Chris Christie Says He Will Decide His Presidential Candidacy in ‘Next Couple Weeks’

Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie looks on prior to a game between the Indianapolis Colts and the Dallas Cowboys at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, on Dec. 4, 2022. (Richard Rodriguez/Getty Images)

Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie has not decided on another run for president yet, but he is testing the waters.

In an April 18 interview with Semafor editor-at-large Steve Clemons, the 2016 Republican presidential candidate revealed that he will make a decision on a potential campaign “in the next couple weeks.”

“RNC [Republican National Committee] is setting up some rules for the debates that are going to require certain milestones to be met by mid-August to qualify for the stage,” Christie noted.

“They’re talking about requiring 40,000 individual donors to qualify for the stage, so, you know, that takes a little time to do. And so, if you’re going to be serious about this—and I think you have to be on the stage to be serious about it—then you probably have to make a decision by May.”

To date, five Republicans have declared their candidacy for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination, including former President Donald Trump, former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, and businessman Perry Johnson.

Meanwhile, Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina recently announced an exploratory committee, and speculation that Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis will enter the race continues to mount.

Christie, however, appeared undeterred by the expanding field of competition, noting that he had faced worse.

“This looks like a vacant field compared to what I dealt with in 2016,” he said. “In 2016, we had 17 candidates for the Republican nomination, and we had to have two separate debates because there were so many people. And even with the debates that I was in, there were 10 of us. It was a lot.”

A Shift in Perspective

In February 2016, Christie dropped out of the presidential race after a disappointing New Hampshire primary in which he finished sixth.

Two weeks later, he became the first establishment Republican to endorse then-candidate Donald Trump, whom he said had been a “good and loyal friend” to him for more than a decade.

Yet in recounting the story on April 18, he gave the impression that he supported Trump because he did not want to see a Hillary Clinton presidency.

“When anybody’s ever critical of my support of Donald Trump, I tell them, ‘Well, I made the decision that I didn’t want Hillary Clinton to be president of the United States,’” he said.

“You can agree or disagree with that, but my only two choices were those two.

“And let me say this, it’s not like I supported him from the beginning—I ran against him. I didn’t think he was the best choice for president. I thought I was, but that didn’t work out, so then we’re left with a choice. And I think the American people were disgruntled with that choice.”

While at one point, Christie counted himself among the 45th president’s supporters, according to the former governor, that support ended after the 2020 election.

“The morning after the election, after the president was done giving his speech where he said the election was stolen … I said, ‘That is beneath the office that he has held. You cannot stand up there and say the election was stolen when you have absolutely no facts to support it, and I cannot be supportive of this.”

Describing Trump’s assertions that the election was stolen as “lies,” Christie added, “To me, that’s where the line was crossed.”

Competition

Currently, Trump leads the Republican pack by a wide margin that has only grown wider since his recent indictment by a Manhattan grand jury on falsification of business records charges.

That case, brought by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, allegedly relates to hush money payments made during the 2016 election cycle to women who claimed to have engaged in extramarital affairs with Trump, including adult film actress Stormy Daniels.

Weighing in on the matter on April 16, Christie, a former prosecutor, said: “As a prosecutor, I wouldn’t have brought the prosecution Alvin Bragg brought because I don’t think he’s going to win it and I don’t think it’s worthy of the challenges that are before him.

“But at the same time, you have someone who has had an affair with a porn star, paid her off $130,000 to cover it up.

“To keep that information from the American people while he’s seeking the highest office in the land, that’s not the character of somebody who I think should be president of the United States.”

Christie also said that he did not believe Trump was a conservative, noting: “Does he have some conservative positions? Sure. But I’ve known Donald Trump for 22 years.

“I’ve known him when I was a U.S. attorney, and he asked me what my position was on abortion. I told him I was pro-life, [and he said], ‘Oh, for God’s sake, Chris, you’re not going to be able to win being pro-life. Stay out of that issue. Don’t get involved in it.’

“This is now the guy who is extraordinarily pro-life as president and now seems to be unwilling to tell us what his view is about a number of these various abortion bills that are happening.”

Christie also raised the same concern about DeSantis—currently the second most popular candidate for the Republican nomination—over his recent spat with Disney.

“I’m a conservative,” he said. “And I believe as a conservative, the job of government is, in the main, to stay out of the business of business.

“I don’t think we should be heavily regulating business. I don’t think we should be telling business what to do, what to say, how to think, and I believe that’s what conservatives have believed for as long as I’ve been alive.

“I don’t think Ron DeSantis is a conservative, based on his actions towards Disney.”

Readiness to Run

As for his ability to take on the Republican frontrunners, Christie said the voters would have to wait and see.

“If I decide to get in [the race], I think everybody who’s watched me publicly over the last 13 years knows that I won’t be a wallflower,” he said.

“And I think you’ve seen that this morning. If I’ve got something to say, I’m going to say it. And so, if it turns out that I’m on a debate stage in August of this year and Donald Trump decides to be on it, you can be sure that we’ll have some exchanges that I hope will be illuminating to the public about both him and me.”

And while the former governor is still weighing his options, he noted that he does not take the decision to run lightly.

“If I concluded, at the end of this period of consideration that I couldn’t win, I wouldn’t run,” he said.

“I don’t want to run for president again for the experience. I already had the experience, and it was a lot of fun at some moments, not so much at others, but I wouldn’t do that.

“Look, at the end of the day, politics is a human activity, and because of that, it’s dynamic,” he added. “And I don’t know which way that’ll work, but what I can tell you for sure is that, if I get into the race, I’ll make it interesting.”