Chris Christie slams Trump: ‘Loser, loser, loser’

Presidential candidate Chris Christie

Presidential candidate Chris Christie, who has made no secret of the fact that he wants to attack former President Trump on his record, railed against him on Sunday, calling him “Loser. Loser. Loser.”

Christie’s History with Trump

Christie, who did Trump a favor in 2016 by savaging Florida Senator Marco Rubio — who was a serious threat to Trump’s candidacy —was later rumored to be Trump’s choice for a running mate in 2016, but eventually Trump chose former Vice President Mike Pence. In February 2016, in an embarrassing moment for Christie, Trump was caught on a hot mic telling Christie, “Get on a plane and go home.”

Trump’s Attacks on Former Officials

Christie responded to CNN anchor Jake Tapper noting that Trump has been attacking former Trump officials who have criticized him over his indictment, saying General John Kelly has a very small brain and was a “mummy,” as well as slamming former Attorney General Bill Barr as a “gutless pig, lazy and totally ineffective.”

Trump’s Flip-Flops

Christie noted Trump’s flip-flops about people he had worked with, calling former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson the embodiment of the American dream, but saying when he left the administration that he was “dumb as a rock and lazy as hell.” Christie recalled Trump saying former Secretary of Defense General James Mattis was “America’s very best general” and the closest thing we had to Patton, then saying when he left he was the “most overrated general” in American history.

Trump’s Personnel Choices

Christie pointed out Trump called Mick Mulvaney, the director of the Office of Management budget and his chief of staff, outstanding and brilliant, but when he left, “a born loser.”

“If you believe what he said when they left, that means he didn’t pick the very best people and doesn’t know how to pick personnel,” Christie argued. “If you believe about them what he said at the beginning, the great stuff, then this guy is the worst manager in the history of the American presidency.”

Trump’s Behavior

“He’s a petulant child when someone disagrees with them,” Christie charged. “He calls you names.”

The Pledge

Asked if he would take the pledge the RNC authored that candidates would support the eventual nominee in order to participate in the debates, Christie said he would, then added, “I’m going to go back to 2016 again and say, I’m going to take the pledge just as seriously as Donald Trump took it in 2016.”

He noted that Trump signed such a pledge, but at a subsequent debate, the candidates were asked again if they would reaffirm their support of whoever the nominee was going to be. Everyone but Trump raised their hand.

“And so I will take the pledge in 2024 just as seriously as Donald Trump took the pledge in 2016,” Christie said, adding, “in all my life, we never had to have Republican primary candidates take a pledge. We’re Republicans. And the idea is, you would support the Republican whether you won or whether you lost, and you didn’t have to ask somebody to sign something. It’s only the era of Donald Trump that you need somebody to sign something on a pledge. So I think it’s a bad idea.”

Christie’s Critique of Trump

“I will do what I need to do to be up on that stage to try to save my party and save my country from going down the road of being led by three-time loser Donald Trump, loser in 2018 by losing the House, loser in 2020 by losing the White House and the United States Senate, and the worst midterm performance we have seen in a long, long time, led by Donald Trump-selected candidates with Donald Trump as the main issue in many of those races,” Christie concluded. “Loser. Loser. Loser.”