As he continues popping up to promote his new book, Republican Rescue: Saving the Party From Truth Deniers, Conspiracy Theorists, and the Dangerous Policies of Joe Biden, Chris Christie joined Fox News Sunday.
Speaking to Bret Baier, Christie said Biden and his administration are not up to the job.
“They ran based upon uniting the country, bringing greater competence to the White House in their view, and they failed miserably on both. They’ve gone far left on all their policies. This is like we elected Bernie Sanders,” he said, noting crime, inflation, the Afghanistan withdrawal, and more. “Biden knows that Republicans are gathering momentum. I don’t know how Joe Biden running in 2024 would be the least bit intimidating to Republicans or the least bit reassuring to the American people.”
New CBS News poll finds that 67% of Americans DISAPPROVE of Joe Biden's handling of inflation. pic.twitter.com/IfPEfkJlyw
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) November 21, 2021
What caught most of the legacy media’s eye, naturally, was Christie noting “justice was done” in the Kyle Rittenhouse case Friday.
“I hope that everyone will leave this young man alone now and let him go to living his life. He should not become a political symbol for anybody,” Christie argued. “I think those people on the left are just attempting to continue to tear our country apart for political gain. Anybody who looked at the videos of this could tell it was an act of self-defense.”
When the former two-term governor spoke at the Ronald Reagan Library in September, he made headlines by claiming, “We need to free ourselves from the quicksand of endless grievances. We need to face the realities of the 2020 election and learn, not hide from them. … We need to renounce the conspiracy theorists and the truth-deniers, the ones who know better and the ones who are just plain nuts.”
This was viewed as a shot at former President Donald Trump’s stolen election claim, although Christie voted twice for Trump and was an early supporter and lead debate coach.
Related: Chris Christie 2024? Former Governor Pushes His Way Back Into the Spotlight
Baier asked Christie if he believes Trump will ever concede the 2020 election to Biden.
“I don’t know that he will and he certainly hasn’t now in a year, but I hope that what he’ll do, we move on and just stop talking about it,” Christie explained. “Even if he doesn’t formally concede, we need to stop talking about the fact that the election is stolen, when as I lay out in the book, there’s really no solid evidence that it was.”
Christie believes the best way for the GOP to build on electoral successes in Virginia, New Jersey, and other locales is to move beyond past elections.
As one of several potential presidential contenders who addressed the Republican Jewish Coalition earlier this month, he hit similar themes.
“We can no longer talk about the past elections — no matter where you stand on that issue, it is over,” Christie argued. “Every minute that we spend talking about 2020, Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer are laying ruin to this country. We better focus on that and take our eyes off the rearview mirror and start looking through the windshield again. Winning campaigns are always the campaigns that look forward, not backwards.”
When questioned Sunday if he would consider making a second run for president, Christie said will not make that decision until the end of 2022.
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