A video of former Republican New Jersey Governor Chris Christie’s takedown of former President Donald Trump endorsing North Carolina gubernatorial candidate Mark Robinson amid this year’s election has taken off online on Sunday.
Robinson, the GOP lieutenant governor of North Carolina, has been a frequent presence at Trump’s campaign events in the state. However, Robinson’s gubernatorial campaign for the Tar Heel State was rocked by a CNN report on Thursday alleging that he made racist and sexist posts on a pornography site over a decade ago. Robinson has repeatedly denied writing the posts and has said he’ll stay in the race.
Robinson’s campaign communications director Mike Lonergan blamed the reported posts on Josh Stein, Robinson’s Democratic opponent, in a statement previously emailed to Newsweek on Friday.
“Everything Josh Stein [and] the Democrats say about Mark Robinson is either an outright lie or twisted so far out of context it might as well be,” Lonergan said. “The people of North Carolina have had enough lies from career politicians like Josh Stein—and that’s why they’ll elect Mark Robinson governor on November 5.”
In a Sunday interview with ABC News’ This Week, Christie, who has long been a critic of Trump, spoke on Robinson’s campaign and Trump’s endorsement of him.
“This was predictable. Mark Robinson’s tenure in public life has shown erratic, sometimes highly offensive statements over and over again and Donald Trump supported him and endorsed him. In fact, he called him better than Martin Luther King Jr. on steroids,” Christie said.
The former governor added: “This is the problem for us Republicans. As long as Donald Trump is your recruiting agent for candidates in swing states, we’re going to continue to get our rear ends handed to us and Mark Robinson is not going to win this race, can’t win this race…the fact is this is going to be a tough race no matter what.”
Christie’s remarks, posted to X, formerly Twitter, in a video by journalist Aaron Rupar, has garnered over 405,000 views and over 9,500 likes as of early Sunday afternoon.
Newsweek has reached out to Trump’s campaign via email and Robinson’s campaign via online email form for comment.
Roy Rochlin/Getty Images
On Saturday, Trump, the GOP presidential nominee, did not mention Robinson during a rally speech in Wilmington, North Carolina, in which the former president mentioned other North Carolina Republicans such as Senator Ted Budd and Representative Dan Bishop.
Following CNN’s report, the Trump campaign issued a vague statement that did not name Robinson but said North Carolina is a “vital part” of the plan to secure a second Trump victory.
Trump won the state in the 2016 and 2020 elections. However, his margin of victory in 2020 was slim with him receiving 49.9 percent of the vote and President Joe Biden getting 48.6 percent. Democrats are hoping to flip the state in favor of Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee, as Trump is currently only 0.2 points ahead of her (47.5 to 47.3 percent), according to poll aggregator FiveThirtyEight.
Christie’s remarks come after he said that while he will not vote for Trump in the 2024 election, he is still an undecided voter.
Christie appeared on The View earlier this month when co-host Sunny Hostin asked if he will vote for Harris.
After several minutes of praising Harris’ September 10 debate performance and “zingers” that derailed Trump, Christie replied, “Oh, I’m still an undecided voter.”
He added: “I understand you all want me to make some big announcement but what I will say to you is Donald Trump is not who I’m voting for.”
Despite his early support for Trump years earlier, Christie’s relationship with the former president remained complex. Christie continued to publicly support Trump’s policies and was seen as a loyal ally, although he occasionally made critical remarks.
However, in this year’s presidential primary, Christie emerged as a critic of Trump’s continued influence within the Republican Party. Christie, who went on to launch a presidential campaign, positioned himself as a candidate who would challenge the former president’s dominance and offer an alternative vision for the party.
In January, Christie dropped out of the race in hopes that it would boost then Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley’s chances as he said he was “going to make sure that in no way do I enable Donald Trump to ever be president of the United States again.”