Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) said Wednesday that Donald Trump likely won’t be on the stage when Republican presidential hopefuls have their first debate this summer because the twice-impeached former president is “obviously afraid.”
“He’s afraid to get on the stage against people who are serious,” Christie said during an interview with conservative talk show host Hugh Hewitt. “And I’m sorry to see that he’s that afraid of it.”
Trump, the current GOP frontrunner in the polls, last month said he’s unlikely to attend the debates because he is “leading by seemingly insurmountable numbers” and doesn’t want to subject himself to being “libeled and abused.”
Christie said that if Trump’s ideas were great, his polling lead would only increase after a debate. Since he won’t attend, Christie reasoned he must be afraid a debate could cause him to lose that lead instead.
“If he’s that afraid of that, how can we count on him to do any better with President Xi than the failures he had in his first term with China?” he said. “How can we expect him to do any better with Putin than having set the groundwork for the invasion of Ukraine, which his conduct towards Putin certainly helped to establish?”
“This is a guy who seems like he’s afraid,” Christie continued. “And if he’s afraid, he has no business being president.”
Christie said Trump doesn’t want to debate because “he doesn’t have a lot of serious answers for the problems that are facing the country right now.”
The former governor added that he is considering his own 2024 presidential run and would have a decision within two weeks.
