Chris Christie suspended his 2024 presidential campaign on Wednesday night in yet another sign that Republican resistance to front-runner Donald Trump is melting away as the former president barrels toward his party’s nomination for a second term in the White House.
“It’s clear to me tonight that there isn’t a path for me to win the nomination,” he told supporters at a campaign event in New Hampshire, dropping out before voting starts in the Iowa caucuses next week.
“I am going to make sure that in no way do I enable Donald Trump to ever be president of the U.S. again, and that is more important than my own personal ambition,” he added.
The former New Jersey governor had been a long-shot candidate in the Republican primary, struggling to break above single digits in polls of the contest while attempting to undermine Trump’s stronghold on the party.
He faced pressure to end his campaign and endorse former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley in a bid to boost her chances of winning the January 23 primary in New Hampshire, where Trump leads in polls.
But Christie doesn’t seem to be providing an endorsement to anyone right now. He was captured discussing the campaign on a hot mic Wednesday, making a less-than-glowing reference to Haley.
“She’s going to get smoked. And you and I both know it. She’s not up to this,” Christie said to an unidentified man in Windham, New Hampshire, before making his exit from the race official.
Christie formally launched his bid in June 2023, calling Trump “a bitter, angry man” who should be disqualified from the presidency. He issued dire warnings to his party about a second Trump presidency. The former president, Christie said, is a “dictator” and a “bully.” He spread his message on the debate stage and at conservative, Trump-friendly enclaves ― and was booed for it.
The former governor didn’t spare his fellow 2024 rivals from criticism, either. He called them bootlickers and questioned their unwillingness to criticise Trump.
“There’s only one candidate trying to stop Trump,” a Christie campaign ad said in December. “Chris Christie is the only one who can beat Trump, because he’s the only one trying to beat Trump.”
At one primary debate, Christie called Florida Governor Ron DeSantis “afraid” for not answering whether he believed Trump was mentally fit to be president. “Is he fit or isn’t he?” Christie asked as DeSantis evaded the question.
He also didn’t hold back against Haley when she failed to mention slavery as a cause of the Civil War, accusing her of being “unwilling to offend anyone by telling the truth” and auditioning for being selected as Trump’s vice presidential nominee.
“What’s going to happen when she has to stand up against forces in our own party who want to drag this country deeper and deeper into anger and division and exhaustion?” Christie asked recently.
Christie’s transformation from Trump’s longtime friend to a thorn in his side is somewhat head-spinning. The former governor was one of the first big-name Republicans to endorse Trump’s presidential campaign in 2016, giving him valuable legitimacy. He went on to serve as Trump’s transition chairman and even defended him when he became president.
Not long after the violent attack on the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, however, Christie shifted course, sharpening his criticism of Trump and his lies about winning the 2020 presidential election.
“I think everything that he was saying from election night forward incited people to that level of anger,” Christie told CNN about the Capitol riot, making it clear he held Trump directly responsible.
Trump, meanwhile, responded to Christie’s criticisms by hurling ugly attacks about his weight.
Christie seemed resistant to the idea of dropping out and endorsing Haley at a campaign event just a day earlier in New Hampshire.
“I would be happy to get out of the way for someone who is actually running against Donald Trump,” Christie said, according to The Associated Press.
“Let’s say I dropped out of the race right now and I supported Nikki Haley,” he added. “And then three months from now, four months from now, when you’re ready to go to the convention, she comes out as his vice president. What will I look like? What will all the people who supported her at my behest look like?”
Still, even if he doesn’t endorse Haley, it seems likely that Christie’s exit from the race could help her — particularly in New Hampshire, where some polls have shown the race heating up between Haley and Trump.