Matt Trapani

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Jul 25, 2023, 8:37 PM

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Updated

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Chris Christie held a town hall event with Republican voters in New Hampshire on Monday that ran for more than two hours.

The former New Jersey governor is trying to persuade Republican voters that former President Donald Trump should not be the party’s nominee.

“If you like Donald Trump’s policies, why in the hell would you hire him to make sure they happened?” Christie asked the group.

Christie told the group that Trump did not live up to his promises.

“I am against him because he let us down on the issues he made us the biggest promises on,” Christie said.

The former governor also took swings against Republican South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott and Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.

Deep Dive: Former Gov. Christie gets presidential campaign boost

RELATED: Former Gov. Christie lays into Former Pres. Trump during televised town hall

Dr. Saladin Ambar is a political science professor at the Rutgers Eagleton Institute of Politics. He studied Christie as governor through the Rutgers Center on the American Governor.

“He was doing something Trump-like before Trump was even a real serious contender. So I think he appeals to that spirit of fighting,” Ambar says.

He says that he does not think that Christie can get through to Trump’s base. But he says that some might still be persuaded – Republicans who aren’t die-hard Trump supporters.

“What Christie is premising his whole campaign on is the idea that there will be a new world order in the Republican Party when Donald Trump faces conviction – when he’s on trial in front of the nation, and when his legal woes mount even further, there will be a necessity of looking for another candidate,” Ambar says.

Christie is expected to join DeSantis, Scott and others on Aug. 23 for the first Republican debate. It is still unknown whether Trump will skip the debate or attend.

Christie also said that Trump would lose a rematch to President Joe Biden.