The Trump Veepwatch, Vol. 6: Chris Christie
In which Unconventional examines the presumptive Republican nominee’s possible — and not-so-possible — vice presidential picks. Previous Trump installments: Newt Gingrich, Jan Brewer, Bob Corker, Mark Cuban andRick Scott.
Name: Christopher James “Chris” Christie
Age: 53
Resume: Governor of New Jersey; former 2016 Republican presidential candidate; former U.S. attorney for the district of New Jersey; former Morris County, N.J., freeholder
Source of speculation: It used to be that we observed a “moment of silence” after a national tragedy. But the Internet Age has pretty much done away with that luxury.
And so, on the same day that gunman Omar Mateen perpetrated the worst mass shooting in U.S. history, killing 50 and wounding another 53 after opening fire at a gay nightclub in Orlando, Fla., respected political pundits somehow found themselves ruminating on network television about how such senseless carnage would affect presumptive GOP nominee Donald Trump’s choice of running mate.
“If this turns out to have been inspired by ISIS, it will fulfill Donald Trump’s prediction of the problem with [Hillary Clinton’s] candidacy, which is, it’s not serious about terrorism,” said conservative talk-radio host Hugh Hewitt on NBC’s Meet the Press. “Egypt, Libya, Syria, her whole record is a disaster. The server is a disqualifier. So it’s going to frame this. It’s also going to frame his choice, which is imminent, of his vice president. And I think it strengthens the case for Chris Christie.”
Meanwhile, the New Yorker published a long feature Monday about the Republican Party’s ongoing struggle to reconcile itself to Trump’s candidacy. In the story, Ryan Lizza described Christie as having “transformed himself into a sort of manservant, who is constantly with Trump at events.” As proof, Lizza reported that a Trump staffer had recently used Snapchat to send a friend a “video of Christie fetching Trump’s McDonald’s order.”
Together, the two media mentions painted a clear portrait of Christie as a VP prospect well suited (if Hewitt is to be believed) to the post-Orlando moment — and willing to do whatever it takes (if Lizza is to be believed) to make sure Trump knows it.
Donald Trump speaks to supporters and the media with New Jersey Governor Chris Christie behind him at Trump Towers in April 2016. (Photo: Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
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Backstory: Christie has been ready for his close-up for months now.
When the Garden State governor was competing for the Republican presidential nomination as a no-holds-barred truth teller in late 2015 and early 2016, he regularly ripped into Trump for … well, anything and everything.
At the time, Christie described the Manhattan mogul as a “thin-skinned” “13-year old” “carnival barker” whose plan to build a wall on the Mexican border “makes no sense,” whose approach to Syria was “painfully naive,” and whose proposed ban on Muslims entering the U.S. was “ridiculous” — “the kind of thing that people say when they have no experience and don’t know what they’re talking about.”
“The guy who’s running first in the polls — you know it’s all make believe, right?” Christie said days ahead of the New Hampshire primary. “It’s just not real. It’s all for TV.”
Then Christie finished sixth in the Granite State, suspended his campaign, and pulled the most whiplash-inducing 180 of the 2016 cycle, forsaking fellow establishment types like Marco Rubio and John Kasich and endorsing Trump instead.
“I’m happy to be on the Trump team,” Christie said during a Feb. 26 press conference, “and I look forward to working with him.”
Political commentators, and even professional conservatives, struggled to make sense of Christie’s decision. “Chris is a dear friend,” said South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley. “But none of us understand why he did this.” Some even wondered whether he’d been taken hostage.
The explanation most observers eventually agreed on? “Base careerism,” as longtime Christie supporter Noah Rothman put it in Commentary magazine.
The argument goes like this: Christie’s second term as governor ends in 2018; his approval ratings in New Jersey are abysmal; it’s hard to imagine him ever winning statewide office again. The guy needs a job.
With his early endorsement, and his subsequent surrogacy, the theory is that Christie has been trying to get in on the ground floor of a possible Trump administration — a maneuver that may have a better chance of working with Trump than with a more orthodox candidate, as Business Insider’s Josh Barro observed back in February:
Most nominees have an entourage already: Senate staff, state house aides, large campaign staff, longtime political allies. When you endorse a normal candidate, you’re getting in line behind all those people for jobs. With Trump, you’re at the front of the line. Chris Christie has made himself, instantly and by a large margin, Trump’s most important ally. No endorser can do that with Rubio.
