Photo: Jeff Zelevansky/Getty
Former New Jersey Gov.Chris Christieis officially running for president in 2024, according topaperworkfiled with the Federal Election Commission on Tuesday. A formal campaign launch in New Hampshire is scheduled for Tuesday evening.
Christie, once a close ally ofDonald Trump, turned into critic of the former president near the end of his term in the White House, particularly following theJan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot. He now aims to send voters a message that he is the only Republican challenger capable of handling Trump’s attacks on the campaign trail — and fighting back.
Donald Trump and Chris Christie in the Roosevelt Room of the White House, 2017.Shawn Thew-Pool/Getty
In 2020, after getting diagnosed withCOVID-19following awell-publicized “super-spreader"event at the Trump White House, Christie checked himself into Morristown Medical Center.
Since he was at higher risk for coronavirus complications due to underlying health issues, including asthma, the hospital stay was meant as a precaution — though as Christie wrote in his 2021 book,Republican Rescue, it all felt “very serious.”
In his book, Christie also wrote about that week spent in a hospital bed (a week when, he said, then-first ladyMelania Trumpchecked in on himevery day, while President Trump offered just one phone call — to see if he would be publicly blamed for Christie’s sickness).
Speaking to PEOPLE in a 2021 interview, Christie opened up about his time in the Trump White House and his frustration with the former president’s focus on election conspiracy theories.
“Someone needed to stand up and say, ‘Look, we need to get real and we need to start getting the job done because if we don’t, we won’t have a role in this country moving forward,'” Christie said.
He continued: “I don’t think people want to hear that any longer. I think people want a new day. There is a pathway to it. Hopefully the combination of those election results and the book coming out … will give people a lot of encouragement that there is a new path for the Republican Party.”
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Christie is presently viewed as a long-shot candidate for the Republican nomination in 2024, with critics noting that he is not a popular figure within the GOP — and reminding that he quickly dropped out of the 2016 presidential race due to his low performance in the earliest primaries.
source: people.com
