Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie entered the Republican primary race, launching his second presidential campaign. Christie took aim at former President Donald Trump as he announced his candidacy Tuesday night at a town hall at the New Hampshire Institute of Politics in Manchester. Said Christie: “The person I am talking about who is obsessed with the mirror, who never admits a mistake, who never admits a fault and will always find someone else — and something else — to blame for whatever goes wrong but finds every reason to take credit for anything that goes right is Donald Trump.”

In 2016, Christie ran against Trump for the GOP nomination but dropped out after he finished sixth in the New Hampshire primary. Trump and Christie became allies, with Christie heading up Trump’s presidential transition team until shortly after the election. However after Trump refused to concede his loss in 2020, Christie became a vocal GOP critic.

Christie was the U.S. attorney for New Jersey from 2002 to 2008 under President George W. Bush, and then served two terms as New Jersey governor from 2010-2018, but came under scrutiny after a political scandal in 2013 involving lane closures at the George Washington Bridge dubbed “Bridgegate” – allegedly retaliation against a Democratic mayor who refused to endorse Christie’s re-election. Christie allies were sentenced to short prison terms in 2017 after a jury determined that they had shut down two of the three lanes leading to the bridge, resulting in a monumental traffic jam in Fort Lee, New Jersey.

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