The question now is whether Trump feels like hiring him.
So far, Trump hasn’t ruled it out. “I think Chris Christie is fantastic,” Trump said in April. “So certainly he would be somebody on the list.”
And Christie is clearly open to an offer. “The fact is, that’s not been part of my discussions with Mr. Trump in the lead-up to my endorsement,” Christie said in March, “and I can only tell you that you don’t interview for those jobs.”
Odds: Improving — for two reasons.
It’s worth noting that Trump and Christie have known each other for a long time. They first met over dinner at Jean-Georges 14 years ago, when Christie was U.S. attorney for New Jersey and Trump was developing casinos in Atlantic City. Christie attended Trump’s third wedding. Trump attended Christie’s first inauguration. They like to say they’re friends — even “confidantes” — though others have described their relationship as “transactional.” Either way, they’re comfortable working together.
And for Trump — who is said to value loyalty above all else — comfort could be key here. Which brings us to reason No. 1. On paper, picking Christie has some serious drawbacks. He doesn’t offer geographical diversity, or Washington experience, or swing-state electoral votes. One loudmouth from the New York metro area is probably enough for any presidential ticket.
But for the last four months, Christie has shown time and time again that he has Trump’s back, twisting himself into knots to demonstrate that his fealty to the nominee is stronger than his allegiance to the principles he professed during the primary.
Take Trump’s racially charged comments about Gonzalo Curiel, the Mexican-American judge overseeing the Trump University fraud suit. These days, a running mate’s most important role is to serve as the nominee’s top surrogate. To speak on his behalf whenever necessary. To brag about the good news. To spin the bad. To stay on message. And to defend the boss no matter what.
But of all Trump’s rumored vice-presidential prospects, only Christie bothered to defend Trump during the Curiel firestorm, telling reporters in New Jersey, “I am not going to get into critiquing a campaign that we’re in the middle of.”
“Donald Trump is not a racist,” Christie added. “The allegations that he is are absolutely contrary to any experience I’ve had with him over the last 14 years.”
At the rate Trump is going — and at the rate Republicans are denouncing him — it’s entirely possible that by the time he arrives at the convention in Cleveland, which is where he plans to announce his running mate, there will be no one left who he feels has been loyal enough to earn the job.
Other than Christie, of course.
The second reason why Christie’s stock could rise is, sadly, Orlando — or more specifically, Trump’s calculation that renewed fears about future terrorist attacks could propel him to the presidency in November. As a candidate, Christie touted his terror-fighting days as a federal prosecutor in N.J., claiming that his experience “sending terrorists to jail” made him uniquely qualified to protect the homeland. He even described “national security” — i.e., “keeping America safe and secure from terrorist attacks and making us a better ally and neighbor around the world” — as “the signature issue of my campaign.”
True to form, Christie made sure to talk tough about Orlando this week. “These people hate us because of who we are, and they’re going to try and kill us, and that’s what this is all about,” the New Jersey governor said Tuesday during an appearance on WFAN radio. “It’s unacceptable to allow this kind of stuff in our country and for us not to fight back, and we need to fight back, and that’s all these people understand.”
Critics have questioned Christie’s anti-terrorism credentials — on WFAN, he failed to clarify where exactly the U.S. should “fight back” after a mass shooting by an American-born lone wolf — but either way, his resume is longer than Trump’s. If the presumptive nominee wants to keep using the Orlando massacre to criticize Clinton’s foreign-policy record — as he did Monday with his speech in New Hampshire — then choosing Christie might start to seem like an effective way to amplify his message.
Still, there’s one complication that could prevent Trump and Christie from teaming up in the fall. Trump is set to testify in the Trump University fraud suit in November; two months earlier, a pair of former Christie lieutenants are scheduled to stand trial for their role in his administration’s Bridgegate scandal. Ultimately, two major corruption cases in the middle of a general-election campaign may prove to be one too many — even for Donald Trump.
