Christie's Challenge
Will he make good on the promise of his withdrawal speech by doing the one thing that could help prevent Trump from becoming president again?
Chris Christie left the Republican presidential race Wednesday with a speech that was equal parts self-important and important.
The former New Jersey governor, whose relentless attacks on Donald Trump never found an audience with Republican voters, characterized himself as a truth-teller—in contrast to his fellow candidates and the “cowards” in his party who support Trump in public but complain about him in private. “They know better,” Christie intoned. “I know they know better.”
Christie apologized for supporting Trump in 2016, saying his ambition got the better of him the way it is getting the better of the other Republican presidential hopefuls who refuse to call out Trump for the person they know him to be.
In his familiar pugilistic style, Christie beat up the rest of the Republican field. “Anyone who is unwilling to say that [Trump] is unfit to be president of the United States,” he said, “is unfit themselves to be president of the United States.”
Then, with echos of the language Joe Biden uses when he talks about the stakes of this year’s election, Christie issued a challenge to his fellow Republicans:
This is a fight for the soul of our party and the soul of our country . . . We’re fighting for something bigger than ourselves. We’re fighting for something bigger than self-interest. We’re fighting for something bigger than the next title . . . If we ever have a hope of restoring this party to be a governing party of principles, we have to be willing to do the hard work and take some of the heat that comes with it.
And then, he issued this promise:
I am going to make sure that in no way do I enable Donald Trump ever [to] be president of the United States again.
If Christie is going to put purpose behind those words, there is one difficult but necessary thing he can do.
Next summer, he needs to put his personal ambition aside and endorse Joe Biden.
Although Christie couldn’t generate support in Iowa or New Hampshire, his call-it-like-I-see-it approach to the former president would be a critically important addition to the general election campaign against Trump if he puts it in the service of re-electing Biden.
He can let voters know there is no other option. In our two-party system, the choice is between Biden and authoritarianism.
Republicans who are uncertain about Trump and undecided independents will listen to Christie. He can clarify the stakes of the election for them the way he did in New Hampshire last week and make it clear that while he doesn’t agree with Biden on many issues, this is not a year when issue disagreements can get in the way of something much larger.
By endorsing Biden, he can give permission to wavering voters to cross party lines. That doesn’t happen if he just continues attacking Trump without directing people how to vote.
This challenge doesn’t only fall to Christie. Any number of high-profile Republicans can and should join together in defense of democracy.
Imagine if George W. Bush were to cross party lines and endorse Biden, making the case for putting country over party. It could make a difference.
“If we ever have a hope of restoring this party to be a governing party of principles, we have to be willing to do the hard work and take some of the heat that comes with it.” — Chris Christie
Republicans who see the danger Trump poses and want to stop it need to step up by stepping across the aisle this one time.
All they have to do is echo what former Republican congressman Adam Kinzinger said last week, when he said he would vote for Biden “in a heartbeat” in a rematch with Trump.
It is literally a decision at that moment between ‘do you believe in a functioning democracy? Or do you not?’ And I think that’s the only thing on the ballot.
It’s that easy.
And that difficult.
Kinzinger—a member of the House January 6 investigation—understood he had no future in the Republican party when he made the decision to be a vocal Trump critic. Christie may be more hesitant to make that trade-off.
But there is strength in numbers. As the Kinzingers and Liz Cheneys and Chris Christies step forward, they offer protection for others to join them. And as their numbers grow, they can create a united conservative front against autocracy that will pull people to their position.
This is the challenge facing Chris Christie, the one implicit in the challenge he made to his party: to embrace the high political cost of supporting Biden’s re-election at the expense of his presidential dreams.
“Personal ambition is a necessary element for any political candidate,” Christie said, “but it can’t be what governs your decision-making.” As he acknowledged, “[If] we want to change this party and if we want to change this country, it’s hard work. It’s not easy.”
Endorsing Biden is not easy. But it is necessary.
Christie sent the right message as he exited the presidential race. We will soon learn if his actions are as noble as his rhetoric.