GOP DISINTEGRATION: Chris Christie joins Pence in pinning Jan 6th blame on Trump
The Republican Party is falling apart right before our very eyes and they only have themselves — and Donald Trump — to blame.
Having censured the only two Republican representatives in the House who seem willing to investigate the violent insurrection of the Capitol last January 6th, having hitched their fortunes to a proven liar with a vindictive streak a mile long, having abandoned any commitment to reality in favor of self-serving lies, as well as a host of other transgressions, some prominent members of the GOP are beginning to question the wisdom of their party’s self-destructive path and are trying to bring their partisan colleagues back to reality.
First, former Vice President Michael Pence addressed the arch-conservative members of the Federalist Society on Friday and declared in no uncertain terms that Donald trump was dead wrong in believing that his veep had any authority to unilaterally reject the results of a legitimately conducted election.
“President Trump is wrong,” Pence told the right-wing legal organization. “I had no right to overturn the election.”
Now, the man who helped coach Trump through his debate prep for his disastrous first televised encounter with Joe Biden — and likely caught a bad case of COVID from the former president for his troubles — has joined Pence in turning on their former ally.
In an appearance on ABC News‘ This Week Sunday morning news program, former New Jersey governor Chris Christie put the blame for the insurrection squarely in the hands of the former reality TV host-turned-politician.
This Week host Martha Raddatz asked Christie why Mike Pence decided to break so definitively from the claims of election fraud being made by his former boss.
“Well, look, Martha, I think that the actions the vice president took on January 6 spoke loudly, Christie began his reply. “And I’m glad he’s finally put words to it. I don’t know why it took him so long, but I’m glad that he did.”
It was Christie’s next statement that metaphorically thrust the knife deeply in Trump’s back and twisted it mercilessly.
“And let’s face it, let’s call this what it is, January 6th was a riot that was incited by Donald Trump in an effort to intimidate Mike Pence and the Congress into doing exactly what he said in his own words last week, overturn the election,” the former governor asserted.
“Now, he’s tried to do a cleanup on aisle one here in correcting that stuff, but it’s not going to change. He actually told the truth by accident. He wanted the election to be overturned,” Christie declared.
Christie still had one last devastating comment to make about the man whom he worked so hard to help elect.
“Donald Trump did respond to what the vice president said. And I think it’s kind of akin to the kid standing in the corner holding his breath. You know, it’s immature and it’s beneath the office that he held,” Christie dropped the mic with this last line.
It was more than just Donald Trump himself that Chris Christie was condemning on ABC News this morning, however.
He also set his sights on the latest blunder from the Republican National Committee in sanctioning Representatives Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger for their participation on the House Select Committee on January 6th and in particular the RNC’s decision to characterize the violent insurrection at the Capitol as “legitimate political discourse.”
“Let’s just remember something. This is just a majority of 168 people,” Christie said of the GOP’s party leadership. “And the RNC, most of those folks, were put into place over the course of the four years by Donald Trump. And so, it’s certainly Ronna Romney McDaniel is carrying water for Donald Trump in this regard. And so, let’s not make it bigger than it is,” he explained.
“I think that there’s two mistakes here by the RNC beside the obvious ones we’ve already discussed. First of all, they say that part of the reason for the resolution is they want to keep the focus on Joe Biden and the failures of the Democratic administration. Well, how did that work for you? All anybody is talking about this weekend is this resolution rather than talking about the failures of the Biden administration,” Christie perceptively noted.
Christie then went on to essentially claim that the cult surrounding Donald Trump is losing the enthusiasm it once had at the grassroots level of the GOP.
“And secondly, it’s not picking up on what is, I sense, around the country, from traveling around, a shift that is occurring, which is that people are tired of hearing about the 2020 election from Donald Trump and from some who support him. And what they want to hear about is, what are the Republicans’ solutions for 2022, for what’s the Democrats in Congress and White House are doing to the country and not doing for the country,” he said.
The split between the full-MAGA wing of the Republican Party and the pragmatic opportunists who fear that the madness of King Donald threatens the party’s chances of electoral success could not be more clearly delineated than by this repudiation of Trump by Christie, coming so soon after Pence’s fateful return to reality.
You can watch a clip of former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie’s appearance on ABC News‘ This Week in the video below.
.@GovChristie says Jan. 6 “was a riot that was incited by Donald Trump” in an effort to intimidate then-Vice Pres. Pence and Congress.
“He wanted the election to be overturned.” https://t.co/AAG4Zr9ytk pic.twitter.com/9BqInL7fEV
— This Week (@ThisWeekABC) February 6, 2022
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