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As a large guy myself, I really appreciate other guys who are on the larger size but are nimble on their feet. You haven’t known anxiety until you’ve been an obese father of the bride expected to dance like Fred Astaire with your daughter with all eyes on you.
It encourages sobriety.
So, today I really appreciated former Gov. Chris Christie’s graceful pirouette from the position he took early this morning on MSNBC’s Morning Joe that he wasn’t going to weigh in on the Rep. Jim Jordan’s (R-OH) candidacy for House Speaker to a position he took just hours later that Jordan should stand down.
Christie’s recalibration came on CNBC before today’s second vote where the insurrectionist and election denier from Ohio came up short.
At breakfast, under close interrogation from Mika Brzezinski about his view on Jordan’s candidacy Christie refused to take a position observing that as Governor he had learned that “legislative folks want to make their own call on this, their own judgement” and that he reasoned the Republican House caucus didn’t “want somebody who is either president or wants to be president to be telling them what to do.”
Christie doubled down in response to a follow up by Morning Joe panelist John Heilemann.
“I am not getting involved and part of the background of me not getting involved, I don’t know Jordan. I have never met him…I am not getting involved in the race because I don’t have a vote and they don’t like it when you try and get involved in this and it’s not constructive,” Christie opined.
A few hours later on CNBC Christie declared Jordan should throw in the towel if he lost the second roll call vote that was pending.
Christie told Squawk on the Street that the prolonged intramural GOP contest for House Speaker made “my own party looks childish.” Christie declared on “Squawk on the Street.
The former New Jersey Governor and presidential hopeful accurately predicted Jordan would fall short which he did, losing a vote from the 200 he had yesterday. (Jordan, who was one of the 147 members of Congress to vote against certifying the 2020 election AFTER the violent insurrection, managed to hold on to the support of New Jersey’s three Republican House members Tom Kean, Chris Smith, and Jeff Van Drew.)
All 212 House Democrats continued to unanimously support their leader Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY)
“I do think that after this second vote, if he doesn’t get it, I think it’s incumbent upon him to do what Steve Scalise did, which is say, ‘OK, it’s not me,’ step aside and let’s see who’s next,’” Christie told CNBC. “What I would say is, just get a speaker. You know, we have Israel aid, Ukraine aid, aid to Taiwan, border security and a budget all to get done. And none of that can get done without a speaker.”
On Morning Joe, Christie did say the removal of Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) “was a mistake” and that the deposed Speaker hadn’t done anything “that should have necessitated his removal from office.”
Christie continued. “Those eight folks decided to remove him really for personal reasons to support Matt Gaetz who doesn’t like him because he wouldn’t rig the ethics investigation for Matt Gaetz. Let’s be honest. That’s what it was. It’s nothing more than that.”
Christie, who has yet to break through in New Hampshire, continues to try and distinguish himself as his party’s fiercest critic of former president Donald Trump who he supported very earnestly in 2016 and 2020.
While he did initially duck the question about Jordan’s candidacy for House Speaker, he was refreshingly unequivocal in expressing his support for President Joe Biden’s response to the Gaza crisis.
“I think it was the right thing for the president to do to go over there and to show physical solidarity with the Israelis,” Christie said. “I think that’s an important message to send. I know he wanted the trip to be more than that but, in the end, the most important thing for him to do right now is to show the rest of the world that we stand solidly with Israel. I think his physical presence helps to convey that better than anything else would.”
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