Our friend Chris Christie is back in the news. Big time!
And that always pleases us because we like Chris Christie and we think he should always be part of our national dialogue. And make no mistake about it, Chris Christie has jumped into the conversation in his own inimitable style. At a meeting of the Jewish Republican Coalition Christie took on Donald Trump and he basically said that the GOP must now turn the page and move beyond Trump because Donald Trump "has put himself before everyone else" and this is why the party keeps "losing and losing and losing."
Yes, Christie laid down the gauntlet. He says we must stop treating Trump like "he who must not be named" and we must take him on. Christie wants a confrontation with Trump because, in his mind, the party is bigger than Trump so "it is time to stop being afraid of any one person. It is time to stand up for the principles and the beliefs that we have founded this party on and this country on.” And, indeed the Grand Old Party is bigger than any one personality and its valued principles deserve to be honored and embraced by a broad coalition that can win and govern. Christie is right on that score. What's more, the country seems to have a serious case of Trump fatigue.
Oh, we know -- Christie was once an avid (and indeed, passionate) Trump booster. You will recall that Chris Christie was one of the first to drop out of the 2016 presidential race and support Trump. And Christie's hardly denying that. Far from it! “I was there early, I was there faithfully, and I was there all the way — until election night 2020,” Christie says. According to Christie, the turning point came when Trump became an election denier and began insisting that he actually won the 2020 race over Joe Biden.
Not that relations between Christie and Trump have always been lovey-dovey. You will recall that Christie was originally in charge of Trump's 2016 transition team and was set to play a key roll in choosing Trump's cabinet. But that came to an end apparently at the behest of Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner who blamed Christie for the prosecution and incarceration of his father when Christie was the U.S. Attorney for New Jersey.
And the friction between Christie and Trump may even preceded that, because, let's face it: Donald Trump stole Chris Christie's playbook. Going into the 2016 presidential election Chris Christie stood out as the no-nonsense, straight-talking candidate with the Big Personality. Christie took the stage as a sort of natural born scene stealer. This was Christie's political DNA. His sharp mind, quick wit and regular guy demeanor captured the public's imagination and, Bridgegate notwithstanding, Chris Christie was determined to ride that persona into the White House.
But then Donald Trump came along. And, in a New York minute Trump out "Christied" Christie. Incredibly, he seemed brasher, more daring, more irreverent and more of a maverick than Christie himself. And Trump brought big time media savvy with him. After all, he was already a top-tier TV star and he had long since honed a compelling flair for the dramatic. To be sure, it wasn't just Christie that Trump bested. Donald Trump blew everybody out of the water. But, among the crowded field of GOP presidential aspirants, no one seem more diminished by Trump's climb to the top than Christie.
Give Christie credit for this: he's a resilient and practical politician. He didn't sit and sulk. He didn't seek our pity or sympathy. He stepped up, endorsed Trump and campaigned for him. It's hard to imagine Trump doing the same for Christie if the roles were reversed.
But, that being the case, the truth is the two men share remarkable similarities. Both Christie and Trump love the spotlight. Neither man is cut out to play second fiddle to anyone. Both like to be totally in charge. To borrow a word from Trump, both are "yooge" personalities. Both are disruptors, so just as Christie vowed to "turn Trenton upside down" as governor, Trump promised to "drain the Washington swamp" as president. Neither man suffers fools gladly and both expect and prize loyalty. And both can be brusque and dismissive.
Now, as we've noted, this is not to suggest that Christie and Trump are mirror images of one another. Indeed, there are many dissimilarities between the two. In fact, Christie's always been more disciplined and not nearly as boastful as Trump. And he's been better at reaching across the aisle to build pragmatic coalitions. Maybe that's part of the reason why Christie was overwhelmingly re-elected and Trump wasn't But, fairly or not, the two men's public personas came across as starkly similar.
And so this may be the real reason why the relationship between these two guys has probably always been, well . . . complicated. In the end, as public figures they seem too much alike for there to be enough room on the Big Stage for both of them. And Christie has made it clear: unlike some other Republicans, he's not only willing to name the menace in our midst; he's ready to take him on. This despite the fact that, at various times both men have described themselves as friends. But then again, let's not forget that old Italian saying: Dai nemici mi guardo io, dagli amici mi guardi Iddio! I will protect myself from my enemies, may God protect me from my friends!
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