Republican presidential candidate and former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie arrives to speak at the Faith and Freedom Road to Majority conference at the Washington Hilton on June 23, 2023 in Washington, DC.
Drew Anger | Getty Images
Launched by former New Jersey Gov. and Republican presidential candidate Chris Christie in his latest blitz against Donald Trump on “Fox News Sunday.”
He said the former president lied about the size of his crowd at the rally and failed to deliver on his policy promises.
“People in the Republican Party, and pretty much across America, are tired of having political candidates who are snake oil salesmen who don’t just tell them the truth, who tell them whatever they think they want to hear. right now,” Christie told Fox News.
Christie called the estimated size of Trump’s rally crowds “absurd.”
“Tens of thousands don’t show up anymore. That’s another big lie,” he added. “All you have to do is look at the pictures.”
Christie has been one of Trump’s most vocal critics, even though the former president, who is currently embroiled in several criminal investigations, has a large poll lead in the crowded GOP candidate field.
Trump and Christie also differ on Social Security reform.
Trump has ruled out cutting the program at all. In an interview on Sunday, Christie was firmer in his stance on means testing for Social Security, which would exclude people with higher incomes from receiving those benefits. He also stood by his proposal to raise the retirement age.
“Should the extraordinarily wealthy collect Social Security? Do Warren Buffett and Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk really need to collect Social Security?” he said.
A former US attorney, Christie also criticized the five-year investigation into Hunter Biden’s alleged tax crimes, saying it was “either a lie or it was incompetent.”
“There’s no way it should take five years to get to a two-count misdemeanor tax plea and then dismiss the gun charges” against President Joe Biden’s son, he said.
Christie launched his long-shot bid on June 6 and is leading Trump’s numbers by about 2.5%, though he has gained some steam compared to the other candidates, according to a composite poll from RealClearPolitics. The former governor also revealed major donors supporting his campaign.
To earn a spot in the Republican primary debates starting in August, GOP candidates must get 40,000 contributor donations and poll more than 1% in either three national polls, or two national polls and one state poll .