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Chris Christie IS NOT dropping out against Trump…Open Thread for 12/21/2023

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The former New Jersey Republican Governor and US Arttonernry keeps slugging away at his parties leader for the 20204 Presidential nomination….

Christie KNOW’s his chances at toppling Trump are slim to none….

But?

He IS a am on a mission  and has watched how the other sweepstakes contender’s have come around to embracing some of his charges against Donald Trump….

This while Biden and Co. watch with smiles and recording the knocks for possible later use?

Chris Christie arrived at an American Legion Post one night this month armed with zingers against his better-performing Republican presidential rivals. He criticized Nikki Haley’s “word salad,” mocked Ron DeSantis’s “TV tough guy talk” and claimed to be the “only one here trying to beat Trump.”

“I’m not going anywhere, so let’s be really clear about that,” he told reporters after the town hall, when asked about calls to drop out.

The former New Jersey governor’s determination to stay in the race as the most unsparing critic of Donald Trump while he ramps up attacks on his opponents has become a point of tension with some Republicans who are clinging to long-shot hopes of stopping the former president. After gaining little traction outside New Hampshire with his straight-talk campaign centered on preventing Trump from returning to power, Christie, a former Trump ally, is now accused by some Republican operatives of increasing that possibility by refusing to clear the way for alternatives now seen as more viable, most notably Haley….

…

Christie forcefully rejected that logic in an interview with The Washington Post on Tuesday, arguing that he is the only major Republican candidate who is making the case, every day on the campaign trail, that Trump is unfit to be president. He dismissed comparisons to 2016 — when he endorsed then-candidate Trump shortly after dropping out of the GOP primary race himself — by noting that Trump had not been indicted four times, wasn’t using language that threatened democracy and hadn’t yet tried to obstruct the results of an election to remain in power….

…

“There is no leader of the anti-Trump wing of the party in this race other than me,” Christie said, accusing Haley and DeSantis of tiptoeing around criticisms of Trump while positioning themselves for the 2028 nomination fight. He noted, for example, that neither of them immediately condemned Trump, as Christie did, for stating that immigrants are “poisoning the blood of our country.”….

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  2. What’s this craziness about New York considering legislation that would require Chic Fil A to open on Sundays?

    The dumbest damn thing I’ve heard lately.

  3. Just the very sort of thing that the huge army of right-wing agitators need to inflame the evangelical base..

    And liberals have stood up for the right of Muslims, Jews, Adventists and 7th Day Baptists to be able to stay away from work on their sabbaths (Friday and Saturday) if Christians can do so on Sunday.

    So absurd and outrageous that it looks like something deliberately concocted by The Onion.

  4. It’s limited to new locations on the reconstructing New York State Thruway and other state highways.

    The A.P. story reports that there are alternatives that do open on Sunday every current Chic fil-A location.

    ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — New York lawmakers have introduced a bill that would require restaurants in state highway system rest areas to operate seven days a week, a measure apparently aimed at interfering with a policy at the fast food chain Chick-fil-A of staying closed on Sundays.

    The bill, introduced last week, is yet another salvo in a yearslong political battle involving the company, whose late founder Truett Cathy infused its business practices with his conservative Christian values.

    Loved by many for its chicken sandwiches, but disliked by others over its founder’s opposition to same-sex marriage, Chick-fil-A has always kept its locations closed on Sundays so employees can enjoy time with their families and “worship if they choose,” according to the company’s website.

    While the bill, if passed, would apply to all restaurants, Chick-fil-A is mentioned by name in some written legislative materials explaining the justification for the proposed law.

    State Assemblymember Tony Simone, the Democrat who introduced the bill, said it is meant to give travelers in New York a variety of food options, including healthy foods, at rest stops, rather than an effort to eventually push Chick-fil-A out.

    “Look, if you want to eat fried chicken while traveling over the holidays, then Chick-fil-A should be open on Sundays,” Simone said.

    The bill wouldn’t immediately apply to restaurants currently operating — meaning the impact on existing Chick-fil-A locations would be limited — but would affect all future contracts for food concessions at transportation facilities owned by the state and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. It would exclude temporary concessions, like farmer’s markets.

