Chris Christie issued a say-it-to-my-face challenge to Donald Trump after the former president launched a late-night tirade against the former New Jersey governor on his Truth Social website.
“Keep it coming, Donald,” Christie, who is running against Trump for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, said on CNN on Thursday night.
“And by the way, if he had any guts, he’d get on the debate stage,” Christie said. “And he’s got things to say about me? Stop hiding behind your social media site, your failed social media site, Donald, and start taking me on directly. Show up. Stop being a coward.”
CNN’s Wolf Blitzer asked Christie why Trump has refused to participate in the debates so far.
“If I had his record, I wouldn’t want to debate either,” Christie said, then ticked off campaign promises Trump couldn’t keep:
“He said he was going to balance the budget in four years, as a business man. He added $7 trillion to the national debt. Said he was going to build a ‘big, beautiful wall’ across the entire border of Mexico. He built 52 miles of new wall in four years. And he said Mexico was gonna pay for it. They never did. He said he was gonna repeal and replace Obamacare. He had a Republican Congress, he couldn’t get it done. Look, that’s not a record to be proud of.”
He also named one other reason Trump won’t debate.
“He doesn’t want to face me,” Christie said. “I prepared him for the debates in 2016. I prepared him for the debates in 2020. He knows what that’s like. He doesn’t want the American people to see it. I do.”
Christie was once a close Trump ally, and was one of the first prominent Republicans to endorse him in 2016. As he mentioned, he helped prep Trump for the debates, and developed Covid-19 while helping him in 2020.
He spent a week in the intensive care unit as he fought the infection.
He has since turned into a Trump critic, not only running against him but saying he won’t vote for Trump if he wins the Republican nomination.
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