Chris Christie pushed back on claims that “tens of thousands” of people still show up to Donald Trump’s rallies, calling estimates for a recent South Carolina event “absurd.”
The ex-New Jersey governor, a onetime ally of Trump’s who is now running against him in the 2024 Republican presidential primary, sounded off on the former president in an interview with Fox News’ Shannon Bream on Sunday.
“Tens of thousands don’t show up anymore. That’s another one of the big lies that happen. Look, all you have to do is look at the pictures,” Christie told Bream, according to The Hill.
Christie was responding to reports, citing a local police chief, that Trump drew a crowd of 50,000 people to a town of 3,400 in South Carolina over the July 4 weekend. That claim has since been called into question.
Christie also lambasted Trump’s campaign stop in Iowa last week, where he said the ex-president “droned on for an hour and a half,” “lied” about a farm deal with China, and “spent the rest of the time” discussing his indictment.
“This is not somebody who’s fighting for the American people and their future,” Christie concluded. “This is all about his ego.”
Christie, who has taken aim at Trump several times on the campaign trail, added that the former president cares “the most” about undoing his 2020 election loss to Joe Biden.
“But since he’s a three-time loser, having lost in 2018 the House of Representatives, lost the White House and the Senate in 2020, and in 2022 he winds up losing two more governorships, another seat in the Senate, and we barely won the House by five votes,” Christie said.
“He’s in this for himself and himself only, and not in it for the American people,” Christie said.
Bream, elsewhere in the interview, asked Christie whether he is a Trump “spoiler” or if he has a path forward in the primaries.
Christie declared that he’s in the race to win it, arguing there’s a demand for his candidacy.
“When you talk about polls, at this time in 2015, Donald Trump was at 4%, so I don’t think anybody should be worried about the polling right now,” he said.