New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, a former presidential candidate in this election year, on Friday endorsed Republican front-runner Donald Trump, inviting wrath on social networking site like Facebook.
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The meticulously timed endorsement from Christie – the first from a major Republican figure – immediately dulled a newly-launched assault by the party mainstream aimed at blocking Trump’s path to the White House before it is too late.
He added: “There is no one who is better prepared to provide America with the strong leadership that it needs”.
Mr Trump is “rewriting the playbook”, said Mr Christie, 53, who until two weeks ago was himself a rival of Mr Trump for the Republican nomination. “He’s a results-oriented person, and frankly I am now looking at Donald Trump because of Governor Christie’s endorsement today”.
At roughly the same time in Texas, Trump drew cheers after sharing his own backstage encounter with Rubio: “He was putting on makeup with a trowel”, Trump said.
There has been a shift in support for a controversial Mr Trump who has now won three straight nominating contests in New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada. Our focus is real simple: “uniting conservatives on Super Tuesday states and I don’t think this endorsement has any impact on that”.
Christie offered an extended preview of his that role Friday, hurling barb after barb at Rubio, who he painted as a “nervous Nellie” who was “wholly unprepared to be president of the United States”. And after Trump called for a temporary ban on foreign Muslims entering the U.S., Christie said, “This is the kind of thing that people say when they have no experience and don’t know what they’re talking about”. “The guy I needed to take on in New Hampshire was Marco Rubio”.
The new poll shows Trump with the support of 40 percent of likely Republican voters in MA, with Rubio and Kasich each receiving the backing of 19 percent.
Christie repeatedly criticized Trump while campaigning, notably calling the businessman “thin-skinned” after Trump decided he would skip a Fox News GOP debate in January. Also at the rally Friday, Christie slammed Sen.
Trump said he and Christie had made a decision to keep the endorsement secret until announcing it Friday and described it as “sort of a shocker”. And I’ll tell you, on Tuesday we’re going to have a very good night. So why is Christie endorsing Trump while Graham is ridiculing The Donald?
Endorsing Trump thrusts Christie back into the national conversation in a way that he never was during his campaign and that a more traditional endorsement ever could.
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Christie is a little man’s Trump: equal parts authoritarian executive and blustering machismo.
