Chris Christie has a new bogeyman. He is now targeting Tim Scott.
Scott mentioned while appearing on WMUR in New Hampshire on Friday that he doesn’t hold the former president, who didn’t go to the Capitol and threaten his life, responsible. He said he could only hold responsible the individuals who threatened his life, and the previous president did not pose that threat.
The former New Jersey governor slammed Scott for mitigating Donald Trump’s responsibility for the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol. He expressed his disappointment on Sunday television and continued to criticize him during a campaign swing on Monday.
Christie, whose campaign is defined in part by his anger for Trump, went after Scott for not being sufficiently furious with Trump. On Monday, he returned to the first primary state after a month’s absence to attack the senator who had risen above him in the polls.
After launching his campaign in June, many polls of likely Republican voters in the state showed Christie to be in third place. In contrast to Trump’s 37% and DeSantis’s 23%, Scott only received 8% of the vote in the University of New Hampshire poll released last week. Next in line was a 6-percentage-point tie between Christie and North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum.
Christie, while campaigning in New Hampshire, accused Scott of trying to appease Trump supporters who could consider voting for an alternative candidate if further charges were brought against the former president.
On Monday night, Christie addressed a crowd of supporters at a VFW post in Concord, New Hampshire. It’s also disheartening that Tim Scott largely exonerated him.
Christie said that if he hadn’t made such an outrageous statement, he wouldn’t have revealed Tim’s name. But when someone says such things, no one running for office should be immune to examination.
Still, Trump is Christie’s main target. Christie criticized his former friend extensively during his stump speech in Concord. And, just like he has been doing since entering the race, Christie continues to criticize DeSantis as well. Recently he has criticized the Florida governor’s policies on education, as well as comments DeSantis made about corrupt actors within the Justice Department and the FBI.
