Chris Christie is not closing the door on his presidential ambitions just yet.
The former New Jersey governor indicated in an interview on “Good Morning America” that he had not ruled out the prospect of standing on the No Labels ticket.
He explained:
Well, what I’ve said in the past is that, I’d have to see a path for anybody, not just me, but I think anybody who would accept that would need to see a path to 270 electoral votes. If there was ever a time in our lifetime when a third-party candidate could make a difference. I think it’s now. The question, though, is, what kind of difference.
When asked directly by the host if that meant running for No Labels, Christie said it would require a lot of discussion.
“Oh, I don’t know,” he said. “There’d be a long conversation between me and [my wife] Mary Pat, I can guarantee you that.”
No Labels is not a political party, although it has registered as a 501(c)(4) political organization that has already acquired ballot access in 14 states. It describes itself as a “national movement of commonsense Americans pushing our leaders together to solve our country’s biggest problems.”
According to a report from NBC last month, No Labels was “actively engaged” with Christie’s allies about his interest in joining their campaign:
NBC News has learned that No Labels, the decade-old organization that has sought to build a bipartisan coalition of politicos in Washington, has made overtures to Christie through donors and allies, according to three sources familiar with the conversations. It is not clear if Christie has authorized any conversations to take place on his behalf.
These conversations all happened before Christie dropped out Wednesday, and some of them occurred in recent weeks, according to one of the sources familiar [sic].
Other candidates touted as potential No Labels candidates have included various Republicans and Democrats disaffected with the status quo, including Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT), Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV), and former Congresswoman Liz Cheney (R-WY).
Christie, meanwhile, was asked by host George Stephanopoulos what a second Trump presidency would look like. “Mayhem. Absolute mayhem,” Christie replied. “First off, people forget that in the first term, he got a lot of good people to work for him in that administration.”
He continued:
I cannot imagine the crew that he’ll put together [in a second term]. And he will do it with an eye much different than in ’16. In ’16, he was scared. He didn’t expect to win, and he was intimidated by the presidency when he first got there. He will not be this time.
What he wants … are people who will just nod their heads, say yes and execute whatever his next rant will be. And so, one, it’ll be a huge personnel problem of people who have no business being in senior positions in the federal government.
And then secondly, I think we have to take him at his word. This is gonna be the vendetta presidency. This is gonna be, ‘I am your retribution.’ And I think he will use the levers of government to punish the people who he believes have been disloyal to him or to his approach.
Christie suspended his campaign for the Republican presidential nomination in January. He declined to endorse another candidate and is now unlikely to do so, given that Donald Trump will almost certainly be the presidential nominee.
