Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie said Tuesday if he had been the 2012 Republican nominee against then-President Barack Obama, the White House race would have been a “jump ball.”
“I understood the political moment, and I understood that I probably had a pretty good chance to certainly win the nomination,” Christie said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.” “And then who knows what would have happened against Barack Obama? You know, probably it was a jump ball.”
Christie appeared on the program to promote his new memoir, Let Me Finish.
Christie was initially viewed as a front-runner for the 2012 GOP nomination. But having won the governorship less than two years earlier, Christie bowed out. Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney eventually won the GOP nod, but lost decisively in the fall to Obama.
Christie did enter the 2016 Republican fray, but dropped out after finishing toward the back of the pack in the New Hampshire primary. He then endorsed Donald Trump, the eventual GOP nominee and winner in November.
Christie on Tuesday said he did not regret electing not to run against Obama four years earlier.
“I just felt like I have no business running for president of the United States after being governor of New Jersey for 15 months,” Christie said. “I’m not ready.”
Christie’s theory of the case, particularly his basketball analogy, drew mockery on Twitter.
Watching @Morning_Joe on delay: Gov. @ChrisChristie returns to the thoroughly laughable Obama-was-only-a-state-senator frame in the context of explaining Trump’s initial political inexperience and his own support for Trump. Unreal.
— David Swerdlick (@Swerdlick) January 29, 2019
#ChrisChristie says that if he’d run against @BarackObama in 2012, it would’ve been “a #jumpball.” Actually, he’s absolutely correct.
…He’d have had exactly as much chance of beating #Obama at the polls as he would have in beating him at #basketball.https://t.co/IuUStBkYwF— Jonah Blank (@JonahBlank) January 29, 2019
ah, to have the confidence of chris christie https://t.co/UMvdPk2cH3
— Paige Lavender (@paigelav) January 29, 2019
