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FORMER NEW JERSEY governor Chris Christie has filed paperwork formally launching his bid for the Republican nomination for US president ahead of a town hall event in New Hampshire.
Christie has cast himself as the only candidate in the field willing to directly take on former president Donald Trump.
The campaign will be the second for the former governor and federal prosecutor, who lost to Trump in 2016 and went on to become a close on-and-off adviser before breaking with the former president over his refusal to accept the results of the 2020 election.
Christie enters a growing primary field that already includes Trump, Florida governor Ron DeSantis, former United Nations ambassador Nikki Haley and US Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina.
Former vice president Mike Pence will be formally launching his own campaign in Iowa tomorrow.
Christie, who during his time as New Jersey’s governor established a reputation as a fighter with a knack for creating viral moments of confrontation, faces an uphill battle to the nomination in a party that remains closely aligned with the former president, despite Trump’s re-election loss in 2020.
Christie has cast himself as the only person with the guts to take on Trump directly and has warned of a repeat of 2016 if candidates fail to confront him.
“I’m not dumb. The way to win is to beat the guy who’s ahead. And so what would a campaign look like? A campaign would look like a direct frontal challenge to Donald Trump trying to return to the presidency,” Christie recently said in a podcast interview.
Anti-Trump Republicans are particularly eager to see Christie spar with Trump on a debate stage – if, of course, Trump agrees to participate in primary debates and Christie meets the stringent fundraising criteria set by the Republican National Committee for participation.
But Christie has also said he would not run as a kamikaze candidate to take down Trump if he did not believe there was a viable path to his own victory.
“I’m not a paid assassin,” he recently told Politico.
His campaign will test the appetite among Republican voters for someone who has expressed support for many of Trump’s policies but has criticised the former president’s conduct.
Christie has rejected Trump’s lies that the 2020 election was stolen and has urged the party to move on or risk future losses.
Other Republicans with similar views, including former Maryland governor Larry Hogan and New Hampshire governor Chris Sununu, have opted against their own campaigns, expressing concerns that having more candidates in the race will only benefit Trump.
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With the way our over lords are treating the masses/great unwashed and NOT listening to peoples valid concerns about OTT woke nonsense and virtue signally and open borders and housing non Irish over people not fleeing wars and terrible housing and hospital crisis and inflation and instead they listen to EU and the non stop NGO’s, that be to the tune of 6 billion, REPEAT 6 billion a year, who then try and gaslight us aka normal people as this or that will lead to sadly a proper right wing govt. here!
@FULL: wrong article!
@Paul Furey:
No, we love to talk about USA politics here and importing bs society dividing culture wars and OTT woke nonsense and people thinking we are the 51st of USA
@FULL: Full of cliches
@Eamon Kelly:
cliches are called that as they are mostly true!
@FULL: errrr we talk about Irish politics and English politics and sport and brexit and the Ukraine and Sudan wars…..and loads more.
@Paul Furey:
well the last three years we talk about how bad white people are and straight people are and importing evil identity politics from USA and NGO’S that we pay for keep on popping up to tell us how “bad we are” and we must change bla bla
No wonder the “far right” is on the rise! Peoples threshold for bs has been reached and breached!
@FULL: You could always choose not to be so upset with everything you don’t like or understand.
@KilkennyProud:
“understand” thats the problem, its gotten soooooo out of hand, that it is south park stuff now
we are living in upside world time where a tiny minority is dictating to the masses what we should say and think, its very putin style antics of those tiny minority and its ironic and its not lost of most normal people!
P.S. “choose not be be upset with everything” , that’s MORE irony from the snowflake far left who are now well known for being notorious for trying to cancel stuff they dont like are or “offended by”
@Paul Furey: what woke nonsense are we talking about here in Ireland ?
@FULL: says the man who just spewed several really long posts about how offended he is by the fact that we’re not all like him.
But in the end will they all rally around Trump
@PMac: But he’s so good they named him twice.
They all sense that trump won’t be able to run when shackled. Christie, deSantis and maybe Pence do not like the guy at all. They will not rally around trump in the end because trump won’t be there.
Have I missed the article about the single greatest candidate in my lifetime….Robert F Kennedy Jr.
Is there a more capable honest democratic candidate on the planet?
Fights hard for the environment, children’s protection, global peace, breaking the corrupt corporate ties and medical freedom / choice, you know, no mandates.
On top of that he should be lauded for overcoming his severe neurological disorder, what a courageous man to put himself in the public firing line with such a difficult speech impairment. A fine lawyer and writer (check out The Real Anthony Fauci).
If the journal hasn’t done an article about him, yet covers every other random wannabe, then you’ll understand more about agendas surely.
@lumberjack: R.F.K. Jr has a terrible reputation for grifting and corruption, as well as being a conspiracy peddler (which feeds back into the two previously mentioned character traits). This does not make him unique among presidential candidates. However, he is running to split the Democratic vote (which may not work due to his own excesses). The actual agenda is that Steve Bannon was the prime mover behind his running. Now, this does not automatically make other candidates fine and dandy, but it does raise questions about your comment (beyond the unnatural wording of your comment – real people do not write the way you did).
@Numinous20111: what in gods name are you on about? Unnatural wording? Real people?
Please explain. Also can you elaborate on RFKs “terrible reputation for corruption”? Genuinely not aware of any…..is he up there than Clinton’s, Trumps, Hunter etc?
I’m a lumberbot and I’m ok, I woke all night beep beep, whirrr, malfunction
@lumberjack: “Capable” and “honest” aren’t the best choice of words to describe Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
people.com/politics/robert-f-kennedy-jr-controversy-timeline/
@N A: I just read the whole article, nothing of substance there against him being capable or honest, relative to the current crop of politicians around the world.
Yes he is anti vaccine mandates, that’s a whole separate discussion that we can’t discuss here. You aware of the book Turtles all the way down? and that no credible science / disputes have been raised against the hundreds of pages of data / findings. Either way, people have different views, let them make their own choices. And so what that he has paid for ads promoting caution, it’s a drop in the ocean compared to pharma funding of their side.
His wife supports him, so rumors of infidelity are are likely as stated, fictitious and unsubstantiated. Unlike Bill and Monica, Trump etc.
He rails against state-corporate corruption.
Another neo-con.
If Trump decides not to take part in the RNC debates then Christie’s whole campaign becomes a pointless waste of time and money.
His book was a good read.
He’ll be ridiculed in the debates with reminders about his “time for some traffic problems” problem.
Unfortunately the magrats have are so, all in. on the lying treacherous sex fiend orange thing , he won’t have a chance
Is there no one sane who could run for elections over there? My god thought we were bad here but genuinely one is worse than the next over there. I wouldn’t trust any of them to walk my dog around the corner, let alone run a country! The world has gone mad, if this is the best America can offer their people and the world
He’s not dumb and he’s not a paid assassin. Is that the minimum standard now? I don’t know whether many in SF would meet that standard.
I watched some of his speech and jesus he is a charisma vacent zone. But at least he had the balls to go after Trump, unlike the others who announced they’re running.
have your say