Chris Christie says he doesn’t think DeSantis is conservative he drops hint about running in 2024 

Former New Jersey Gov. Christie flashed some of his trademark bluster in an interview as he mocked Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and then revived DeSantis’ own ‘porn star’ attack on former President Donald Trump.

Christie, who embraced Trump after challenging him in 2016, belittled DeSantis’ ongoing spat with Disney in Florida – in a clash that has brought DeSantis national headlines in his battle against ‘woke‘ policies, but also saw him suffer a setback when Disney lawyers blocked his effort to strip authority by drafting a King Charles clause. 

‘I don’t think Ron DeSantis is a conservative, based on his actions towards Disney,’ Christie told Semafor in an interview Tuesday.

He cast the DeSantis push as an effort to silence the corporation. 

‘Where are we headed here now that if you express disagreement in this country, the government is allowed to punish you? To me that was always what I thought liberals did,’ said Christie. ‘And now all of a sudden here we are participating this in a Republican governor.’

‘I’m all for the use, the appropriate use of governmental power to achieve laudable goals,’ he said, before accusing DeSantis of failing to anticipate pushback.

Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie took on fellow Republican Ron DeSantis for his battle with Disney, saying: ‘I don’t think Ron DeSantis is a conservative’

‘If you’re going to use those levers, you’ve got to look around the corner to see what the result of that will be. For him to have taken the action he took against Disney, and to not have foreseen that Disney was going to do what they did in response, which was to completely  take over … that’s not the guy I want sitting across from President Xi and negotiating our next agreement with China or sitting across from Putin and trying to resolve what’s happening in Ukraine,’ he jabbed. 

‘If you can’t see around the corner that Bob Iger created for you. I mean I don’t think that’s very imposing,’ he said of the Disney CEO, who was the former ABC News honcho.

Christie ultimately threw his support behind Trump in 2016, then helped oversee transition plans for the Trump White House that got discarded.

As he considers his own potential run, he has signaled he will never support Trump again.  On Tuesday, like DeSantis he brought up Trump’s ‘hush money’ payment reimbursements to Stormy Daniels – a move that brought furious pushback from Trump when DeSantis did it.

‘You have someone who has had an affair with a pornstar, paid her off $130,000 to cover it up, to keep that information from the American people … That’s not the character of somebody who I think should be president of the United States,’ said Christie. 

Christie also blasted former President Donald Trump, who he got behind in 2016. The pair are seen here in November 2016 at Trump’s Bedminster golf club

Christie continued to advise Trump while Trump was in the White House. He told Axios last month he ‘just can’t’ support Trump again. ‘I can’t help him. No way,’ he said

‘That’s not the guy I want sitting across from President Xi and negotiating our next agreement with China,’ Christie said of Ron DeSantis,’ who as a popular GOP governor occupies a space Christie shared in 2012

A Manhattan grand jury has voted to indict former president Donald Trump over hush money paid to pornstar Stormy Daniels 

 As for potentially getting into the ring himself, Christie said: ‘We’ll make a decision in the next couple weeks.’

He has previously pointed to May, and said, ‘If you’re going to be serious about this, you probably have to make a decision by May.’

He said no presidential election is the same, and brushed off a question about whether 2024 could turn into a free-for-all just like 2016, which allowed Trump to prosper. 

‘I bet you this race will be no more than seven or eight people,’ he said. We had 15 on the ballot in New Hampshire [in 2016].’