New Hampshire Governor Calls Out Chris Christie for ‘Helping Trump’ By Staying in Race

AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais

New Hampshire Governor Chris Sununu (R) called out Republican presidential candidate and former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie for bolstering former president Donald Trump’s standing in the GOP primary, telling RealClearPolitics that “Chris knows he can’t win.”

Christie entered the race with the stated intention of denying Trump the nomination after playing a key role in handing him it back in 2016. But Christie is no longer qualifying for debates and has a dismal approval rating among Republican voters. Even in New Hampshire, the state in which Christie performs best, his approval rating is underwater by 40 points.

“A vote for Christie is a vote for Donald Trump. There’s no question about it,” said Sununu during an interview with Philip Wegmann.

“If Christie stays in the race, he helps Trump win. That’s it. He’s helping Trump. Trump wants Christie in the race,” continued Sununu. “I know that’s not what [Chris’] original strategy was, but again, that strategy has kind of come to an end.”

A University of New Hampshire/CNN poll released on Tuesday showed that while just 20% of likely GOP primary voters have a favorable view of Christie and 60% have an unfavorable opinion of him, he is still the first choice of 12% of voters. Were Christie to drop out and join Sununu in endorsing former Ambassador Nikki Haley, that could be enough to help Haley best Trump. According to the UNH/CNN poll, she (32%) trails Trump (39%) by just seven points.

Christie has resisted the calls for him to drop out and endorse Haley and argued that he is the only one prosecuting the case against the former president.

At a townhall event on Tuesday, Christie said he “would be happy to get out of the way for someone who is actually running against Donald Trump.”

“Let’s say I dropped out of the race right now and I supported Nikki Haley. And then three months from now, four months from now, when you’re ready to go to the convention, she comes out as his vice president. What will I look like? What will all the people who supported her at my behest look like?” he asked.

Christie likened the decision he faces to the one he faced in 2016, when he endorsed Trump after he won the New Hampshire primary and said he would not make an endorsement for political reasons again.

Sununu sees it differently.

“There’s a huge opportunity for Chris to take a big, big win here and deny Trump’s victory,” he asserted.

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