Chris Christie DROPS OUT of the 2024 race and rips into ‘unfit’ Donald Trump: Republican suspends campaign and claims former president would have hid in a BUNKER during 9/11 to ‘protect himself’

Chris Christie dramatically announced Wednesday that he was withdrawing from the 2024 Republican presidential race, issuing an angry indictment of Donald Trump and telling his supporters he was determined to keep his former ally out of the White House.

“It is clear to me tonight that there is no path for me to win the nomination, and therefore tonight I am suspending my campaign for president of the United States,” Christie told supporters in Windham, New Hampshire.

It’s a stunning development that could be a big boost for Nikki Haley, as many Christie voters are now expected to support her.

But in extended remarks, Christie did not come close to expressing support for any of Trump’s remaining challengers. Instead, he defeated nameless contenders who didn’t have the ‘courage’ to go straight for the leader. And he mentioned Haley by name as among those unwilling to stand up to Trump.

He decried the “smallness of the campaigns that spend more time arguing and worrying about who should drop out of the race than they spent chasing the front-runner.”

He went after a campaign that he said isn’t “playing to win.” It is a campaign that ensures you do not offend.”

He said the country’s problems “will not be solved by people who are too afraid to talk about what the real problems are.”

In one of his most visceral attacks, he said Trump, a former New Yorker, would not have acted in the nation’s best interests if he had been in the Oval Office when terrorists flew planes into the trade towers.

“The first thing he would have done is run to the bunker to protect himself,” Christie said.

“Anyone who won’t say he’s unfit to be president of the United States is unfit to be president of the United States,” he said.

He blamed his rivals for failing to take on Trump.

“If Donald Trump becomes this party’s nominee, the moment that happened was when Nikki Haley, Ron DeSantis, Tim Scott, Mike Pence, Doug Burgum and Vivek Ramaswamy stood on that stage in Milwaukee in August and when we were asked if If you support someone who is a convicted felon and becomes president of the United States, they raise their hands,” he said.

Christie based his campaign on the fact that he was the most outspoken and aggressive opponent of the runaway frontrunner, former President Donald Trump.

But he was languishing in the polls and came under increasing pressure to back down and give Haley, who has been gaining momentum, a better chance of catching Trump.

On average, Christie was in fifth place in Iowa with 3 percent support.

He had staked almost his entire campaign on success in New Hampshire, the second state to vote on January 23. According to opinion polls, he was in third place there with 12 percent.

His shocking decision to withdraw came just a day after he rejected the idea that ending his presidential bid would help Haley defeat Trump.

Speaking at a barbecue restaurant in New Hampshire on Tuesday, he said: ‘I would like to get out of the way of anyone who actually stands up to Donald Trump. Why do we think she (Haley) would hit him? She’s not trying to beat him.”

He noted her support for pardoning Trump if one of his criminal trials ends in a conviction, and her refusal to rule out becoming Trump’s running mate if asked.

“Let’s just say I now dropped out of the race and endorsed Nikki Haley,” Christie said Tuesday.

“And in three months, in four months, when you’re ready to go to the convention, she’ll emerge as his vice president. What will I look like? What will all the people who supported her at my request look like?’

At his town hall event in New Hampshire on Tuesday, one of Christie’s constituents suggested he should consider quitting.

Greg Leach, 49, of Dover, told Christie he wants his vote to count and asked him about the need to unite around one anti-Trump candidate.

“I really want to vote for Christie, but strategically right now I feel like Nikki Haley is the right choice,” he said.

Leach said he was interested in what’s happening in Iowa, but wondered whether Christie should drop out sooner rather than later.

“I don’t want it to be too late and for Trump to end up winning because people waited too long,” he said.

Christie had insisted he would stay in the race as long as he saw a path to the nomination.

He had also said he would not make an endorsement based on politics, as he did when he supported Trump eight years ago.

“I’m not going to make the same mistake again,” he said. ‘Can it not.’

On Tuesday, a spokesperson for Haley’s political action committee said: “It’s time for voters to tell Christie what we all know, which is that his campaign isn’t holding anyone back and, quite frankly, it’s helping Trump, whom he proudly supported in 2016 and where he stands. supposedly against resistance. by 2024.’

But the calculations in recent polls signaled a way Christie could make an impact in his crusade to stop Trump after endorsing his former rival in 2016.

According to the latest CNN/University of New Hampshire poll, Trump was in the lead with 39 percent, while Hailing was only 7 points behind with 32 percent.

Christie was on 12 points. But if most of his supporters turned to Haley, it could give her a way to surpass Trump in the nation’s first primary.

Christie’s planned announcement came after a pro-Trump super PAC began hammering Haley with a new ad on immigration — in a move that responded to her rise in the polls.