Christie fires back after Trump attacks: ‘Stop hiding behind your … failed social media site’

Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie is calling out former President Trump for “hiding” behind Truth Social while Christie and the other GOP 2024 presidential candidates prepare for their second debate next week.

“Stop hiding behind your … failed social media site,” Christie said Thursday on CNN. 

Trump, who has a commanding lead in Republican primary polls, passed on the first debate and has said he will skip the second, which is set take place next Wednesday at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in California. 

Christie, who has frequently battled with Trump, said the former president needs to “stop being a coward” and “show up” to the debates if he has something to say. The remarks came after Trump hit the former governor as a “grifter” on Truth Social.

“He doesn’t like when people stand up to him and call him out on the nonsense that he’s involved in,” Christie told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer. “If he had any guts, he’d get on the debate stage.”

Christie pointed to recent polling out of New Hampshire that puts him ahead of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis in the GOP race. “He has stopped attacking Ron DeSantis and he started attacking me,” he said. 

Christie said he is one of the only GOP candidates willing to speak out against Trump and his indictments. 

“He doesn’t like it when he’s taken out directly and he’s confronted,” he said. “I’m the only one on that stage who is unwilling to raise my hand — beside [former Arkansas Gov.] Asa Hutchinson — and say I wouldn’t support a convicted felon for president of the United States.”