In remarks to ABC News on Monday night, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie denied that Joe Biden’s plan of reaching out to Republican voters would make any difference. Noting that several Republicans were on the docket to give speeches at the virtual convention, host George Stephanopoulos asked Christie if their endorsements would mean anything to Biden’s chances.
“Chris Christie, four years ago Meg Whitman and Christine Todd Whitman both endorsed Hillary Clinton,” Stephanopoulos said. “So, how big a threat are these Republican endorsements tonight?”
“Zero. Zero. I mean, they’re meaningless,” Christie replied. “They were with her, they were with her four years ago, now they’re with Biden. No surprise.”
Christie said that another Republican’s endorsement was worth even less.
“And John Kasich, just to show you where John Kasich’s standing is in the Republican Party, when he was the only Republican governor left on the stage in 2016 — Donald Trump, Ted Cruz, and John Kasich — the three candidates left, do you know how many Republican governors, of his colleagues, his sitting colleagues at the time, endorsed John Kasich?” Christie asked. “Zero. And the reason they didn’t is because he’s a backstabber and he’s an untruthful guy.
“And so tonight, Republicans are going to look at that and go, ‘You can have him, please, believe me. Give us a break, get him out of our party. You take him for a little while,’” Christie continued. “Because, on top of all that, I’ve worked with John a lot, he’s exhausting. Joe Biden’s going to be getting calls from John Kasich. He’s going to want to change his phone number.”
Kasich, whose political career has been in free-fall since losing the nomination to Trump in 2016, jumped on the virtual stage Monday night to insist that while he’s “proud of his Republican heritage,” he doesn’t mind trashing that heritage to vote for Biden, whom he called a “good man, a man of faith, a unifier, someone who understands the hopes and dreams of the common man and the common woman, a man who can help us to see the humanity in each other.”
Yes, if we wanted to base our vote on meaningless platitudes and poetry, this would be a convincing argument. But since we’re voting for a president we have to trust to guide this nation in the right direction – economically, militarily, and culturally – we’re going to have to take a pass. And if Kasich cared about anything as much as he does exacting revenge on Trump, he would as well.
Is Mitt Romney planning on giving a speech this week? Anyone heard from Jeff Flake lately? Just wondering how silly these festivities are going to get…
