Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie is leaning into his anti-Trump credentials with a scathing message about the former president's selection for vice president.
Continuing his role as the chief Trump agitator, Christie said he believes former President Donald Trump ’s vice presidential pick, Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH), will not be a unifying figure in the party.
In the wake of Trump’s assassination attempt, the former president told the Washington Examiner he was going to restructure his speech at the Republican National Convention to be centered on unity, and many, including President Joe Biden, have called for political temperatures to cool down. While not at the RNC this week, Christie made his voice heard in a New York Times op-ed criticizing Trump’s pick in light of recent events.
“Mr. Trump has the opportunity to rein in some of the worst rhetorical impulses of the Republican Party at its convention this week. He can point the party and its leadership in a new direction in the wake of the assassination attempt against him,” Christie wrote.“Early indications are less than promising."
Christie said Vance is not the figure who can rein in such violent rhetoric. Following Trump's assassination attempt, Vance posted on X that Biden's rhetoric led to the violence, which Christie found distasteful as Trump preaches unity.
"Mr. Trump’s selection of Senator J.D. Vance of Ohio as his running mate doubles down on the portion of the party already completely devoted to him rather than reaches out to the broader party and beyond," Christie wrote. "Mr. Vance’s first reaction to the assassination attempt against Mr. Trump was to turn directly to the current, flawed playbook: demonize the other side and lay the blame at the feet of the Democrats, as if they had pulled the trigger themselves."
Christie said that as political “language gets harsher and more divisive,” there has been “gridlock in Congress. Impeachments. Endless meaningless congressional hearings. A catastrophization of our politics where every election is now painted as the most important election in our lifetime, with both sides claiming that the stakes are nothing less than the very survival of our Republic.”
“Even now in the face of violence, the urge to blame comes first: to blame Mr. Trump for bringing the assassination attempt on himself, to blame Democrats for saying he would bring fascism to this country, to spiral into conspiracy theories about staged plots or inside jobs in order to make the attack fit our preset conceptions. Our politics as articulated by too many of our leaders have become about blame,” Christie wrote.
“The harsh truth is that the only way forward is if we have the will. We must look forward as a nation,” Christie continued.
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While Christie was one of the first to endorse Trump in 2016, the pair’s friendship soured after Christie disavowed him following Trump’s involvement in the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol. Still, Christie said voters should not move on from calls for unity.
“It is not enough for this to be only a momentary call for unity. This change has to go beyond this week, next month and the November elections to be a real transformational shift. Otherwise, all we are left with is just another fleeting political moment,” Christie wrote.
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