Christie on DeSantis: ‘None of Us Really Know Who He Is’

Plus: What’s next for Florida Sen. Rick Scott.

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Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie. (Photo by Richard Rodriguez/Getty Images)

Happy Wednesday! The GOP 2024 presidential field grows from one to two today. Only 800 more announcements to come!

Up to Speed

  • Nikki Haley is set to officially kick off her presidential campaign at an event in Charleston today, but the former South Carolina governor scooped her own announcement yesterday with a preview video posted online. “Even on our worst day, we are blessed to live in America,” Haley said in the tightly produced clip, which walked through her personal history and track record as South Carolina governor and U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. “The Washington establishment has failed us over and over and over again. It’s time for a new generation of leadership—to rediscover fiscal responsibility, secure our border, and strengthen our country, our pride, and our purpose.”
  • Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California, 89, announced Tuesday that she won’t run for reelection in 2024 but confirmed that she will continue to serve as California’s senior U.S. senator until her term ends in January 2025. Her announcement comes weeks after Democratic Reps. Katie Porter and Adam Schiff formally hopped into the race to succeed her—Democratic Rep. Barbara Lee has also signaled interest in running—and follows months of speculation about her political future amid growing concerns about her mental acuity. Feinstein’s retirement will mark the end of a political era in California. After two decades in local San Francisco politics—she became acting mayor in the wake of the 1978 assassination of Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk—Feinstein made the jump to national politics with a Senate win in 1992, and has been a major force in Democratic politics for the three decades since.
  • After losing to GOP Rep. Lauren Boebert of Colorado by roughly 500 votes last cycle, Democrat Adam Frisch announced Tuesday he’s all in for a 2024 rematch. Frisch’s strong showing in November caught Washington by surprise. Joe Biden had won just 45 percent of the vote in Colorado’s 3rd District in 2020, and national Democrats had largely ignored the race: The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) spent just $330 in ads on Frisch’s behalf and the Nancy Pelosi-aligned House Majority PAC spent $1,563, according to the late Blake Hounshell in the New York Times. That spending calculus could change this cycle now that national Democrats know Frisch is a competitive candidate. “Lauren Boebert is a MAGA extremist, unconcerned with the needs of everyday Coloradans—she should be worried about a formidable challenge,” DCCC spokesman Tommy Garcia told The Dispatch on Tuesday. “House Democrats will have great offensive opportunities in 2024.” 

Chris Christie Sounds Off on 2024

Chris Christie isn’t pulling punches as he mulls a 2024 presidential bid. 

That’s hardly surprising for the pugnacious former New Jersey governor, whose bid for the Republican nomination in 2016 flamed out with a sixth-place finish in the New Hampshire primary. It does make him unique. As some Republicans bow out rather than face Donald Trump in the unfolding 2024 contest and as others gingerly tiptoe around the former president—critical one minute, deferential the next—Christie picks a fight with No. 45 every chance he gets.

“I’ve known him for 23 years, and so I’m not the least bit afraid of him,” Christie told The Dispatch during an interview last week, while in Washington for meetings with Republican governors. “The presence of Donald Trump [in the primary] still makes a difference to a lot of people. He didn’t do what the normal one-term president does, which is go away in shame because they’ve lost. He has no shame.”

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  1. Cegoodman85

    Chris Christie is good for some entertaining commentary, but after his endorsing Trump not once, but twice, I wouldn't trust him further than I could throw him.

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      David Burke

      So that would be negative footage in huge numbers…

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  2. Jamesdcage

    Every article about Rick Scott should mention his term as chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, the candidates the NRSC supported, and the results of the election. His name should be forever linked to Hershal Walker, Dr. Oz, Blake Masters, and the rest. A liability for Republicans and for America in every way.

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    Andy Napoli

    If Chris Christie is willing to focus like a laser on Donald Trump himself, I could see some value there. But if he trains his fire on DeSantis or other Republicans in he field, then he's a bad distraction.

    I honestly don't think Donald Trump has ever really been tested by a combative conservative person in debates before. Trump's never really been seriously attacked from the Right. Most of the other GOP candidates in 2016 tried to avoid engaging him because they didn't want to alienate his base. HRC and Biden debated him but those debates were always coming from the Left and both HRC and Biden wanted to avoid being dragged into the mud. The one time Biden really engaged (first debate in 2020) the audience was aghast at how much mud was covering everybody.

    I would absolutely love to see Chris Christie just take Trump apart limb from limb in a live debate, where Christie doesn't give an inch and goes for Trump's jugular on every chance he gets. Specifically, Christie would have to hit Trump for being incompetent, corrupt, and a weak person who doesn't know how to negotiate with foreign authoritarian leaders. I could seriously see Trump melt down if his ego comes under relentless assault with no chance to deflect or divert the flurry. Most people just avoid Trump's insults because "when you wrestle with a pig, you both get dirty and the pig enjoys it." But Christie doesn't have that problem. He's got nothing to lose. He's probably not going to win anyway.

