(RepublicanNews.org) – After a few months on the campaign trail and some tense moments on the Republican debate stage, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie is hanging it up once again and dropping out of the 2024 presidential race.
In an announcement Wednesday, January 10th, in Windham, New Hampshire, Christie said that he is officially pulling out of the race for the GOP nomination, sniping at his rivals on the way out. Speaking to a crowd of barely 100 voters, he told them he entered the race “to tell the truth.” Christie maintained that he wants to change the Republican Party and the country, which he said is “hard work” and “not easy.”
Christie said that from the moment he entered the race, his decision “was really simple,” claiming he “would rather lose by telling the truth” than win by lying. Christie vowed “to make sure sure” not to “enable” Trump in any way to “ever be president” again, which he said is “more important” than his own personal ambition.
The former New Jersey governor did not endorse any of the other challengers, who will inevitably gain more support with one less candidate in the race. Before the announcement, though, some unofficial remarks were caught off camera on a hot mic in which Christie can be heard skewering the other candidates, claiming Haley will “get smoked” and another comment about Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis contacting him before the audio was cut off.
According to some political analysts, Haley will benefit the most from Christie’s withdrawal, as she inches closer and closer toward overtaking DeSantis. Haley is currently at an 11.7% approval among GOP voters, and DeSantis is at 12.1%. Meanwhile, Trump remains way ahead of all of them at 60.4%.
Aside from the hot mic diss, Christie also blasted Haley a little more directly, yet still subtly, referencing recent remarks by the former South Carolina governor in which she failed to mention that slavery was a major cause of the American Civil War. Despite the veiled jab, Haley posted on Twitter that she considered Christie “a friend” and commended him “on a hard-fought campaign.”
Christie ran in both previous presidential elections, in 2016 and 2020, which he also dropped out of early.
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