Donald Trump critic Chris Christie is expected to announce his candidacy for President next week

2023-05-31 21:06:13, Kosova & Bota CNA

Donald Trump critic Chris Christie is expected to announce his candidacy for

Former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie

Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie is expected to announce his 2024 presidential bid next week, a person with knowledge of the matter said. Mr. Christie worked as an adviser to Mr. Donald Trump's campaign in 2016 but in recent months has become a vocal critic of the former president.

The 60-year-old Republican Christie failed to secure the nomination of the Republican Party during the 2016 presidential campaign where Mr. Donald Trump emerged as the winner. According to a Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted between May 9 and 15, only 1% of Republicans said he would be their preferred candidate for the 2024 election.

Ending weeks of speculation about his intentions, Mr. Christie will formally launch his campaign at Saint Anselm College in New Hampshire on Tuesday, a person with knowledge of the matter said.

Former Governor Christie has asked his party to drop the former president's claims that the 2020 election was rigged. That stance could theoretically win him support from moderate Republicans, though it will anger Mr. Trump's still-powerful core of voters.

In March, Mr. Christie told Axios that he would not vote for Mr. Trump in the 2024 election even if the former president secured the party's endorsement to become the Republican nominee. Former President Trump, who announced his campaign last year, leads Republicans in public opinion polls.

In public appearances, Mr. Christie, who has also worked as a federal prosecutor, has argued that only he has the ability and will to confront Mr. Trump directly.

"As we all know in New Jersey, the governor is a proven leader who is not afraid to speak the truth," wrote Bill Palatucci, an adviser to Mr. Christie, who will chair the political action committee supporting his candidacy. His message was addressed to members of the Republican state committee on Tuesday.

Mr. Christie is known for successful attacks on his opponents. In 2016, he mocked Republican Senator Marco Rubio, accusing him of having memorized his remarks during a 2016 presidential campaign debate. That confrontation is widely regarded as irreparable damage to Mr. Rubio's campaign.

In addition to Mr Trump, other Republicans running for president include Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, US Senator Tim Scott and former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley. Former Vice President Mike Pence and New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu are among the candidates who may also join the race.

The candidate who secures the Republican nomination will face Democratic President Joe Biden, whose campaign faces no visible opposition within the party.

A two-term governor from a Democratic-leaning state, Mr. Chris Christie was once seen as a rising Republican star who wielded rare cross-party influence.

But his second term as governor was marred by the scandal of two of his advisers, who were accused of deliberately closing the George Washington Bridge, a heavily trafficked bridge to cross from New Jersey to New York City. The shutdown was made to punish a mayor of one of the cities of New Jersey who refused to support his campaign for re-election.

Former Governor Christie's relationship with former President Trump and his family is quite complicated. While working as a prosecutor in New Jersey, he prosecuted Charles Kushner, the father of Mr. Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner, for tax evasion and other crimes.

He and Mr. Trump traded blows during the early stages of the 2016 campaign. But just weeks after dropping out, Mr. Christie endorsed Mr. Trump over other rivals, giving his candidacy a boost at a critical time. .

He even served as an adviser to Mr. Trump's campaign, but there came a moment that was damaging to candidate Trump, when the trial began against his former advisers over the closing of the bridge. During the process, witnesses appeared who said that Mr. Christie was aware of the closure of the bridge, rejecting his claim that he did not know anything in advance.

Since the January 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol by a mob of Mr. Trump supporters, former Governor Christie has attacked the former president on multiple occasions. He blamed the former president for the Republicans' poor performance in the 2022 midterm elections and called Mr. Trump's behavior "unacceptable" after a federal jury found the former president responsible for sexually abusing the writer E. Jean Carroll.

Mr. Christie was also a Republican candidate for the 2012 presidential elections, but was defeated by candidate Mitt Romney./ VOA