    Email and phone messages left for Chick-fil-A spokespeople were not immediately returned….

    When the redevelopment project is complete, Chick-fil-A will operate in 10 service areas on the Thruway, which all have at least one other food option and a convenience store open seven days a week.
    …

    A.P. via US News

    • Thanks DSD………

      Ok?

      People traveling on Sunday get hungry also….

      Religious beliefs are fine….

      But?

      Business should be Business
      If the terms are 7 days a week?
      That’s the qualification to get a contract

      • He, he, he….

        Graham declares ‘war’ against NY to protect Chick-fil-A’s Sundays off

        Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) declared “war” Friday over a New York state bill that would require some Chick-fil-A restaurants to operate on Sundays.

        “This is war,” the Graham wrote on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter…..

        More…

  5. Nikki Haley went full Confederate last night at a New Hampshire town hall by refusing to say that the Civil War was caused by slavery.

    Instead Nikki babbled on about views of government or some other idiotic Rigamarole.The questioner said she was astonished Nikki didn’t even mention slavery ?Nikki plaintively replied what do you want me to say about slavery?

    This of course was very calculated on Nikki’s part.She understands that mentioning slavery as the cause of the Civil War doesn’t play well in S.C. among the yahoos who predominate in the Republican Party down here.( Nikki currently trails Trump in S.C. which is a must win state for this um “ moderate.”)

    Bill Kristol pointed out the irony of a Republican refusing to utter the word “ slavery,” the issue that led to the founding of the Republican Party.

    • Although in first-to-secede South Carolina Gov. Haley must be sensitive (within limits) to the great-grandchildren and great-great-grandchildren of those who fought for the Bonnie Blue Flag (that bore a single star), the dynamic among rock-ribbed ancestral Granite State Republicans is (or rather should be) exactly the diametric opposite: their equally-revered ancestors fought, suffered and died shouting The Battle Cry of Freedom (“although he may be poor, not a man shall be a slave…”)

      ** ** 1860 Presidential General Election Results – New Hampshire ** **

      1860 Presidential General Election Results – New Hampshire

      Presidential Candidate | Vice Presidential
      Candidate | Political Party |Popular Vote |Electoral Vote

      Abraham Lincoln Hannibal Hamlin Republican 37,519 56.90% 5
      Stephen Douglas Herschel Johnson Democratic 25,887 39.26% 0
      John Breckenridge Joseph Lane Southern Democrat 2,125 3.22% 0
      John Bell Edward Everett Constitution Union 412 0.62% 0

    • Quoting PoliticalWire’s account of The Messenger’s account of what Gov. Sununu said on CNN’s State of the Union is a horribly roundabout way of reporting what he said — the kind of 3rd and 4th hand account that is received very poorly in academia and journalism — where you would be told rather sharply to go straight to the source, which is what I just did, although I saw the interview directly on CNN last night

      Here is CNN’s own transcript of Governor Sununu’s interview with Dana Bash:

      SUNUNU: Yes, look, Chris Christie’s a friend, but his race is at an absolute dead end. He’s going to say anything he can.

      This is a two-person race, right? It’s between Trump and Nikki Haley. Everybody understands that. He knows his voters, who want to see Trump defeated, are all coming over to Nikki Haley. In fact, the only person that wants Chris Christie to stay in the race is Donald Trump, right? I mean, think about the irony of that.

      So the fact that Chris is out there trying to attack or trying to make ways, that’s not surprising. But, at the end of the day, this is a two-person race. And if — people are not just moving on from that issue. They’re really engaging with Nikki on where America goes, on what is about the future.

      Chris is only talking about Trump. That’s it.

      BASH: Well… SUNUNU: That’s — he’s kind of a one-man show. And I know he says he wants to stay in the race to speak the truth about Trump, but that translating to votes in a primary is a very different thing.

