A group supporting Chris Christie is out with a television ad trying to goad Donald Trump into a debate, signaling the former New Jersey governor is betting on a prime-time televised takedown to deny the ex-president the Republican nomination.
“If you don’t go, you’ll be called a coward, a chicken — reduced to throwing spitballs from the sidelines,” the ad’s narrator says. “So, Donald, you need to decide, are you a chicken or just a loser?”
The 60-second spot adopts Trumpian taunts but also previews issues Christie would likely confront Trump on in a debate: His impeachments and indictments, his 2020 election loss, and his failure to complete the Mexican border wall, repeal the Affordable Care Act or balance the budget.
Tell It Like It Is PAC, Christie’s super political action committee, has reserved about $122,000 in ad time, mostly online and in the first primary election state of New Hampshire, according to ad-tracking firm AdImpact. The Christie campaign said Saturday that the PAC and campaign had raised a combined $7.5 million in the second quarter.
Read more: Who’s Winning the Presidential Money Race as Biden, Trump Report
Christie said last week that he’s reached the 40,000-donor threshold to qualify for the first party-sanctioned debate of the 2024 primaries, to be held Aug. 23 in Milwaukee.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, former Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley, businessman Vivek Ramaswamy and South Carolina Senator Tim Scott are also expected to participate, with other candidates still struggling to meet the donor requirements. Candidates must also get 1% support in at least three party-approved polls.
Trump has openly mused that he might skip the debate, saying he doesn’t want to give his opponents a platform.
“So you’re leading people by 50 and 60 points, and you say, why would you be doing a debate?” Trump said in an interview on Fox News’s Sunday Morning Futures. “It’s actually not fair. Why would you let somebody that’s at zero or at one or two or three be popping you with questions?”
Christie is polling at 2.6% in the RealClearPolitics average of national polls, but is doing better in New Hampshire at 4.7%.
On ABC News, Christie said Sunday he thinks Trump will show up in Milwaukee.
“His ego, I think, will not permit him to have a big TV show that he’s not on,” Christie said onThis Week. “And I think he’d be enormously frustrated sitting back in Bedminster and watching what I’m going to do to him on that stage in absentia.”
