October 29, 2020

Is Chris Christie Too Embarrassed to Say He’s Voting for Trump?

The shrewd politician is suddenly playing coy.

Chris Kleponis/ZUMA

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The long and tortured relationship between Chris Christie and Donald Trump—which has seen the former New Jersey governor repeatedly crawling back to the president despite some very public burns—has produced another wrinkle. On Thursday, Wall Street Journal reporter Leslie Brody spotted Christie at Newark Airport, where he refused to say whether he was voting for Trump. 

“I haven’t voted yet,” he said instead. Pressed once more, Christie dodged.

The sudden demurral follows a whiplash month for Christie. After leading a debate prep session with Trump and appearing at the super-spreading White House event celebrating Amy Coney Barrett’s Supreme Court nomination, Christie was hospitalized with COVID, the most serious case of the illness among the myriad Trump allies who contracted it in the wake of the Barrett event. Soon after his release, Christie admitted that he had been “wrong” to not wear a mask at the ceremony, though he declined to directly criticize Trump. In an op-ed last week, Christie repeated his regret from going maskless. “The message will be broadly heeded only if it is consistently and honestly delivered by the media, religious leaders, sports figures, and public servants,” Christie wrote in the Wall Street Journal. “Those in positions of authority have a duty to get the message out.” Again, he failed to directly hold Trump responsible for his deadly coronavirus denial.

Ever the shrewd politician, Christie—in both refusing to condemn Trump and suddenly hinting at a potential break with the president—appears to be attempting to have it both ways. Either way, it’s embarrassing.

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We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

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