    If I were advising Christie, I'd recommend Christie challenge Trump's manhood at every turn. What's the matter, Donnie? You can't find your giant Sharpie marker note cards the staff wrote for you to rebut me? Are your whiddle feeewings hurt, Donnie? You gonna throw ketchup on the walls like a baby having a tantrum at the highchair? You worried your pathetic grift of your worshippers campaign donations is going to end if you have to bail on this farce of a campaign? BTW Donnie, if you're so rich why did you spend so little of your own supposedly vast wealth on your own 2020 re-election and so little of it on GOP candidates in 2022? Why were you so terrified of Dr Fauci that you didn't fire him despite you disagreeing with him so much? Were you scared? Were you scared to do something about it, Donnie?

    Badger and bully Trump relentlessly. Make him lose his cool. Make him melt down. Serve him a lethal dose of Trump's own medicine. Cut him off. Interrrupt. Walk over there to his podium and get right into his face. Jab your finger right into his chest -- hard. Get into his space. Cough right into his face. He's a germaphobe. Cough in his face. Make him take a swing or try and shove you away. Make him melt down and look as unhinged as possible.

    If Christie wants to be the cruise missile of 2024, that's how you do it. And yeah, I'm from Jersey just like Christie is.

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      Ben Connelly

      Yeah if he does get in that’s what I was hoping too

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  4. Bobmckendrick

    Glad to know that Chris Christie knows what "the truth" is. Hope he will tell us soon.

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    Normb1442

    The debt ceiling law comes up every few years and whichever party is able to do so threatens to refuse to pass it unless X and Y and Z, and negotiations take place and it gets passed. In the process, somebody or some thing doesn't get as much money as it thought it was going to get.

    If Rick Scott's proposal to sunset every Federal program every five years passed, this is EXACTLY what would happen to SocSec and Medicare. Suppose it's this year, and Social Security has sunsetted and must be repassed by Congress, and five Republicans refuse to vote to do so unless there are major cuts made. So Grandma's monthly check gets cut, or the decision is to waive the COLA for the next five years, or she can't have her life-saving operation after all, or some other stuff that cannot happen now.

    You know what's the difference between the overwhelming majority of SocSec and Medicare recipients and everybody else? The former can't just shrug and jump back into the labor market to make up lost income. Rick Scott's proposal means their incomes would be at the mercy of a handful of people like Matt Gaetz, and anyone who doubts this hasn't been following the debt ceiling fight this year.

    So no, Joe Biden wasn't lying. That SocSec and Medicare can be absolutely relied upon to be there at the same level of support is as important as their existence itself, because people plan around it. Rick Scott thinks that something people worked their entire lives for should become at the mercy of the same egomaniacs who are playing with the credit-worthiness of the United States as I write these words.

    SocSec and Medicare CAN be put on a sound financial footing. All it will take is goring the oxen of some who are accustomed to getting their way -- like Big Pharma, corporate bottom lines, and guys like Rick Scott who have nothing but contempt for people who weren't as successful as he was.

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      David Burke

      That was excellent.

      Thank you, Norm

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    2. Bdecicco2001

      'Whichever party' means GOP.

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      Scarlette Tarte

      Agree with most of what you said but...the Democrats have never held the debt ceiling hostage.

      Everyone wants to "play fair" about both parties contributing to our current messes, BUT, it's a false equivalence, and doing so just ticks off those of us on the left who knows we don't act in such ways.

      Please stop. Tell the truth about both parties, don't try to make them equal, they are not. The Republican party for the last 40 years has grown increasingly crazy. Not the conservatism...yes, that has changed into populism, but that is not what I am referring to. Procedurally, Republicans have gone off the rails.

      The Dems do things like they have always done them, basically adhering to rules that the Republicans now constantly break.

      It does not fix anything when someone says "both parties" yadda, yadda yadda. The Dems can't fix what they are not breaking. But the Republicans can. Keep the pressure on what needs to be fixed...and that is today's Republican party.

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        Normb1442

        Hey, I hate whataboutism as much as you do, but the Democrats DID make noises about not raising the limit under Bush 43, though they voted to do so in the end. As for the false equivalence, I totally agree with you. The current mess is a combination of several factors some of which -- e.g. the Baby Boomer retirements -- are nobody's fault and some of which -- the shortfall of revenues thanks to Trump's tax cuts -- are very much on the GOP and nobody else.

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    Gibby

    lol Saying Chris Christie destroyed Marco Rubio is like saying that Tom Brady was responsible for the Seahawks choosing to pass on the one yard line on the last play of the super bowl.

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    Gibby

    The Dispatch live was awesome. Getting some reflections on actual reporting like Audrey describing an attempt to interview Feinstein was awesome. I think a new dispatch podcast is in order starring this crew.

    still waiting for the Scott Linsicome podcast

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  8. Elmore4005

    The only thing I hope Chris Christie does in 2024 is be a cruise missile of destruction for Donald Trump. If he can do that, he will have accomplished more good for the U.S. than anything he has ever done.

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    Sad Trombone

    I know who Chris Christie is: he's the single individual most responsible for elevating Trump from sideshow buffoon to President of the US.

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    1. Billwippy

      Sadly that's true, his endorsement gave Trump credibility.

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  10. James Morphew

    Senator Scott has moments of lucidity, but his "Rescue America" plan of 2022, including radical proposals, was indeed a Rick Scott plan, and showed his tin ear for national politics. It sure didn't help any other Republicans. If you hope to lead the nation, you may want to start by being a leader in your party, not a maverick.

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