Christie says only regret about Trump debate prep is catching COVID

Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) said on “Axios on HBO” that the only thing he regretted about prepping former President Donald Trump for debates during his 2020 re-election campaign was contracting COVID-19. 

“The only regret I have about that is I caught COVID when I was doing it,” Christie said when asked if he had any misgivings about his role in the campaign.

Christie has recently been hinting at his own presidential ambitions in 2024, and has broken with Trump by pushing Republicans to stop obsessing over the 2020 election. 

“Winning campaigns are always the campaigns that look forward, not backwards,” the former New Jersey governor said in the Axios interview. 

Christie’s public jabs at Trump come as other potential Republican presidential candidates are largely holding fire until Trump makes his own 2024 plans official. 

The former governor said “people who say that they will defer to Donald Trump have disqualified themselves from being president.” 

“Because if you’re not willing to stand up to someone, … how can you … be standing up for everyone when you’re president?” he said. 

Christie added that his COVID-19 experience was “very scary.” 

“I spent seven days in the intensive care unit by myself completely isolated,” he said. “I definitely thought I could die.”

He also urged people resisting the COVID-19 vaccine to talk to people who have had the virus, as well as to family members of people who had died from it.

In another interview that aired Sunday, Christie would not confirm if he would support Trump should the former president run again in 2024. 

“Oh look, I don’t know that he’s going to run,” Christie told CNN. “I don’t know whether I’m going to run.”