Opinion by
Matt Bai
Contributing columnist
September 11, 2021 at 2:04 p.m. EDT
No leading Republican did more to legitimize Donald Trump, as he was battling to secure the party’s nomination in 2016, than Chris Christie. And yet this week, the former New Jersey governor took dead aim at both Trump and his more ardent followers.
Speaking at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, Christie compared Trump’s conspiracy-minded supporters to the John Birch Society in the 1960s, likened the former president himself to an authoritarian and flatly rejected the myth of a stolen election.
So what do we do with this? Should we mockingly remind Christie that he failed to speak out during his years of cringey servitude to Trump, when taking a stand might actually have done some good? Or should we welcome him back to the rational universe?
I’d suggest the answer is both.
Christie can never be fully exonerated for his role in bringing the hateful margins of our politics into the mainstream. But if all those Never-Trumpers can’t do a thing to loosen Trump’s hold on the party, then maybe only a pro-Trumper can.
It’s worth watching Christie’s talk, given how tepid leading Republicans have been in publicly breaking with Trump. “All this lying has done harm to our nation, to our party and to ourselves,” Christie said in his speech, calling out “the white supremacists and the wild extremists” in the Republican ranks.
“If timid acceptance is the price of admission, we’re not the party we have always been.”
This reminded me of the Christie I knew back in 2010, when he was barnstorming New Jersey, confronting gymnasiums full of Democratic voters who didn’t agree with him.
What I saw then, much to my surprise, was a politician doing two things you rarely see: telling hard truths about his state’s finances and changing people’s minds.
I interviewed Christie many more times over the years, at low points (after the “Bridgegate” scandal that undid his administration) and high (during the brief surge of his 2016 presidential campaign). I didn’t always agree with him, but I judged him to be an independent thinker and gifted communicator, with a great sense of humor to boot.
When his campaign came up short, though, Christie did something that confounded me — as it did many of his closest aides. He threw his arms around Trump, becoming the first leading Republican to vouch for a man he knew to be fundamentally unserious.
He would tell you he was simply the first to accept reality; Trump was clearly going to win the nomination, and the only responsible thing was to try to prepare him.
It always seemed to me, though, that Christie was driven by sheer calculation. There were no paths left at home, where Christie was now wildly unpopular. By going all in for Trump, he was keeping his options open for the vice presidency and perhaps another campaign.
And Christie kept selling out for years — right up through the reelection campaign, when he helped with Trump’s debate prep. Had Christie not contracted covid-19 in the process, it’s fair to wonder whether he would now be trafficking in the same conspiracies he denounces.
All of which leaves me conflicted about this latest turn, in which Christie seems to be positioning himself for another presidential run. Has Christie rediscovered his conscience? Or is he a sheer opportunist looking for his next act?
I’d like to hear him reckon with that question publicly. But there are two things we do know.
One is that there’s basically no one at the highest echelon of Republican politics who seems willing to take a stand against Trump or his minions in 2024. The conventional wisdom is that if Trump runs again, he wins without a fight.
There are plenty of powerful conservatives who mourn the loss of rational Republicanism, but I can’t point to a single one who seems inclined to tear the party apart in order to save it.
The other thing we know is that, if someone is going to finally shake Republicans from this Trumpian nightmare, it’s probably not going to be anyone who stood on principle from the start and is mostly popular with Democrats — Mitt Romney or John Kasich or Liz Cheney.
No, it’s more likely to be a former Trump supporter who earned enough credibility as a loyal Republican during the Trump years to say: “Enough of this. You and I have been misled, and it’s time to reclaim our party.” It would help if that former acolyte were also an immensely gifted politician.
And so maybe we don’t have to forgive Christie to think that he may yet have a valuable role to play in Republican politics and in the life of a fractured nation.
Chris Christie helped us get to this tragic place. It’s not crazy to think he could help us get out.
Matt Bai
Contributing columnist
September 11, 2021 at 2:04 p.m. EDT
No leading Republican did more to legitimize Donald Trump, as he was battling to secure the party’s nomination in 2016, than Chris Christie. And yet this week, the former New Jersey governor took dead aim at both Trump and his more ardent followers.
Speaking at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, Christie compared Trump’s conspiracy-minded supporters to the John Birch Society in the 1960s, likened the former president himself to an authoritarian and flatly rejected the myth of a stolen election.
So what do we do with this? Should we mockingly remind Christie that he failed to speak out during his years of cringey servitude to Trump, when taking a stand might actually have done some good? Or should we welcome him back to the rational universe?
I’d suggest the answer is both.
Christie can never be fully exonerated for his role in bringing the hateful margins of our politics into the mainstream. But if all those Never-Trumpers can’t do a thing to loosen Trump’s hold on the party, then maybe only a pro-Trumper can.
It’s worth watching Christie’s talk, given how tepid leading Republicans have been in publicly breaking with Trump. “All this lying has done harm to our nation, to our party and to ourselves,” Christie said in his speech, calling out “the white supremacists and the wild extremists” in the Republican ranks.
“If timid acceptance is the price of admission, we’re not the party we have always been.”
This reminded me of the Christie I knew back in 2010, when he was barnstorming New Jersey, confronting gymnasiums full of Democratic voters who didn’t agree with him.
What I saw then, much to my surprise, was a politician doing two things you rarely see: telling hard truths about his state’s finances and changing people’s minds.
I interviewed Christie many more times over the years, at low points (after the “Bridgegate” scandal that undid his administration) and high (during the brief surge of his 2016 presidential campaign). I didn’t always agree with him, but I judged him to be an independent thinker and gifted communicator, with a great sense of humor to boot.
When his campaign came up short, though, Christie did something that confounded me — as it did many of his closest aides. He threw his arms around Trump, becoming the first leading Republican to vouch for a man he knew to be fundamentally unserious.
He would tell you he was simply the first to accept reality; Trump was clearly going to win the nomination, and the only responsible thing was to try to prepare him.
It always seemed to me, though, that Christie was driven by sheer calculation. There were no paths left at home, where Christie was now wildly unpopular. By going all in for Trump, he was keeping his options open for the vice presidency and perhaps another campaign.
And Christie kept selling out for years — right up through the reelection campaign, when he helped with Trump’s debate prep. Had Christie not contracted covid-19 in the process, it’s fair to wonder whether he would now be trafficking in the same conspiracies he denounces.
All of which leaves me conflicted about this latest turn, in which Christie seems to be positioning himself for another presidential run. Has Christie rediscovered his conscience? Or is he a sheer opportunist looking for his next act?
I’d like to hear him reckon with that question publicly. But there are two things we do know.
One is that there’s basically no one at the highest echelon of Republican politics who seems willing to take a stand against Trump or his minions in 2024. The conventional wisdom is that if Trump runs again, he wins without a fight.
There are plenty of powerful conservatives who mourn the loss of rational Republicanism, but I can’t point to a single one who seems inclined to tear the party apart in order to save it.
The other thing we know is that, if someone is going to finally shake Republicans from this Trumpian nightmare, it’s probably not going to be anyone who stood on principle from the start and is mostly popular with Democrats — Mitt Romney or John Kasich or Liz Cheney.
No, it’s more likely to be a former Trump supporter who earned enough credibility as a loyal Republican during the Trump years to say: “Enough of this. You and I have been misled, and it’s time to reclaim our party.” It would help if that former acolyte were also an immensely gifted politician.
And so maybe we don’t have to forgive Christie to think that he may yet have a valuable role to play in Republican politics and in the life of a fractured nation.
Chris Christie helped us get to this tragic place. It’s not crazy to think he could help us get out.
