Former Gov. Chris Christie (R-NJ), a candidate for the 2024 GOP nomination, said Wednesday on CNN’s “The Lead” that former president Donald Trump “undercut democracy.”
Anchor Jake Tapper said, “So yesterday Governor, when you announced you were running for president you called Trump, a former friend, a lonelily, self-consumed self-serving mirror hog. You’ve been rather unsparing in your criticism. We should note that you might have people out there who are skeptical of this because when you dropped out in the 2016 you endorsed him. You ran his transition, you helped coach him for debates. What do you say to people who say, you know, this guy has always been this way, you just enabled him and now you’re changing your mind?”
Christie said, “Look, you know, back in 2016, Jake, it was clear to me he was going to be nominee. I had had a long relationship with him over 15 years and I thought I could help make him a better candidate and president if he won. I didn’t want Hillary Clinton to be president, and that’s why I ran in the first place. Turns out I was wrong. I couldn’t make him a better candidate and I couldn’t make him a better president. He disappointed me, and he disappointed a lot of people in my party and a lot of people in this country by the way he performed.”
He added, “For me the breaking point was election night 2020 when he was out there at 2:30 in the morning claiming that the election was stolen when I knew he had no evidence to prove that. When you undercut democracy in that way, you have forfeited the trust, in my view, to hold that office that he’s now trying to regain. So, yeah, I did all those things. I make know apologies for them, but when I make a misjudgment I’ll admit it. I thought I could make him better and it wound up I couldn’t. In fact, he was much worse.”
Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN
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