Chris Christie’s conversation with Wolf Blitzer on CNN Thursday inevitably turned to the 2024 election and Donald Trump, who has taken to Truth Social and targeted Christie in recent days. In response to a recent Wall Street Journal op-ed “Why is Donald Trump Afraid to Debate?” Blitzer asked Christie the same question — and New Jersey’s former governor was only too happy to answer, “Look, if I had his record, I wouldn’t want to debate either.”
To back up his claim, Christie offered a list of what he saw as Trump’s failures and missteps as president of the United States. This included Trump’s claim that he would balance the nation’s budget (“He added seven-trillion dollars to the national debt,” Christie said), he would “build a big, beautiful wall” along the entire 1,954-mile length of the U.S.-Mexico border (“He built 52 miles”) and Trump’s claim he would “repeal or replace” Barack Obama’s landmark health care program.
“They’re not… that’s not a record to be proud of,” Christie concluded.
Trump has not addressed his apparent hesitation to join his fellow GOP candidates on the debate stage, either for this event or the first primary debate last month, but this is hardly the first election cycle in which he’s pulled this move. In 2016, Bill O’Reilly blasted the then-candidate for skipping a Fox News debate, especially after it appeared that doing so caused him to slide to second place against Sen. Ted Cruz.
The editorial board at the Wall Street Journal writes in the opinion piece that Trump might be worried about his messaging on hot-button topics such as abortion, the Jan. 6 riot in D.C. and the four federal indictments filed against him this year.
Perhaps if this were any other candidate, that suspicion would be founded, but as with all things Trump, it’s nearly impossible to know. Instead of taking the stage at the Reagan Library on Sept. 27, Trump instead plans to speak to former and current members of an autoworkers union in Detroit.
