New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, a failed presidential candidate who dropped out of the race after the New Hampshire primary, endorsed Donald Trump for president on Friday following a disastrous debate performance for Trump in Texas on Thursday night.
“I am proud to be here to endorse Donald Trump for president of the United States,” Christie said.
Christie cited his longstanding friendship with Trump, and added that he was “happy to be on the Trump team” throughout the primary process. Christie ended his own bid for the White House earlier this month after he finished in tenth place in the Iowa caucus and sixth place in the New Hampshire primary.
Although Christie previously attacked Trump as lacking the proper temperament to be president, his endorsement of Trump, a fellow liberal Northeastern Republican, makes a certain amount of sense. The two men share numerous political positions generally considered to be anathema to Republicans.
Like Donald Trump, Christie supported Planned Parenthood, even going so far as to write a personal check to the nation’s largest abortion provider.
Trump and Christie also share an affinity for gun control. When Christie launched his political career in the early 1990’s, he bragged that his main reason for entering the political arena was to ban guns. Similarly, in his book “The America We Deserve,” Donald Trump wrote, “I support the ban on assault weapons and I support a slightly longer waiting period to purchase a gun.”
The New York millionaire and New Jersey governor also share the same views on what types of justices should sit on the Supreme Court. Trump said his sister, a pro-abortion liberal who defends partial birth abortion, would make a fine Supreme Court justice, while Christie strongly endorsed the nomination of Sonia Sotomayor in 2009:
For clarity’s sake, here’s Christie statement from 2009 on Sotomayor https://t.co/7pvaSjYvgd pic.twitter.com/2T5Rcz7VMW
Michael Symons (@MichaelSymons_) January 15, 2016
After Christie made his Trump endorsement public on Friday, the duo fielded questions from the press. The question and answer session quickly devolved into a queries about Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, who repeatedly got under Trump’s skin during Thursday night’s GOP debate, spurring him to vent his frustrations in a series of typo-laden tweets.
Rubio mocked Trump’s tweets, his vanity, and his poor debate performance during a campaign event Friday morning, which the press brought up during the media event, visibly upsetting the delicate real estate tycoon.
