Opinion | Chris Christie should know better

Not long ago, I wrote a column about high-profile Republicans not voting for former President Donald Trump, and that we should “let them be” if they wouldn’t commit to voting for President Joe Biden, since at the least they wouldn’t be casting a vote for Trump.

I still stand by that. But when a prominent Republican declares that he can’t vote for Trump and then completely trashes Biden by calling him “not qualified to be president,” that’s a different story. And I believe it’s one that should be called out.

Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie recently brought his straightforward, call-it-as-he-sees-it style in full force during a discussion with Leigh Ann Caldwell from The Washington Post at the University of Chicago Institute of Politics. It didn’t take long to see that behind his attempt to project a happy warrior image, he is still bitter over his own failed run for the presidency. Worse yet, in spite of stating over and over that he doesn’t want to see Trump elected again, Christie risks sacrificing the future of the country over his obsession with his own relevance.

Christie stated that he would not be voting for Biden, and that Trump is “wholly unfit to be president of the United States, in every way you can think of.” He could have stopped there; but then he commented that Biden is past his “sell-by date,” and that he didn’t believe Biden is up for another term. He also voiced his dismay over the fact that team Biden hasn’t reach out to him.

Christie knows full well how these sort of comments can be used against Biden, and worse yet, can help Trump should they be used in a very targeted way. Christie himself was blamed by some people (wrongly, I believe) for hurting Mitt Romney’s campaign when he welcomed then-President Barack Obama with a warm handshake upon his arrival to New Jersey to see the devastating damage from Superstorm Sandy just days before the 2012 presidential election.

For years I have generally liked Christie, even though I haven’t always agreed with him. I was disappointed with his choice to endorse Trump in 2016 and even more so after he actively helped Trump in his re-election campaign, when the dangers of a second Trump term were obvious. I thought I was done with him then, but when he rightly called out the former president immediately after the 2020 election, his was a welcome voice in the 2024 Republican primary.

Christie had a good run; he talked about the issues and most of all brought the fight directly to Trump. When it turned out Nikki Haley had a better campaign, his decision not to endorse her once he dropped out seemed petty. But it was his “hot mic” moment in January, saying, “She’s going to get smoked — you and I both know it. She’s not up to this,” that showed us exactly how spiteful he could be. Although he called the gaffe a “complete mistake,” it still shows as pretty weak.

Clearly, Christie now wants everyone to hear what he’s saying about Haley and Biden, and he wasn’t shy about calling both of them out during his University of Chicago talk. During the conversation with Caldwell, Christie said he didn’t run as an independent because he didn’t see a path to winning, and he wouldn’t be able to live with himself if his run ended up hurting Biden and helping Trump get elected.

Christie may deserve some leeway with his initial Biden comments; after all, he has significant policy differences with Biden, and he wanted to be the Republican nominee to run again Biden this fall. But in the question-and-answer portion of the talk, he really unleashed on Biden, saying he was not qualified to be president. (He also took a parting shot at Haley, saying she will run for president in 2028, and “she will stand for just as little as she stood for this time.”)

After working with politicians for over 30 years, I have seen just how much it pains many of them not to be relevant in the public square. But Christie should know better than to let his own feelings potentially influence an election in such a dangerous way.

It’s OK for Christie not to support Biden, and maybe his feeling are hurt because team Biden hasn’t extended an invitation to him to join in on a run against Trump — all of which comes back to the need to be relevant. What is not OK is for Christie to run off at the mouth, putting his own ego ahead of what is best for the country.

This article was originally published on MSNBC.com