Christie Exits GOP Race Ahead of Iowa With Harsh Words for Trump

Chris Christie ended his presidential bid Wednesday with a powerful plea that echoed his long-shot bid for the Republican nomination: a blunt, grim warning of what America will be if front-runner Donald Trump is sent back to the White House.

“I would rather lose by telling the truth than lie in order to win,” Christie told attendants at a town hall in Windham, New Hampshire, spending most of his lengthy remarks talking not about himself but about the man Christie said thought only about himself and not the American people.

“Imagine, just for a moment, if 9/11 had happened with Donald Trump behind the [Oval Office] desk. The first thing he would have done is run to the bunkers to protect himself. He would put himself first, before this country.”

Slamming GOP presidential hopefuls and other Republicans who have endorsed Trump, Christie added tartly, “Anyone who is unwilling to say he is unfit to be president of the United States is unfit themselves to be president of the United States.”

Christie said he had stayed in the race, despite the challenges, because he thought it was critical that someone point out the “character” problems of the four-times-indicted former president.

But “it’s clear to me tonight that there isn’t a path for me to win the nomination, which is why I’m suspending my campaign tonight for president of the United States,” Christie told the audience.

Christie had staked his hopes on New Hampshire for his bid to represent a party that has overwhelmingly backed the former president. Christie has called Trump gutless for refusing to debate, “disgusting,” “unfit” for office and “getting crazier” as the high-stakes campaign heats up.

Christie, who served on Trump’s 2020 transition team and later became a fierce critic, refused during his campaign to back down on his verbal attacks on Trump – even as audiences at conservative events and GOP debates have booed and heckled Christie for going after their front-runner.

Christie failed to meet the polling and other thresholds to make the debate stage Wednesday night in Iowa, where former U.N. Ambassador and South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis – neither of whom has lobbed more than token criticism of Trump – will be the only candidates on the debate stage. Christie’s absence means that Trump, who is well ahead in national and state polls, will not be subject to Christie’s relentless campaign against him.

Christie took some responsibility for his own previous support for Trump, saying that after it was clear in 2016 that Trump would be the GOP nominee, he thought he could help make the novice politician a “better candidate” and a “better president.”

But that ambition, Christie said, got in the way of his judgment, and “I promised myself, and I promised my wife, that I would never, never do that again,” he said.

And he had harsh words for establishment GOPers who have endorsed Trump, naming Sen. John Barrasso of Wyoming and Rep. Tom Emmer of Minnesota, and called out those who “behind closed doors” complain about Trump but won’t do so publicly.

“That’s not leadership, everybody. That’s cowardice. It’s cowardice and it’s hypocrisy,” Christie said.

Christie is garnering about 3% support in polls in Iowa, which holds its caucuses on Monday – not a surprise for a candidate who made a strategic decision to skip Iowa and focus on New Hampshire, where he might have benefited from an electorate famous for its independence and reluctance to crown the front-runner in either party.

Some Republicans were urging Christie to drop out of the race so another contender, particularly Haley, could consolidate support and become a viable threat to Trump.

The most recent polling of likely Republican primary voters in New Hampshire from CNN and the University of New Hampshire shows that if Christie were able to divert all of his support to Haley – assuming, for example, that none went to Trump or DeSantis – Haley holds an edge on Trump, 42% to 39%.

That poll buttresses what the Haley campaign hopes – that if Christie got out of the race, his supporters might flip to Haley and give her a boost in critical New Hampshire. If Christie’s support moves en bloc to Haley, the survey found, she stands to beat Trump, 48% to 46%.

But it’s not clear Christie will endorse Haley or any of his primary opponents. In a conversation caught on tape before Christie’s announcement, he says Haley “is gonna get smoked” and that DeSantis is “petrified” of something that is not clear from the audio.

And Christie, saying his campaign goodbye to the state he hoped would propel his campaign, had a parting shot for his former debate stage opponents – calling out by name other GOP hopefuls, including North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, former Vice President Mike Pence, businessman Vivek Ramaswamy and Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina.

“If Donald Trump becomes the nominee of this party, the moment it happened was when Nikki Haley and Ron DeSantis and Tim Scott and Mike Pence and Doug Burgum and Vivek Ramaswamy stood on that stage in Milwaukee in August. And when they were asked if they would support someone who was a convicted felon to be president of the United States, they raised their hands,” Christie said.

“They raised their hands, and I did not. I wanted to be the voice that was telling you, this is unacceptable. We deserve better,” Christie added.

– Lauren Camera contributed to this report