New Hampshire, two people familiar with the former governor’s plans confirmed to CBS News.
Longtime allies of Christie have formed a political action committee to support him, called Tell It Like it Is, to reflect Christie’s direct delivery and persona.
Christie may be the only candidate in the race so far who is willing to openly criticize former President Donald Trump on a regular basis. The former governor, who ran for president in 2016, views himself as someone who can stand up to and present a contrast with former Trump, the early front-runner in the polls.
“You better have somebody on that stage who can do to him what I did to Marco [Rubio], because that’s the only thing that’s gonna defeat Donald Trump,” Christie said in March at the New Hampshire Institute of Politics at Saint Anselm College. “And that means you have to be fearless, because he will come back, and right at you.”
The mention of Sen. Marco Rubio was a reference to a 2016 presidential primary debate when Christie had memorably — and effectively — ripped into Rubio, mocking him for “memorized 30-second speeches” that he repeated several times during the debate.
In April, Christie dismissed Trump as “a TV star, nothing more, nothing less.”
“Let me suggest to you that in putting him back in the White House, the reruns will be worse than the original show,” he said at a town hall in New Hampshire, according to the Associated Press,
He has not hesitated to slam Trump on social media — after the CNN town hall with the former president, Christie tweeted, “Donald Trump refused to say tonight that he wanted Ukraine to win the war with Russia. More proof that he continues to be Putin’s puppet.”
The New York Times first reported the formation of the Christie-aligned super PAC. Axios first reported Christie’s plans to run for president.
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