RNC Debate Rule May Stop Chris Christie, Rubio’s Killer, From Doing The Same To Trump

The man who dismantled Sen. Marco Rubio on stage at a 2016 Republican presidential debate could prevent him from doing the same to the former coup president donald trump under rules the Republican National Committee is considering for its 2024 primary debates.

Chris Christie, the former New Jersey governor and loyal Trump supporter who broke with him over his words and deeds after the 2020 election, is expected to announce his presidential campaign next week. He has said openly that he plans to confront Trump about his “stolen” election lies and his actions before and during the storming of the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, even as other candidates have avoided criticizing Trump. absolutely.

“If it takes a bully to beat a bully?” a Christie aide said on condition of anonymity, acknowledging criticism of her brash personality. “At least Chris believes in the system. He has read the Constitution.

But such a matchup may not come to pass because of a proposed requirement that candidates must have at least 40,000 unique donors to make the first scheduled debate in August, a threshold Christie, who had a hard time raising small donations when she ran in 2016, they will not be able to meet in just two months.

“I definitely believe that the RNC rules were created to help Trump,” said Tim Miller, former director of communications for the RNC.

“In 2020, the RNC canceled 22 primaries and caucuses to protect their king,” said Joe Walsh, the former Republican congressman who ran against Trump in the 2020 primary. “This time they can’t cancel primaries and caucuses. , but they will still go to great lengths to protect their king, such as making it as difficult as possible for challengers to debate over it. Yes, the RNC will do everything possible to keep Christie and any other candidate critical of Trump out of the picture.”

The RNC denied there was any attempt to help Trump, despite the fact that the chairman of the party’s debate committee, David Bossie, was a top adviser to the Trump campaigns in both 2016 and 2020.

Bossie did not respond to inquiries from HuffPost on the matter.

Ronna McDaniel, who was handpicked by Trump as party chair after his victory in 2016 but won her third two-year term on her own earlier this year, in a recent foxnews interview declined to comment on sniping between Trump and 2024 Republican nominee Ron DeSantis, the governor of Florida. “We have to remain neutral here in the RNC,” he said.

Oscar Brock, an RNC member from Tennessee, said he doubts Bossie will be allowed to take sides in the primary. “Frankly, I can’t imagine the rest of the committee members would allow Bossie to tip the scales in favor of his friend Trump,” Brock said.

“That being said, it was indeed a strange appointment for Ronna to appoint Bossie to the chair of the debate committee. He can promise that he will be neutral in the primaries, but no one believes him. His actions belie his words,” he added.

Meanwhile, even anti-Trump Republicans and Christie supporters agree the party has a legitimate need to encourage small contributions from a broader universe of donors to try to catch up. democratswho outperformed many Republican candidates in the 2022 midterms thanks to contributions of $5, $20 and $50.

“This is not about Christie or any particular current or potential candidate, but about the RNC and GOP candidates recognizing that they need to expand their small-dollar giving efforts,” said former RNC Chairman Michael Steele. “The party has sadly lagged behind the DNC in small-dollar fundraising since 2010. With so much recent emphasis on major donors and billionaires picking their individual favorites, the bottom-up impact of small donors on local, state and federal elections. This is a smart/strategic fundraising move by the NCR.”

Steele added that a large number of Americans in general, not just Republicans, would like to see Christie gut Trump in a debate and that Christie could take advantage of that sentiment to reach the single donor threshold. “That’s why it won’t be a problem for him,” she said.

However, raising money from many people in small increments would be a dramatic change in Christie’s approach. Of the $8.7 million she raised in 2016, less than $500,000 came from small donors who gave $200 or less, according to Federal Election Commission documents. In an October 2015 review of Common Cause, Christie ranked fifth from bottom among the two dozen 2016 nominees for the small dollar fundraiser.

And failure to reach the 40,000 donor mark in time to reach the stage of the August debate in Milwaukee could, in turn, thwart Christie’s ability to raise his profile, resulting in a failure to reach the threshold. proposed 50,000 donors for the September debate in California or the 60,000 threshold for the October one in Alabama.

The Christie adviser said he had learned a lot from the failure of his 2016 campaign and spent the past four years building relationships with state and local Republican groups to build his list of small donors. The adviser said he himself would help raise $5 in donations to help Christie get on stage.

“However, we will definitely have 40,000 people. I’m not worried about it,” he said.

In any case, the 40,000 threshold would not pose a challenge solely to Christie. Other candidates who declare between now and August that they are not well known nationally could also have a hard time meeting that criteria, including North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum and New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu. Ron DeSantis of Florida, former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley and US Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina appear to have 40,000 donors. Biotech businessman Vivek Ramaswamy’s campaign said it had already surpassed that mark by about 3,000.

A Republican familiar with the discussions said a proposal being considered would allow candidates who helped a Republican national committee, such as the RNC or the Senate Republican National Committee, to raise money by allowing them to submit applications under their names to count resulting donors. . towards the threshold of debate.

Of course, even if Christie makes it to the first debate, it’s unclear if he can successfully defeat Trump like he did Rubio.

“I think the narrative of the media debate scenario is ahead of reality,” Miller said. “I don’t think it’s safe for Trump to participate at this stage and I wouldn’t be surprised if his team tried to use leverage to get additional concessions.”

In 2016, Rubio hoped to improve on his third-place finish in the Iowa caucus in the New Hampshire primary. However, in the February 6, 2016 debate, Christie mocked and humiliated the Florida senator for repeating a memorized line about President Barack Obama wanting to weaken the United States.

“There it is. There it is. The 25-second memorized speech. There it is, everyone,” Christie said after Rubio repeated the line about Obama one more time.

Rubio, who had expected to win or place second, finished fifth at New Hampshire. Meanwhile, Christie withdrew from the race the day after the primary and endorsed Trump two weeks later, becoming Trump’s highest-profile supporter.

Christie continued to endorse Trump and publicly defend him, even after Trump summarily dismissed all of the work Christie had done on the possible transition. Heading into the 2020 election, Christie was still endorsing Trump and even played Democrat Joe Biden during the presidential debate warmup sessions.

Yet in the past two years, Christie has become one of the most outspoken critics of Trump who continue to call themselves a Republican. In a recent podcast Produced by political advisers allied to Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell, Christie said he intends to make Trump’s character, or lack thereof, one of his key criticisms. He recounted how Trump, despite having tested positive for COVID, continued with a debate prep session that likely infected not only Christie but several of his top aides as well. The disease landed Christie in the hospital and nearly killed him.

“He tested positive on Saturday morning and then he came into the room with the six of us and never said anything to us. He never told us anything,” Christie said, adding that Trump, after recovering from his own COVID hospitalization, lied to reporters on Air Force One and told them that Christie had infected him.

But while Rubio was clearly shocked by Christie’s scolding, it’s unclear if Trump would respond in kind.

“Rubio is a different beast than Trump,” the Christie adviser said, admitting that using childish insults to attack his opponents was a Trump strength. “I think Chris can bring the pressure to Trump… If you take Trump out of the race, that helps America. If Trump is president again, it will be a nightmare for America and the world.”

Fergus Cullen, the former chairman of the New Hampshire state party, said he’s not sure Christie could defeat Trump that easily, but there was only one way to know for sure. “He’s saying things in public that need to be said in public,” Cullen said. “If he will leave a mark, let’s try to find out.”