Republican presidential candidate and former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie criticized the recent decision to kick former President Trump off the Maine primary ballot under the 14th Amendment.
“[I]t makes him a martyr,” Christie said on CNN Friday. “You know, he’s very good at playing ‘Poor me, poor me,’ he’s always complaining. The poor billionaire from New York who’s spending everybody else’s money to pay his legal fees.”
On Thursday, Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows (D) said she had concluded the former president “over the course of several months and culminating on January 6, 2021, used a false narrative of election fraud to inflame his supporters and direct them to the Capitol to prevent certification of the 2020 election and the peaceful transfer of power.” Bellows’ decision made Maine the second state to take such an action, after the Colorado Supreme Court last week via a 4-3 ruling.
Kicking Trump off the ballot is following the Constitution. Courts are supposed to decide without fear or favor. Christie doesn’t argue that Trump didn’t do it, but that he shouldn’t be held accountable for it.
They fear the precedent set. If we don’t let criminals play now it means the criminals might get punished more. Christie is one of those criminals
White collar criminals don’t really think that they’ll ever be held to account.
I think Christie is just doing his version of what all other Republicans are doing. He wants to win, even if it means ignoring the Constitution.
He’s smart enough to know he has no chance. Is he hoping for VP? Has he not realized Trump picks his associates based almost entirely on looks?
Trump may have enough dysmorphia to think he looks good and has a full head of hair, but—with the possible exception of Ghouliani and Trumps juniors—he surrounds himself with people who look good. Thankfully they aren’t chosen on intelligence, or the country would be in even worse shape.
He has not been proven guilty of insurrection in the court of law yet. This is why these laws will get struck down sadly and be good PR for Trump. He will say something along the lines “see they don’t want me to run Biggly unfair and blame it on Biden.
I don’t like it but we are treating him as guilty before a court judgement. Sucks but this is the court system in the US for better and worse
There are diverging legal views on whether Trump must actually be found guilty of the crime of “insurrection” before he can be deemed constitutionally ineligible to serve for having “engaged in” one. That’s one reason you need a decision from the Supreme Court.
Elections are civil proceedings, not criminal proceedings. Eligibility is purely a civil matter. It’s not like he needs a criminal court to prove he is over 35 years old to be eligible, right?
Give me a fucking break, he’ll make himself a martyr even if he wins the election.
He will make himself a dictator if he wins the election, and that’s essentially in his own words.
Anything that isn’t him being a dictator means he’s facing legal issues until the end of time, and will flog the martyr card until he dies
He is ancient, doesn’t take care of himself, eats only fast food, and mainlines diet coke 24/7. Time has to work for us eventually right?
Nope. It makes him a shunned traitor to his country. Nothing more.
No, it recognizes him as the CRIMINAL and the traitorous scum that he is.
He should be rotting in prison. Getting removed from ballots should be the very least of his concerns, if there was any justice in this country.
It can be both. His followers see him as a martyr.
What he should have said is this:
“On January 6, 2021 former President Donald Trump engaged in an insurrection against the United States. Under the 14th Amendment of the US Constitution Section 3, Colorado, Maine, and every other State in the nation should permanently remove him from the ballot because he is disqualified from running for office. Sadly this action might actually endear him to his supporters even more, but it is still the right thing to do.”
It frankly just doesn’t matter. Either we support the rule of law or we don’t. We can’t just pick and choose, when picking and choosing where justice applies is exactly what we’re trying to stop while we still can.
edit: Christie not understanding this basic idea is related to why he has an R by his name and not a D, incidentally. But at this point I’ll take the allies that come to hand, don’t care too much about letters atm when fascism is marching. Priorities and all. Trump is a Mussolini, and I don’t want to meet his Hitler.
Break the law, get the consequences. Not complicated.
They’ll say the same thing every time Trump suffers the consequences of his actions.
Just say “I want to lose.” That’s what all of you primary contenders actually mean. “I want to lose.” Everyone knows you want to lose. Just say it.
Christie knows he can’t win. He’s trying to rebuild his own image as the “reasonable” moderate conservative that have largely abandoned the Republican party. He’s hoping that Trump destroys himself, and the GOP is forced to take a long look in th mirror to confront its demons. And there he will be, saying “I told ya so.”
But he’s always been a fucking moron.
He didn’t tell anyone. He was latched onto Trump’s scrotum like a mating anglerfish until Trump finally cast him off when he began it chaffe. And Christie is neither moderate nor reasonable. He won’t win any more elections, and he has no power to broker anymore. If nothing else, the stunt with the bridge should have landed him in jail, but we don’t have a functioning justice system.
So he remains free, like a plastic wrapper from a twinkie someone discarded in a ShopRite parking lot, blown around by the wind, occasionally catching in the wheel of a shopping cart.
Basically all of the never Trumpers have just been auditioning for a pundit slot on CNN or MSNBC. They just love having the ‘moderate Republican’ on staff to fill out their panels.
Yep, for a supposed “liberal media”, the corporate media is just chock full of “moderate Republicans”. I’d sure like to find this so-called “liberal media”, let me tell ya.
Yep, the bar is basically ‘i don’t support a literal dictatorship’. Or even, ‘i probably would support one, but not with this clown’.
Given their both-sidering horse race nonsense, I’m not even convinced that they don’t support a literal dictatorship under donnie. I mean, the constant drumbeat of BidenSoOld and HunterBidenLaptop as a contrast to all the horribleness of both the con party/base and their beloved fascist leader donnie?
It’s almost designed to make the race at least close, if not put the favor on donnie’s side.
Hey Christie: I have a $3k bet on you dieing of a massive coronary during 2024. Thanks for not dieing in a pool of your own excrement in 2023 but how’s your time to shine you useless fucking hack.
Years not over yet.
I’ll take my chances, he needs to kick his pill use into overdrive already.
Everyone is a martyr if they choose to be. Is there anything more pathetic?
Get off the cross, Donald. We need the wood
This is the best summary I could come up with:
Chris Christie criticized the recent decision to kick former President Trump off the Maine primary ballot under the 14th Amendment.
On Thursday, Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows (D) said she had concluded the former president “over the course of several months and culminating on January 6, 2021, used a false narrative of election fraud to inflame his supporters and direct them to the Capitol to prevent certification of the 2020 election and the peaceful transfer of power.” Bellows’ decision made Maine the second state to take such an action, after the Colorado Supreme Court last week via a 4-3 ruling.
Trump’s occasional requests that rioters be peaceful and support law enforcement do not immunize his actions,” she said.
The weight of the evidence makes clear that Mr. Trump was aware of the tinder laid by his multi-month effort to delegitimize a democratic election, and then chose to light a match.”
Trump’s campaign has denounced the decision and called Bellows a “virulent leftist and a hyper-partisan Biden-supporting Democrat.”
“We are witnessing, in real-time, the attempted theft of an election and the disenfranchisement of the American voter,” Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung said.
The original article contains 289 words, the summary contains 192 words. Saved 34%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
I’d agree that if there’s no chance of making it stick, doing it at all just adds fuel to his fire.
