Christie thumbs his nose at Haley and Sununu as calls for him to drop out persist

Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie is defiantly refusing to heed the advice of Gov. Chris Sununu (R-NH) and other Republican operatives who have called upon the 2024 presidential candidate to drop out of the race.

In at least two separate interviews this week, Christie rejected Sununu’s push to cede the race for a viable non-Trump GOP candidate to former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley after Sununu said his campaign is “at an absolute dead end.”

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The former New Jersey governor shot back with his retort. “Since Chris started to work for Nikki Haley and become an employee of Nikki Haley, it’s not the same Chris Sununu anymore,” Christie told CNN‘s Anderson Cooper Tuesday night, referring to the New Hampshire governor’s endorsement of Haley.

“This is a guy who has said that Donald Trump is unfit. All things that his candidate is unwilling to say,” he added, taunting Haley.

During a Wednesday appearance on MSNBC‘s Morning Joe, Christie expounded on his campaign trajectory: “This is never going to be easy.”

“When I got into the race, I said everybody is an underdog. And that’s why this kind of sophistry about who should get out of the race is kind of ridiculous,” Christie said. “I mean, in the end, everyone is a long shot in this race but Donald Trump on the Republican side if you believe the polling.”

Trump is steamrolling all his GOP rivals in national and the four early nominating state polls. He currently polls at 62.5%, while Haley and Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) are tied at 11.2%, followed by Vivek Ramaswamy at 4.2% and Christie at 3.4%, according to a RealClearPolitics polling average.

In New Hampshire, where both Haley and Christie have heavily campaigned, Trump still leads the primary field at 46.3%, according to RealClearPolitics‘s average of Granite State polls. Haley fares better at 24.8% support, while Christie is at 10.5% and DeSantis is at 9.5%.

But despite the third-place status, Christie and his supporters are adamant he will stay in the primary through the Jan. 23 New Hampshire primary.

Tell It Like It Is, the super PAC backing Christie’s 2024 campaign, released two new television and radio ads on Wednesday that will broadcast in New Hampshire as part of a previous $3.5 million ad buy. In the 30-second “Follow Me” TV ad, Christie implicitly aims at Haley and DeSantis for their hesitancy in attacking Trump — a stark contrast from Christie, who routinely lambastes the former president.

“I got into this race for president because everybody in my party who was offering themselves to be president of the United States were acting like it was going to fix itself,” Christie says in the ad. “Don’t mention his name, don’t criticize him, don’t do anything. I can’t stand by and silently acquiesce to that. Leadership is about looking at you and saying this is the problem. I know it; follow me, we’ll fix it together.”

In a “Send a Message” radio ad, Christie directly attacks his rivals. “I think the people of New Hampshire are going to say no, enough. And I think they are going to send a real message to Donald Trump on Jan. 23,” he says. “And they can’t do it by voting for Trump sycophants like Ron DeSantis, Nikki Haley, and Vivek Ramaswamy.”

Republican strategists and political experts have long said Christie’s endurance in the race could make it harder for Haley to coalesce support as she attempts a solid second-place finish or even an outright win in New Hampshire’s primary.

“I mean, there’s no question that Christie has done well here. He’s always embraced the New Hampshire experience. And I think he’s built himself into a very solid third-place slot here,” said Jim Merrill, a seasoned New Hampshire GOP strategist. “Having said that, Gov. Sununu decided to go with Nikki Haley instead. I think that basically put a lid on any ability for Christie to kind of go beyond where he is right now.”

“I think if he remains in, it makes the math much harder for Nikki Haley,” he continued. “It’s a very personal decision that goes into getting into a race and a very personal decision about getting out of a race.”

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Richard Arenberg, senior fellow in international and public affairs and visiting political science professor at Brown University, cast some doubt on how much Christie leaving the race could boost Haley.

“Even if Christie got out too, it’s not clear that there are enough votes in that circle for her to catch Trump in New Hampshire unless there’s a kind of surge of independents coming into the primary that are beyond expectations,” he said. “In other words, I think she’s got to really prime the pump in New Hampshire.”

Should Haley finish in a decent spot in New Hampshire behind Trump, there will be much pressure for her to win South Carolina’s Feb. 24 primary, given her tenure as a two-term governor. The Washington Examiner reached out to the Haley campaign for comment.