- Christie was giving a speech for the Republican Jewish Coalition in Las Vegas
- He said the GOP needs to send voters a message that ‘doesn’t hurt their ears’
- The former governor is one of the only prominent Republicans to tie the party’s success in Virginia and performance in New Jersey to a distance from Trump
- Christie told CNN he’d decide whether to run for president in 2024 after 2022
‘Glenn Youngkin did not have a backward-looking campaign and neither did Jack Ciattarelli,’ Christie told Fox News the day of the event.
‘If what we’re going to continue to talk about is the 2020 election and grievance politics, I think you got a market test in Virginia and in New Jersey. And that market test was candidates don’t think that’s going to work. And one of those candidates won, and the other candidate came close in a blue state to winning.’
Speaking to CNN during the event, Christie said he would wait until after the 2022 midterm election cycle to decide if he’ll mount another bid for the White House in 2024.
During his Las Vegas speech the former governor and presidential candidate warned that re-litigating the last election takes attention away from the damage Democrats are doing to the country.
‘We can no longer talk about the past and the past elections – no matter where you stand on that issue, no matter where you stand, it is over,’ Christie said. ‘Every minute that we spend talking about 2020 – while we’re wasting time doing that, Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer are laying ruin to this country.
‘We better focus on that and take our eyes off the rearview mirror and start looking through the windshield again.’
He took a swipe at Trump more directly, urging Republicans to trade their support for his baseless fraud theories for a message to voters that ‘doesn’t hurt their ears.’
Christie indicated that the GOP campaigns run in Virginia and New Jersey, which largely focused on local issues, were a roadmap for how to move forward.
‘People want us to be direct with them. They want someone to fight for them. But they want them to fight in a way that doesn’t hurt their ears,’ he said.
‘We have to speak to their dreams, their hopes, their aspirations for the future. If we don’t do that, then we won’t once again win back the votes that we began to win back in Virginia and New Jersey last Tuesday night.’
Christie, once held up as a potential presidential candidate, has been a vocal critic of Trump’s election fraud conspiracy theories. His return to the public stage this year has spurred rumors that he’s thinking about a 2024 White House bid.
Trump has stoked similar rumors himself, and still appeals to a wide majority of Republican voters, according to recent polls. But it’s not clear if either of them will be running.
On Saturday Christie said Republicans have an opportunity to take back power in Washington after President Joe Biden’s handling of the US economy and other issues – but again saved a jab for the ex-commander in chief.
‘All of that requires us to tell the truth and be honest, and to have it be about the people we serve, not about us,’ he said.
‘All to often, people who get behind these podiums – they like to talk about themselves… the problems we face today are too grave to be talking about ourselves.’
The people who should be listened to, Christie claimed, were those who ‘have suffered from an economy that’s driving prices up while they can’t afford to pay their bills.’
‘And all those voters were crying out in Virginia and New Jersey on Tuesday night,’ he said.
Exit polls appear to show the former Republican rising star is at least partially correct. White suburban voters who cast their ballots for Biden in 2020 helped push Youngkin over the line to victory in Virginia.
For many of those voters, the economy and education were among the top issues at stake.
They’re issues that Youngkin honed his message on, largely shunning national Republican figures in favor of a smaller-scale race appealing directly to Virginians. Trump only made an appearance in the final days of the race to back the GOP entrepreneur – though they never appeared side-by-side.
His opponent, former Democratic Governor Terry McAuliffe, took the opposite approach. McAuliffe pulled out an all-star rolodex of liberal figures, from Biden to Barack Obama, to appeal to voters in the Old Dominion.
The Democrat tried unsuccessfully to make Election Day another referendum on Trump, and it appears voters didn’t take the bait.
Christie took on a more flattering tone when speaking with CNN after his remarks.
He told the outlet that Trump needs to decide between being ‘a leader for tomorrow or a figure of yesterday.’
Trump could be a ‘very positive force for Republican candidates’ in 2022, the ex-Garden State governor said, if he will ‘begin talking about the future and tell the truth about the election and move on.’
But Christie added he had no idea if that’s something the bombastic former president is capable of.
His advice for potential candidates was to not ‘worry about what the former President is going to do or not do,’ citing Trump’s unpredictability.