Via Taegan Goddard, I see that former New Jersey Governor and perennial GOP presidential candidate Chris Christie was on Meet The Press:
Chris Christie told NBC News that he “can’t see” himself voting for President Biden, adding that he wants to wait for the final list of contenders before he makes a choice.
Said Christie: “I can’t see myself voting for him because I don’t agree with his policies, and I have serious questions about his competence to serve another four years. So, do I rule it out? I can’t imagine doing it.”
At the same time, Christie said he wouldn’t vote for Donald Trump “under any circumstances.”
Here’s the video, embedded in a tweet:
I find this approach alternatingly amusing and frustrating. While I get that Christie is a traditional Republican and therefore disagrees with a lot of the policy positions of Biden, a Democrat, the fact of the matter is that there are two and only two viable candidates for President. To refuse to vote for either of them is to let others decide between them. To the extent one prefers one or the other, that’s simply cutting off your nose to spite your face.
Now, granted, whether Christie votes is completely irrelevant to the outcome of the race. There is no conceivable way Biden loses New Jersey, which has gone Democrat the last eight presidential elections and will do so for the foreseeable future absent a radical realignment. But there are plenty of folks out there like himself—homeless Republicans who think Trump is morally unfit for the office—who might be persuaded to hold their nose and vote for Biden with the nudging of Christie and other likeminded Republican leaders. Given that Christie knows damn well that Biden is better for the country than the alternative, abdicating that role is feckless at best.
