Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie has embraced his role as one of the few Republican White House hopefuls to condemn Donald Trump over his mounting legal issues.
With another round of indictments against the former president looming in Fulton County, Christie escalated his criticism of Trump on ABC’s “This Week” and questioned whether GOP voters are growing complacent.
“What I think Republican voters have to ask themselves is two things: First is, is he really the guy, under indictment in four different cases, given the conduct that he committed, someone who can beat Joe Biden or any other Democrat in November 2024? And when are we going to stop pretending that this is normal?”
Trump already faces criminal charges in Miami, New York and Miami, and Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis could announce a new indictment against the former president and his allies as early as Tuesday.
Christie, who is set to address a GOP convention in Atlanta on Saturday, is among just a handful of the Republicans competing against Trump to highlight the indictments as a dire threat to the party’s 2024 chances.
Most have echoed Trump’s efforts to undermine the charges as politically motivated attempts to help President Joe Biden win a second term that lack legal merit.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, Trump’s top Republican rival, has also framed the charges as the work of a corrupt justice system, while former Vice President Mike Pence said he wished the Justice Department had left Trump’s fate “to the American people.”
Trump has predicted the criminal charges will only unify Republican support, saying the “indictments are not worth the paper they’re written on.”
But some Georgia Republicans aren’t so sure. While Trump maintains double-digit leads in polls of likely primary voters in Georgia, as he does across the nation, some state GOP leaders worry the former president could be doomed in a November rematch against Biden.
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