      And he’s hit a ceiling. And, right now, he probably won’t even get any delegates in the state of New Hampshire if the race were today. So, if Chris is true to his message about defeating Trump, he will understand that the voters are coming. I think he’s going to make the right decision eventually and ensure that this is a two-person race, where, if Trump can’t get 50 percent of the vote, which he cannot in New Hampshire, then he’s in trouble.

      And, finally, we can start moving forward as a party, bringing everyone together.

      BASH: Are you saying that he should drop out before the votes come?

      Because, as — you say it’s a two-person race, but, of course, it’s not. And there’s a question about whether Nikki Haley can beat Trump if Christie is in the race.

      SUNUNU: There’s no doubt that, if Christie stays in the race, the risk is that he takes her margin of the win, right?

      And so I think Chris is going to make a quick calculation. He’s really — obviously really upset all the pro-Trump people, right? I think he’s a smart guy. He wants to have a voice in this party. He doesn’t want to go forward upsetting all the anti-Trump people too because he kind of overstayed his welcome, put his ego first.

      So I just think he’s going to make the right decision in the end. He wants to make sure this party comes together. He — I think all these candidates know it’s always kind of a long shot. And at the end of the day, he’s — he’s — the only person moving is Nikki Haley. Chris Christie isn’t going to make up 30 points in the next three weeks, right?

      Nikki Haley can make up five or 10 points and kind of give Trump that defeat that no one thought was possible in the next few weeks. And I think that’s very likely to happen. So, again, I think the voters are going to come Nikki’s way. I think, ultimately, hopefully, Chris comes Nikki’s way. But that’s really a decision for Chris to make.

      BASH: Governor Chris Sununu of New Hampshire, thank you so much. Again, happy new year.

      SUNUNU: You bet. Happy new year.

      https://transcripts.cnn.com/show/sotu/date/2023-12-31/segment/01

      This whole interview is worth reading or viewing for Sununu’s earlier, rather ambivalent, remarks about his own un-Trump candidate, Nikki Haley, after her Civil War gaffe.

      • Thank You DSD…..

        I HAVE been saying here over and OVER that the media (editors) is NOT without guilt in whipsawing American politics to gain ‘hits’ and their ad revenue….

        • That response is complete inapropos and shows that you completely and utterly failed to understand what I was saying.

          Why copy and paste third-hand sources when you can show the original text (and let readers come to their own conclusions) ?

          It would not be tolerated in academia or the law, or since I suppose you aspire to practise it, journalism.

  7. Apparently Trump’s legal team as well as much of his campaign people have argued against releasing some report that allegedly showed all the “ corruption “ in the 2020 election.

    According to some of the above( legal and campaign) the so called “ report “ was a pack of “ nonsense.”

    Trump though understands the Republican Party much better than these people.

    They love “nonsense,” the crazier the better.

    Release the “ report.”

  8. Mediaite has published contents of a tape wherein well known Trump confidante Roger Stone seems to be plotting to kill Democratic Congressmen Jerry Nadler and Eric Swalwell.

    Stone was convicted of various crimes during Trumps administration but was pardoned by Trump .

    Stone epitomizes what the so called MAGA movement is all about…

    Lying, cheating, thievery ,general hooliganism and all in the name of

    Conservatism.

  9. And in the world of White trash….

    Republican Congresswoman Lauren Boeberts ex husband says she punched him numerous times in a confrontation between the two.

    Boebert,who made headlines awhile back after being kicked out of an event while groping her date , denies the accusation.

    She is running for reelection but in a different,presumably more friendly district .

    And yes , she has them “ conservative values.”

  10. Trump says he hopes the economy crashes in the next twelve months.

    That’s called “ Making America Great Again.”

  11. Dean Phillips????

    Quote of the Day

    “Sometimes if you build it, they don’t come.”

    —Rep. Dean Phillips (D-MN), when no voters showed up for a campaign event in New Hampshire.


