Republican presidential candidate Chris Christie defended his campaign strategy to Newsmax’s Eric Bolling while the two clashed over the former New Jersey governor’s chance of beating former President Donald Trump.
“No, it’s not time to change the strategy. The guy who’s 20 points ahead is the guy you have to beat to be the nominee,” Mr. Christie said on the show Thursday.
“And that’s why I think the Haley and DeSantis strategy is so ineffective, and why Ron DeSantis is now in single digits in New Hampshire, because he’s not making the case against the one person you need to beat if you want to be the Republican nominee for president,” he said.
The two clashed further when Mr. Christie brought up Mr. Trump’s court cases, saying that it’s “not some woke prosecutor [or] crazy Democrat” that is attacking the former president in court, asserting instead that it’s his former chief of staff, Mark Meadows.
“Mark Meadows, you would call him a hero weeks ago,” Mr. Christie said. “Come on. Don’t interrupt me when I start to say things that make people uncomfortable.”
Mr. Meadows was granted immunity in October to testify in special counsel Jack Smith’s case about Mr. Trump’s effort to overturn the 2020 election in Washington.
Mr. Bolling defended himself by saying he’s a “numbers guy,” but Mr. Christie shot back, saying he’s a “character guy.”
“I think we deserve better as the Republican Party and as the United States than a guy who is going to be convicted of felonies this April to be our nominee,” he said.
Mr. Bolling said that those who are looking to convict Mr. Trump are “a bunch of liberal Democrats [who] fear him.”
“No! I’m not going to put up with you saying that,” Mr. Christie shot back.
“When Mark Meadows gets on that stand, everything I’ve been saying about Donald Trump that you’ve been making fun of me about for months is gonna wind up being true,” he said. “The truth is coming, baby.”
