In 2015 and 2016 I saw over a dozen Republican candidates for president up close.
The most skilled, the most persuasive, the one who best connected with his audiences, was Chris Christie.
And yet he lost that year to Trump.
Trump was the brighter light. People came to see the curious celebrity, the provocative as-seen-on-TV Trump. Trump was a star. People liked what they saw and it snowballed.
"Bridgegate" was a problem for Christie. I have reconsidered my thoughts about Bridgegate. Christie's aides had exacted punishment on a New Jersey mayor who refused to endorse Christie by arranging a supposed "safety study." It caused a major traffic jam. They got caught.
I asked a question about Bridgegate in the public Q & A of an event. Christie knew it was a screw up. He tried to minimize his involvement. (Aides? I hardly knew them.) Most American politicians were naive then, in the pre-Trump era. So was I. I understood his effort at minimization as a sign of bad character. I had it backwards. In the long run what was more important was that he felt shame. The current style in MAGA-world is shamelessness and accusation. Trump -- and Republicans who have learned from Trump -- know it is politically better to deny the manufactured traffic jam ever happened. Denounce the investigation of it. Say it is a Democratic witch-hunt in league with the liberal media. The letter from Ted Cruz in yesterday's post here, did exactly that, condemning the prosecution. Fox News this morning is bashing the Department of Justice, the FBI, prosecutors, Democrats.
Christie's ambition and desire for relevance put his political persona through a bad patch. He looked pathetic and hypocritical in endorsing Trump. Video of him standing behind Trump looked like a hostage video. Trump publicly trashed Christie's months of work on the transition. Christie probably will never recover from this period. Democrats saw him become a supplicant and toady. Republicans take their cue from Trump.
But Christie is back on the campaign. He has remade himself by going back to his roots as a straight-talking prosecutor. He explains his prior support for Trump as a failed effort to guide Trump toward his better angels. Christie said that to compete with Trump one needs to go right at him: Trump is a “lonely, self-consumed, self-serving mirror hog.” Christie makes virtue of his direct, in-your-face style. It is very New York/New Jersey. Christie tells audiences it is his Sicilian nature.
I can't guarantee you success in what I'm about to do. But I guarantee you that at the end of it, you will have no doubt in my mind who I am and what I stand for and whether I deserve it,
I believe that. Christie is blunt. Christie has clearly burnt any bridges to Trump world. “The grift from this family is breathtaking,” he said at his campaign launch.
“It’s breathtaking. Jared Kushner and Ivanka Kushner walk out of the White House, and months later get $2 billion from the Saudis.” He’s referring to the $2 billion funding that Public Investment Fund, which is backed by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, put into Kushner’s investment firm. This investment is currently being investigated by the House Committee on Oversight and Reform to determine whether Kushner used his position of influence for financial gain.
You think it’s because he’s some kind of investing genius? Or do you think it’s because he was sitting next to the president of the United States for four years doing favors for the Saudis?That’s your money. That’s your money he stole and gave it to his family. You know what that makes us? A banana republic.
Most pundits are dismissing Christie as a candidate. His poll numbers are minuscule. The conventional wisdom is that his campaign is hopeless. After all, he is selling something people don't want to buy, criticism of Trump.
I don't agree. He has a shot. Campaigns transform the political environment. Jimmy Carter came out of nowhere. So did Bill Clinton. So did Obama. So did Trump in transition from TV star into presidential candidate. Magic can happen in Iowa and New Hampshire. Politicians surprise audiences. Excitement builds. Crowds bring more crowds, and that gets them "earned media" on news shows.
Chris Christie is very skilled. He may not be as familiar to Democrats as is Pete Buttigieg, who I consider Christie's equivalent in presentation skill. Christie is Buttigieg's opposite. Buttigieg is impressive in being cool and cerebral and self contained -- a grown-up in a world that needs grownups. Christie is hot and passionate, in a world that needs forceful people who cannot be cowed.
It is common among Republican candidates to say Trump was a force for good, but that he is flawed in some little way, e.g. too many tweets. Or that he was good until some brief period of time around the 2020 election. Christie is now selling an entirely different message. Christie makes the moral case. He says Trump is dishonest, corrupt, and a bad person, and he cites facts and instances. He is playing the role of prosecutor now, and Christie says Trump is a criminal he has dead to rights.
None of the republican candidates have any integrity or soul. I find each lacking in either leadership or understanding of what the American people want. As long as these candidates are characteritized as either a Trumper, anti Trumper, an alternative to Trump or Trump lite, I will not pay any attention to them.
Making a “moral case” and “Trump” in the same sentence is mind boggling. The case for Christie has to be nuanced (thankfully Sage’s is) and for Trump, cannot be—Trump is a person without a moral compass. Well done Peter!