  12. Republican Voters Can — and Should — Rethink Nominating Trump

    By THE EDITORS of NATIONAL REVIEW
    January 10, 2024 6:30 AM
    373 Comments

    To say Donald Trump is the front-runner for the Republican nomination is an understatement. He is above 60 percent in national polling averages and leads by roughly 30 points in Iowa. His lead is much narrower in New Hampshire, although the state, where Democrats and independents can vote in the GOP primary, is not necessarily predictive.
    Trump feels inevitable, but nothing is settled until Republicans actually caucus and vote. They would be well advised to opt for one of the alternatives who are far and away better on the merits, more likely to win in November, and, if elected, more likely to deliver — free from the wild drama of a second Trump term — conservative results.
    Trump’s defenders tend to dismiss the conservative criticisms of him as concerns about his “mean tweets,” or now, to be more accurate, his mean Truth Social posts. It’s true that his fulminations on social media are crude and ridiculous, but this isn’t the fundamental problem. Because he couldn’t bear to admit that he’d lost to Joe Biden in 2020 (after trailing him in every national poll), Trump insisted he’d won and did everything he could to overturn the result, including trying to bully his vice president into violating his oath and preventing and delaying the counting of the electoral vote. When a mob, fervently believing Trump’s lies, fought its way into the U.S. Capitol to try to end the count, Trump did little or nothing to try to stop it.

    These were infamous presidential acts and represented serious offenses against our constitutional order. Nothing can justify them, and it’s wrong to simply pretend that they didn’t happen. It’s impossible to imagine Ron DeSantis or Nikki Haley, whatever their other flaws, engaging in such grotesquely selfish behavior injurious to our republic. On this basis alone, both are vastly preferable to Trump.
    One reason no one has gotten much traction against Trump, besides the backlash against the indictments, is that the electability argument has been rendered null and void by his strong polling in a hypothetical matchup with President Biden. The Democrat is so weak he could lose to Trump, but the former president is still a risky bet compared with another Republican candidate without his baggage. As Biden demonstrated in his Valley Forge speech last week, Democrats plan to make the race all about Trump if he wins the nomination, in a repeat of their winning formula from 2020 and 2022. Nominating someone else would instantly deny the Democrats their most powerful weapon in the cause of winning an otherwise unthinkable Biden second term — Trump’s radioactive persona.
    In his first term, Trump notched some important conservative wins and even forged some creative victories (think the Abraham Accords). He’d be an enormous improvement over Joe Biden on many policy questions. But much energy would be wasted on his personal vendettas and fighting back against the Left’s sure-to-be-unhinged reaction to his return to the White House. He’d have trouble attracting talent to serve him. His bad instincts on trade and NATO, tendency to personalize everything including foreign relations, contempt for rules that get in his way, and erratic nature would risk real harm to the country. He’d be an easily distracted 78-year-old one-termer sure to get wiped out in the midterms, once again.
    Again, whatever their downsides, both DeSantis and Haley would avoid almost all these pitfalls. DeSantis, in particular, is an accomplished governor of a major state, with an impressive agenda of conservative reform under his belt. He is a serious-minded policy maven who wouldn’t fail as president for lack of discipline or knowledge.
    None of this is to deny the outrageous lengths to which the Left has gone to target Trump, most recently by denying him access to the ballot in two states, with perhaps more to come. Much of the GOP has rallied to Trump and considers the fire he draws from his enemies a sign of his strength and efficacy. The enemy of my enemy is my friend is one of the most ingrained dynamics of collective life. But Republicans have better friends available to them, who haven’t disgraced themselves by trying to deny the results of an election, who would be quite likely to vanquish Biden, and who would be capable presidents.
    It’s not too late to choose one of them, and forge a better path for the party and for the country.

    • The Editorial is nice……
      And useless…….
      Absent sickness or a criminal conviction?

      Trump IS gonna press on regardless..::

  13. Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D- Tex.)on Hunter Biden refusing to appear at a closed hearing of Republicans

    “Let me tell you why nobody wants to talk to you behind closed doors -because y’all lie.”

    • I think he gets a spending bill done and THEN he could be a gonner….

      Oh wait?

      There has to be a Foreign Aid bill also

      The Democrats will have to work to bond with some House GOPer’s to het around the Right Wing Nuts who are working to make sure Jeffies is the new Speaker come January….

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