by Domenico Maceri * –
SAN LUIS OBISPO (USA). “They don’t want to touch the key to the truth about an individual who is a dictator, a bully, who has shot everyone down.” Thus Chris Christie, former governor of New Jersey, as he described Donald Trump and at the same time admonished Nikki Haley, Ron DeSantis, and Vivek Ramaswamy. Christie’s three opponents for the Republican Party nomination present at the last debate in Alabama have so far not wanted to criticize Trump. Christie continued by saying that the former president’s behavior is “not qualified” for a second term.
As is known, Trump did not participate in any of the Republican Party primary debates, but he is in first place with 50 percent of the vote. The rest of the Republican voters who would not vote for Trump are that slice of the electorate that the other four candidates are trying to grab. Christie’s path to the nomination has been to directly confront Trump, asserting that the former president is a “coward” who refuses to participate in debates, and to confront his opponents directly. The former president has already indicated that considering his margin of victory, according to polls, the Republican Party should award him the nomination before the primaries begin on January 15, 2024 in Iowa.
Nearly all polls place Trump in first place for the Republican nomination. This means that the other four candidates would have access to those Republican voters who cannot tolerate the former president. The problem for the candidates who participated in the debates is the war among themselves instead of expanding the “pie” to snatch votes from the top of the class. Christie explained that Trump’s popularity is due to the silence of his three opponents which legitimizes “the conduct” of the former president.
Christie, however, hit the target during the campaign, exposing Trump’s danger. It should be remembered that the former governor of New Jersey had been one of the then tycoon’s first supporters in the 2016 campaign that ultimately saw Trump win the White House. The former president was believed to have rewarded him with a position in his administration. In fact, Christie had requested the Ministry of Justice but was refused. The reason? The veto imposed by Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, very angry with Christie, as he says in his 2019 book. As a federal prosecutor, Christie had led the trial in 2005 that put Jared’s father, Charles Kushner, in prison for corruption. In 2020, however, Trump granted him a pardon. Despite everything, Christie remained loyal and in 2020 helped Trump prepare for the debates with Joe Biden. Christie broke with Trump after the 2020 election when the then-president refused to accept the result that gave the keys to the White House to the current president.
Christie’s attacks on Trump’s character and his ineligibility for the presidency were not followed by the other three candidates. Haley and DeSantis said only that a new generation of leadership is needed, suggesting that Trump should step aside. At the debate in Alabama DeSantis said that electing a president in his late eighties would be unwise. We need a young man (him?) who can complete two terms. Ramaswamy, the entrepreneur who did not even vote in the 2008, 2012, and 2016 elections, however, not only did not attack Trump but made statements with echoes of the former president. According to Ramaswamy, the 2020 election was characterized by fraud and the insurrectionists in the attacks on the Capitol on January 6, 2021 were government officials opposed to Trump.
Christie’s strategy of attacking Trump head-on didn’t work for him. Not even Haley and DeSantis’s. A few months ago it seemed that the Florida governor had become the anti-Trump but recently he has lost ground. Haley, however, managed to give DeSantis a run for his money and seems to have gained credibility as a possible rival to Trump. Financial support from billionaire Charles Koch’s Americans for Prosperity group could be one of the keys to her success.
The main issue for the four candidates on stage is their 50-50 split of available voters. There are already rumors that Christie could throw in the towel and offer her support to Haley, as suggested by her defense of the former South Carolina governor, harshly attacked by Ramaswamy. Christie’s decision will likely occur after the outcome of the New Hampshire primary on January 23, 2024.
In the Alabama debate, Christie declared that Trump will be convicted in his ongoing criminal trials and as such will not be eligible to vote. He will be convicted, according to Christie, not by the work of special prosecutor Jack Smith, but by witnesses, former collaborators of the former president, such as Mark Meadows, former chief of staff, and Mike Pence, vice president during Trump’s administration. It is currently unknown how the trials will end, largely due to Trump’s strategy of delaying them for as long as possible. Smith realized this and asked the Supreme Court to decide whether Trump has immunity for possible crimes committed during his presidency. The Supreme Court accepted the request and a decision is expected in the coming weeks. Some analysts saw Smith’s move as risky since three of the officials were appointed by Trump. However, the Supreme Court is not expected to rule that a president has total immunity making him a king with absolute powers.
A presidential candidate with 91 charges had never been seen in America. The fact that the Republican Party can nominate an individual who could go to prison tells us a lot about the state of one of the two major parties in the US. Could he win the election from prison? However, the latest Reuters/Ipsos poll tells us that Joe Biden is ahead by 4 points in Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Arizona, Georgia, Nevada, North Carolina and Michigan, the so-called “swing states”, states in the balance that often decide the outcome of the American presidential elections.
* Domenico Maceri, PhD, is professor emeritus at Allan Hancock College, Santa Maria, California. Some of his articles have won awards from the National Association of Hispanic Publications.
