Christie says he’ll follow Trump ‘around the country’ if former president doesn’t debate

GOP presidential candidate Chris Christie vowed Sunday to follow former President Trump “around the country” if the former president does not debate.

“Well, if he doesn’t do any of the debates, Howie, you know, we’re going to give him another chance,” he told Fox News’s Howard Kurtz on “Media Buzz.” “I’m sure he’s not coming to the Reagan debate. We’ll give him another chance in Alabama. But if he doesn’t come there, then I’m going to follow him around the country. Wherever he goes, I’ll go. And we’ll wind up talking to each other one way or other. And he knows that’s true.”

When pushed further on the topic, Christie confirmed he would change his schedule to follow Trump around.

Trump skipped the first GOP presidential debate last month, opting instead to sit for an interview with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter. The former president’s allies have already signaled that he plans to skip the second debate, which will be hosted Sept. 27 by Fox Business at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, Calif.

Republican candidates will need to again meet donor and polling requirements to qualify for the second debate. They will need to have a minimum of 50,000 unique donors, including 200 donors in 20 states or more each, and need to be polling at a minimum of 3 percent in two national polls or poll at 3 percent in one national poll and 3 percent in two polls conducted in two early states.

Christie, the former governor of New Jersey, has been one of the harshest critics of Trump in the Republican primary race. Kurtz asked the former governor if he has been “selling” Repubicans as he attacks the former president, also questioning whether Christie is just telling voters what they “want to hear about Trump.”

“You know, first, you have to make sure that you distinguish yourself from the front-runner, and I’m doing that. But also, you’ve got to tell people about what you’re for and what your experience will get them a chance to do,” he said.

“The American people are tired of being lied to,” he added. “They’re tired of being lied to by Joe Biden when he said the other day that he’s reduced the deficit when, in fact, he’s going to double the deficit this year. They’re tired of being lied to by Donald Trump when he says the election in 2020 was stolen, and that’s all he wants to talk about going forward is that and the fact that he’s out on bail in four different jurisdictions.”