Former failed presidential candidate and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie reminisced about his decision not to run against President Barack Obama in the 2012 presidential election and said that, if he had, he may have put up a fight.
Christie was a popular political figure in 2012, but his star quickly fell amid the so-called “Bridgegate” scandal, with his reputation hitting new lows when he ran for president during the 2016 election, which was followed by him being photographed on a state-run beach during New Jersey’s government shutdown.
But in the midst of remembering the good times, the former governor claimed during a segment of Morning Joe on Tuesday that if he had decided to run for president in 2012 the race against Obama would have been a “jump ball.”
“I had a quaint, which now seems antiquated, view that you had to be ready to be president,” he said, talking about his newly-released book. “I felt like I had been governor for 15 months and… I just felt like I have no business running for president of the United States after being governor of New Jersey for 15 months. I’m not ready. I understood the political moment and I understood that I probably had a pretty good chance to certainly win the nomination, and then who knows what would have happened against Barack Obama–you know, it’s probably a jump ball.”
He added:
“But I made the decision that I needed in my heart to believe that I was ready, mature enough, prepared enough, to take on the most important job in the world. So I have no regrets.”
People online didn’t think that was an accurate idea of what would have happened.
Funniest line of the year is @ChrisChristie on @Morning_Joe saying the race would have been a “jump ball” if he had ran against @BarackObama for POTUS in 2012. #MSNBC
— Larry Lamb (MN) (@Larry_Lamb_MN) January 29, 2019
Lol…Chris Christie thinks him running against Obama would have been a “jump ball” in ’12?! #MorningJoe pic.twitter.com/FtQvkugYvs
— https://www.threads.net/@zdudeness (@ZDudeness) January 29, 2019
Just watched Chris Christie on @Morning_Joe & can’t believe what hypocrisy is coming out of his mouth. He thought he’d have done better than Obama? I thought he failed miserably @ being the Governor! Who is he to talk??
— DL Hamilton (@DLHamilton5) January 29, 2019
@Morning_Joe @ChrisChristie @morningmika Hey Chris, Not being nasty here, but if 2012 would have been a jump ball between you and Barack, you’d lose by about 8 feet.
— Michael Gordon (@mngordo) January 29, 2019
https://twitter.com/abronxchick/status/1090230715634073600
Chris Christie just said on #MorningJoe that if he had run for president against Barack Obama in 2012 it “probably would have been a jump ball.” LOL. #InHisDreams
— William Ferrall 🌊 🌊 🌊 (@wmferrall) January 29, 2019
@ChrisChristie blah blah. If a run against Obama would’ve been a jump ball then why didn’t you get in the ring. Get over yourself! #morningjoe
— Mista Charles (@iMistaCharles) January 29, 2019
You can watch all of Christie’s comments about his possible 2012 run here.
READ MORE:
