Christie punches back at Sununu: 'I remember when Chris used to care about Donald Trump'
Chris Christie thinks anyone who expects him to drop out of the 2024 presidential race is “crazy,” even when it’s coming from someone who calls himself a friend.
During an interview on CNN Sunday morning, New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu called Christie “a friend” before adding that he thinks the former New Jersey governor’s 2024 bid is “at an absolute dead end.” Since then, Christie has taken to the cable shows to defend his logic and go after Sununu.
“That's when you know, in politics, when someone is going to knife you in the back, is when they start off with, 'Oh he's my good friend,'" Christie said Wednesday on MSNBC’s Morning Joe.
He also refuted Sununu's claim that he's a “one-man show” in the 2024 race because he’s “only talking about Trump.”
“I remember when Chris used to care about Donald Trump,” Christie said. “He's the guy who came, I think to the Gridiron Club, and said that Trump belongs in a mental institution. And now he's saying that he'd vote for him if he were the nominee.”
Christie has spent much of his campaign focused on New Hampshire, and not securing Sununu’s endorsement was a significant blow to his campaign. According to FiveThirtyEight, Christie is sitting at 3.8 percent in the polls nationally and at 11.1 percent in New Hampshire.
Despite the low polling, Christie remains undeterred. “Anybody thinks I'm getting out of this race, they're crazy," he said.
He's also criticized Sununu’s December endorsement of former U.N. ambassador Nikki Haley, claiming that the New Hampshire governor has “decided to adopt her ‘offend no one’ position.”
Christie also expressed the sentiment on CNN’s “AC360" Tuesday evening: “Since Chris started to work for Nikki Haley and become an employee of Nikki Haley, it’s not the same Chris Sununu anymore,” Christie told host Anderson Cooper.
After a campaign event for Haley in New Hampshire on Wednesday, Sununu told reporters that while he isn't telling Christie to drop out directly, "Chris is smart enough to see the writing on the wall."
He encouraged Christie to "help deliver Trump the loss" by endorsing Haley. "He wants to stay relevant, we all want him to be relevant in the Republican Party and not fall into obscurity," Sununu told reporters. "He has a chance to come in and be the hero, to put Nikki over the top."