‘Conservatives are very nervous about Chris Christie,’ says the leader of one activist group, with judgeships and top White House jobs potentially at stake.
But behind the scenes, there’s an insurrection-in-the-making among powerful conservative groups in Washington that are skeptical of Christie’s leadership and want to exert influence over the process of filling roughly 4,000 jobs as part of a new administration, to say nothing of top White House slots and judgeships.
.. “For his judicial nominees as the New Jersey governor, he appointed a bunch of liberals, or he treated the nominations like political payoff positions. It is the type of approach that would be devastating for Trump to have Christie, as attorney general, picking judges or applying the same approach to fill key regulatory positions in the EPA or Treasury Department.”
.. one person on the Trump transition told POLITICO that there is simmering tension between the team’s conservative and moderate Republicans, who have vastly different visions for a future Trump White House.
.. Other conservative activists say they feel best about Christie’s leadership of the transition team when he’s surrounded by conservatives, such as Becky Norton Dunlop and Ed Feulner of The Heritage Foundation.
“Looking at the totality of the transition team, I am comfortable,” another leader of a conservative activist group said.
.. Reservations about Christie persist among some in Trump’s inner circle, including with son-in-law Jared Kushner Because, as U.S. Attorney, Christie successfully prosecuted Kushner’s father, Charles Kushner, for tax evasion and witness tampering.
.. Trump is a Northeasterner. He likes Christie and [Rudy] Giuliani. They talk like him. It’s a cultural thing.”
.. As far as Bridgegate is concerned, there’s a general sense in Trump world that Christie can survive the courtroom drama unfolding in New Jersey, barring any devastating revelations. “His scandal in relation to both candidates’ current issues is a walk in the park,” one Republican said. “As far as scandals go, Christie’s looks the least damaging.”
..Clay Johnson, the head of George W. Bush’s transition team, told reporters at a recent even:, “Gov. Christie is the chairman of the transition, but the person driving all of the work is Rich Bagger.”
Girl Talk at Trump Tower
Every minute of every day, Trump debunks that old “science” when he shows that the gossipy, backbiting, scolding, mercurial, overly emotional, shrewish, menopausal one in this race is not the woman.
Trump is surrounded by a bitchy sewing circle of overweight men who are overwrought at the prospect of a distaff Clinton presidency.
Newt Gingrich, Chris Christie, Roger Ailes and Rudy Giuliani are the Really Desperate Housewives of Trumpworld.
.. A witness at the infamous bridge trial painted Christie as a vengeful and manipulative she-devil
.. Ailes was supposed to help prep Trump for the first debate, but he was too busy pouting on his fainting couch about losing his job.
.. Her longtime Arkansas friend Jim Blair told the paper her response to “bimbo eruptions,” as they were called, was: “These people are not going to run over us.” This, even though in case after case, Bill Clinton would later admit the women were telling the truth.
.. Women are known as having more tender feelings, but no one on the planet is more thin-skinned than Trump.
.. Trump’s team wants to prepare him for the second debate with an actual rehearsal — as opposed to coming up with zingers over cheeseburgers and Cokes. They want to toss him questions that will get under his skin, so that next time he doesn’t let his emotions get the better of him and go all PMS
Trump’s VP Choices
By Christie’s own admission from a few years ago, he isn’t qualified to be president because of his lack of preparation on foreign policy, and that remains true today. Christie would be a comprehensively terrible choice, and so it is entirely possible that he will be Trump’s selection.
Chris Christie Becomes Powerful Figure in Donald Trump Campaign
Four months after endorsing Mr. Trump, Mr. Christie remains one of the few major figures in the Republican establishment to align himself entirely with Mr. Trump’s candidacy. In public, he has defended Mr. Trump’s freewheeling and sometimes offensive pronouncements, vouching for him even after Mr. Trump attacked a federal judge for his Mexican heritage. (Mr. Christie said he knew from personal experience that Mr. Trump was not a racist.)
.. Behind the scenes, Mr. Christie has prodded his fellow governors and Republican political donors to line up behind a candidate many view with distaste. He has made only modest headway in the last few months: Mr. Trump has struggled badly with fund-raising, and Mr. Christie has pleaded with donors in personal phone calls and at fund-raising events to give him a second look.
.. At a breakfast fund-raiser in Manhattan last week, Mr. Christie cajoled reluctant donors to back Mr. Trump, arguing that giving anything less than enthusiastic support would be a de facto vote for Hillary Clinton.
.. Mr. Christie’s new role is a stark transformation from a boastfully independent blue-state politician determined to win over female, Hispanic and Asian voters, to the right-hand man of the most culturally polarizing presidential candidate in a generation.
.. Mr. Christie has also acknowledged to friends that Mr. Trump seized much of the political space Mr. Christie had hoped to occupy in his own presidential run — that of a blunt leader with an expansive media profile and a forceful message on terrorism.
.. Mr. Trump thanked Mr. Christie for his political advice and his sophisticated grasp of government — and, perhaps most of all, for his part in demolishing Senator Marco Rubio’s presidential campaign.