Christie ends presidential campaign, says Nikki Haley is 'gonna get smoked'
Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie ended his 2024 presidential campaign on Wednesday, having drawn much attention as the Republican primary's main Donald Trump critic but failing to gain widespread traction in the polls.
"I would rather lose by telling the truth than lie in order to win," he said during a town hall event where he announced he was suspending his bid, which he called "the right thing for me to do."
"Because I want to promise you this: I am going to make sure that in no way do I enable Donald Trump to ever be president of the United States again -- and that's more important than my own personal ambition," he said. "So we have to decide now, we have to decide in the next 10 months who we want to be as a country."
Christie's exit is a notable twist in the closing days of campaigning before voting begins in the Republican primary starting with Iowa on Monday.
Ahead of his announcement at the town hall, the former governor was heard on a microphone -- apparently without realizing it -- saying that rival Nikki Haley was "gonna get smoked ... she's not up to this." Christie also said that Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, another 2024 candidate, had called him and was "petrified."
"We couldn't have been any clearer. We couldn't have been any more -- any more direct or worked any harder," Christie was heard saying before his speech.
This was Christie's second campaign for the nation's highest office. He ran in 2016 before suspending his bid and endorsing Trump, who went on to win the White House later that year.
Christie led Trump's transition team and advised him while in office before eventually becoming one of Trump's most vocal detractors within the GOP.
He defined his 2024 primary campaign in large part around renouncing Trump, calling his past support of the former president a "mistake" but arguing that Trump was the lesser of two evils in 2016 and 2020.
In December, he described Trump as acting like someone "who wants to be a dictator" and "doesn't care" about democracy or the Constitution.
On the trail, Christie, with a brash New Jersey attitude and penchant for straight-talking town halls, banked heavily on doing well in New Hampshire's first-in-the-nation primary on Jan. 23. He hoped success with the state's avowedly independent-minded voters would be a catalyst for a meaningful challenge against Trump, who remains the front-runner.
Christie skipped out on campaigning for the Iowa caucuses, set for Monday.
"I need your support to be able to keep this going," he told potential voters in New Hampshire earlier this week. "I want to stand up to Donald Trump, and that's what I've been doing every day of this campaign."
Christie's pitch to Republican voters still enamored of Trump was that it was time for the country and the party to move on. In his stump speeches, he frequently cited Trump's 91 state and federal criminal charges -- all of which Trump denies - and his election denialism as disqualifying for a presidential candidate.
Trump, for his part, dismissed Christie as a candidate and a former governor.
In recent weeks, Christie resisted mounting chatter about him leaving the race as more polls indicated that it was former U.N. Ambassador Haley with momentum against Trump in New Hampshire. Haley, Christie argued, had been too reluctant to directly attack Trump.
"As long as I think I got a chance to win this thing, I'm gonna fight every day to try to win. And with your help two weeks from tonight, we could shock the world if we do that," he said in New Hampshire this week.
Of Haley, he said, "Whenever I came to the conclusion if I didn't see a path to me winning, she has to earn my support. Not just because she's the only one left standing against Donald Trump."
Christie often found himself as an outlier among his primary opponents. As a supporter of Ukraine's war against Russia's invasion, he was one of two GOP candidates to visit the country in August even as more and more Republicans have questioned the value of continued military aid over other priorities.
As a former leader of a blue state, Christie also struck a more nuanced tone on some social issues compared with other primary hopefuls. He promised not to sign a six-week national abortion ban if one reached his desk as president -- albeit after avoiding directly answering the question for months.
Christie also criticized bills pushed by other conservatives, like DeSantis, that sought to stop parents from acquiring hormone therapy and other gender-affirming care for transgender children. He referred to supporters of such laws, derisively, as "big government conservatives."
ABC News' Oren Oppenheim contributed to this report.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
