Christie emphasizes in the ad that the former president’s Christmas message to everyone who disagrees with him was ‘rot in he**’
In the first major ad blitz of his 2024 campaign, Chris Christie is pushing back against calls from other Republicans for the former two-term New Jersey governor to drop out of the GOP presidential nomination race.
“Some people believe I should withdraw from this race. Really? “I’m the only one saying Donald Trump is a liar,” Christie stated directly to the camera in a commercial that will air on TV and digital on Thursday.
Christie’s team claims the video is the first in a seven-figure TV buy in New Hampshire, which hosts the first primary and second overall contest after Iowa’s caucuses on the Republican presidential nomination calendar.
Christie is running for national office for the second time, and he confronts a hard uphill battle against former President Donald Trump, who is the clear front-runner in the race as he seeks the White House for the third time. Similarly to the 2016 election cycle, Christie is focusing his time and resources in New Hampshire, where independent voters and moderates have always played an important part in the state’s storied primary.
Christie has run a low-cost campaign since declaring his candidacy in June, with advertising in his support coming from an affiliated super PAC called Tell It Like It Is, but he has shifted into high gear in recent weeks, boosting the number of events he’s attending with Granite State voters.
Earlier this month, the former governor aired his first TV ad of his campaign, which was funded in the six figures. He’s now upping the ante by spending at least $1 million on advertising.
Christie, a Trump supporter turned prominent GOP critic, is now taking aim at the former president in a new commercial.
Christie claims in his new ad that Trump “pits Americans against each other,” and that his Christmas gift to anyone who disagrees with him was “rot in he**.”
Christie said of the deadly Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the United States Capitol by Trump supporters, which temporarily disrupted congressional certification of President Biden’s victory over the then-president in the 2020 election, “he caused a riot on Capitol Hill.” He’ll burn America down to help himself. In private, every Republican leader says it. I’m the only one who says it publicly.”
“Who do we want as President?” “A liar or someone with the courage to tell the truth?” Christie inquired in the advertisement. “The state of New Hampshire.” It is all up to you. “My name is Chris Christie, and you can bet this message has my approval.”
Christie is polling third in many recent New Hampshire surveys, trailing Trump and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, who later served as Trump’s ambassador to the United Nations.
Haley, who has been gaining in the polls in recent months, has seen a spike in recent weeks after receiving the endorsement of popular Republican Gov. Chris Sununu of New Hampshire. Some Republican elites and voters have called on Christie to drop his presidential bid so that the anti-Trump vote can coalesce around Haley.
Christie has often argued that he is the only Trump challenger in the race who is directly challenging the former president. He told Fox News Digital earlier this month that he’s “not going anywhere,” and he’s “not going anywhere, so let’s be really clear about that.”