Out of the miasma of Republican denial has emerged a bold truth-teller.

Of course, he doesn’t stand a chance of winning his party’s presidential nomination, but former governor of New Jersey. Chris Christie should be celebrated for berating former President Trump.

On the eve of Trump’s second arrangement this time

criminal federal

Recharges his former friend and current opponent from 2024

broken talk

spoke to him with enthusiasm during a CNN town hall Monday.

None of Christie’s insults to Trump were as poetic as his description last week of the former president as a lonely, selfish, egotistical pig. He also called Trump a kid, completely self-centered, completely self-centered, a three-time loser, a loser, loser, loser, and victim me, poor me.

In today’s GOP orthodoxy, Christie’s honesty is apostasy.

And yet his performance, dare I say, brought a touch of sanity to an otherwise delusional Republican presidential field.

People like Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, former governor of North Carolina. Nikki Haley and former Vice President Mike Pence were reluctant to take over the former

??

man, who continues to dominate the polls despite his mounting legal troubles.

That position is becoming a bit untenable, but they hardly admit it. If this charge is true,” ventured Haley, “President Trump was incredibly reckless with our national security.”

Some Republican presidential candidates can’t even bring themselves to say Trump’s name. A recent meeting in Iowa of some Republican candidates, Christie said, was a good example of this.

It was like Voldemort from Harry Potter, Christie said. Like, nobody wanted to mention his name. Like, say his name, man, say his name! Right? I mean, how can you beat someone if you don’t talk about it? How do you beat them if you don’t want to stand out from them?

Maybe they don’t want to distinguish themselves from Trump. Perhaps everyone is praying for Trump’s candidacy to implode, clearing the way for himself as a Trump alternative.

A number of Republicans have been hesitant to talk about the contents of what’s really in it [the indictment]noted CNN host Anderson Cooper.

I hadn’t noticed Christie answering

dry

dry.

[rush transcript says “I had noticed” but I believe it is wrong, as I watched/listened it twice]

How about you decide who is the most honest, forthright leader who has common sense and puts you first, and let’s put that person behind the desk in the Oval Office?

Taking boxes of classified documents that violate the Presidential Records Act, then trying to keep them away from federal officials who subpoenaed them and inducing others to lie, Christie said, is in my opinion unforgivable for someone who is president of the United States wants to be. .

As for the tiresome Republican chorus that President Biden has been arming the Justice Department against Trump, Christie, a former federal prosecutor, was brusque: You know, look, I don’t think so. This evidence looks pretty damning. What about blaming him? Hey did.

If Trump had simply returned the boxes, Christie said, none of this would have happened. He says: I am more important than the country. These are

Well well

paper. This is vanity running amok, ego running amok.

And if the angry and vindictive Trump were to be re-elected, Christie said, you can bet the rerun will be uglier than the original. A second Trump term would be all about settling scores with anyone he feels hasn’t been entirely nice to him.

In 2018, Lincoln Project co-founder Rick Wilson wrote the scathing critique Everything Trump Touches Dies. Trump’s friendship with Christie is no exception.

Christie

to remind,

supported Trump early on after he dropped out of the 2016 nomination contest, and helped Trump prepare for his presidential debates that year and in 2020. (Christie nearly died after contracting COVID-19 from Trump during a 2020 preparatory debate session. Trump had not disclosed to Christie that he had tested positive that morning before prep had begun and, Christie claimed Monday, later told reporters that Christie had given it to him.)

Christie’s breaking point with Trump came when the president got behind the presidential seal in the early hours after the polls closed in November 2020 and declared himself the winner. CNN played the clip to the public at City Hall: This is a hoax to the American public,” Trump said. “This is a disgrace to our country. We were getting ready to win this election. Frankly, we won this election.

Naturally,

no one

knew who had won the election at that time. It was way too early.

Trump, Christie said, was acting like a high school student who came home with a bad grade and blamed the teacher or the boy sitting next to him for distracting him.

It’s a child’s reaction, he said, and I beg you to think about it. Don’t let showmanship obscure the facts. The facts are that he lost to Joe Biden.

City Hall wasn’t just Trump bashing, as refreshing as that was.

Refusing to get into the mud of the culture war, Christie told Cooper that states should make up their own mind about abortion. He disavowed his earlier stance that no one needs assault weapons, saying it’s not a matter of need, but a matter of what the 2nd Amendment allows. He gave a remarkably sensitive answer about drug addiction and incarceration, telling a woman with a troubled son that addiction is a disease that requires treatment, not a moral failure.

That’s probably why he

only

polls at only about 1% among likely Republican voters.

In today’s GOP, speaking the truth to Trump is unforgivable. Necessary if the party is to return to health, but unforgivable.

@robinkabcarian