After months of relentless taunting and hyping a debate conflict with former President Donald J. Trump, former Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey turned to chiding.
“If you qualify for the stage, which Trump has, not showing up is completely disrespectful to the Republican Party, who made you their nominee twice, and to the Republican voters, whose support you’re asking for again,” Mr. Christie informed reporters on Friday outdoors the famed Versailles Cuban restaurant in Miami.
Mr. Christie constructed his whole presidential candidacy towards a marquee confrontation with Mr. Trump, relentlessly goading him and needling him as a coward in a transparent effort to tempt the quick-to-anger former president into displaying as much as the controversy on Wednesday in Milwaukee.
It seems Mr. Trump is not going to take the bait, aside from swiping again at Mr. Christie on social media and in speeches. Last week, he signaled that he deliberate to skip the primary Republican debate and as an alternative sit for an interview with Tucker Carlson that can be broadcast on-line on the similar time.
Mr. Trump’s absence might result in an anticlimactic scene on the debate, with Mr. Christie pressured to launch unrequited broadsides by means of the airwaves with out the fireworks of a Trump response.
“They have been taunting each other back and forth on Twitter and campaign town halls, so it robs Christie of a big moment that he is looking for if Trump doesn’t show up onstage,” stated Ryan Williams, a Republican strategist and veteran of two presidential campaigns. “You can use the debate to get the anti-Trump message out that he’s pushing, but you’re going to lack that viral moment if the two of them aren’t looking at each other face to face.”
Yet Mr. Christie and his group additionally see a chance if the pugnacious and unpredictable former president just isn’t onstage. Mr. Christie, a assured debater and the one Trump critic within the Republican area with any type of foothold, might shine within the vacuum, utilizing candidates who’ve been much more deferential to Mr. Trump as a stand-in for him.
Mr. Christie tried out that type of strategy at a city corridor occasion in Miami on Friday, chastising Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida over his tremendous PAC’s disclosure of debate technique memos, which referred to as for him to defend Mr. Trump in opposition to Mr. Christie’s assaults onstage.
If Mr. DeSantis finally ends up doing so, Mr. Christie stated he had one piece of recommendation: “Get the hell out of the race.”
In an interview this month throughout his shock go to to Ukraine, Mr. Christie stated he was not notably bothered by the prospect of a debate with out Mr. Trump.
“It doesn’t change my perspective or my tactical approach,” he stated. “Because if he’s not there, it just means two things. One, he’s afraid to be on the same debate stage and defend his record. And two, you know, this is a guy who, by not showing up, just gives me more time. So it’s OK. Either way, I win.”
Mr. Christie and his advisers see the controversy as a discussion board constructed to the previous governor’s strengths. Comfortable in unscripted moments in entrance of cameras, Mr. Christie has a confrontational type, hewed from years within the trenches of New Jersey politics, that has served him nicely in previous debates, and he has over a decade of expertise taking part in them by means of two campaigns for governor and his 2016 run for president.
To put together for Wednesday, he has been huddling with shut advisers to go over subjects on the coronary heart of the marketing campaign and anticipate completely different eventualities that will come up as he navigates the chaos of an eight-lectern stage. He has been closely centered on the controversy, bringing it up in informal conversations with each advisers and political acquaintances as he takes the temperature of the race.
At the identical time, his preparations have a bare-bones nature. There aren’t any mock debates, no faux phases with podiums, no advisers suiting up for the roles of Mr. Trump or Mr. DeSantis.
In half, he’s knowledgeable by his expertise in the course of the 2016 presidential debates, when he notably averted attacking Mr. Trump. (He has stated on the marketing campaign path that he was the one candidate to go converse to Mr. Trump throughout industrial breaks.) Mr. Christie was fast to pounce on his different rivals, together with a now-famous alternate with Senator Marco Rubio of Florida.
“There it is,” Mr. Christie stated, interrupting Mr. Rubio, who had pivoted to a line about former President Barack Obama throughout an alternate with Mr. Christie. “The memorized 25-second speech. There it is, everybody.”
That dismissive riposte despatched the Rubio marketing campaign spiraling, with headlines concluding that Mr. Christie had uncovered Mr. Rubio as a robotic candidate reliant on consultants and that the Florida senator had “choked.” After polling close to second or third place in New Hampshire earlier than the controversy, Mr. Rubio completed fifth within the state’s main race lower than every week later.
Built into the query of how Mr. Christie treats this week’s debate is simply how a lot Republican voters need to see somebody caustically rip into Mr. Trump, whether or not he’s onstage or not.
Despite his mounting authorized issues, Mr. Trump stays exceptionally well-liked inside the get together. And Mr. Christie’s fixed provocations, past endearing the previous governor to some reasonable Republicans, have additionally turned him into one thing of a #Resistance hero amongst liberals who is not going to be voting in a G.O.P. main.
Waiting for a flight at Kennedy International Airport in New York early this month, Mr. Christie was approached for a photograph by a fellow traveler, Jessica Rutherford, who informed him she appreciated his broadsides in opposition to Mr. Trump and hoped he would proceed.
“You’re like Obi-Wan Kenobi, you’re our only hope!” she informed him.
But Ms. Rutherford, an mental property lawyer from Wilton, Conn., and a Democrat, conceded that she was unlikely to vote for Mr. Christie in November 2024 if he had been to win the Republican main.
Undaunted, Mr. Christie made his pitch. “I’ll be awake in meetings with foreign leaders,” he supplied, in a jab at President Biden’s age.
“Reagan wasn’t awake in meetings with foreign leaders,” Ms. Rutherford shot again.
“I bet you didn’t vote for him, either,” Mr. Christie replied.
Patricia Mazzei contributed reporting from South Miami, Fla.
Source: www.nytimes.com