But it sounds like you're trying to save the Republican Party.
>> Well, look, I believe the Republican Party has been losing now for
nearly seven years.
After Donald Trump's win in 2016, which I was a large part of,
we haven't been able to win anything since then.
>> Chris Christie, who has announced that he is running in the Republican primary
for the presidential election in 2024, is essentially saying, look, we can't
go with Trump because with Trump comes loss, and I'm tired of being a loser.
Now, the main message that he is trying to get across, and I think that
Ron DeSantis very, very timidly tried to dip his toe in that area and
then immediately got scared and scurried off.
But Chris Christie is repeatedly saying,
we're gonna keep losing if we keep sticking to Trump.
Here's more from what he had to say.
>> After Donald Trump's win in 2016, which I was a large part of,
we haven't been able to win anything since then.
Lost the House in 2018, lost the Senate and the White House in 2020,
those Georgia Senate seats in early 21, and we horribly underperformed in 2022.
Lost governorships, lost the Senate seat, and barely won the House of
Representatives when everyone thought we'd be at 240 or 250 seats.
So we're tired of losing.
Look, if the person at the top gets all the credit when things go well,
they also must be accountable for what happens when things go badly.
And the fact is that Donald Trump,
the candidates he picked in these individual states and endorsed, all lost.
And he lost big races.
>> Now, in the context of that interview,
Christie also kind of tried to dismantle any argument that there's a two tiered
justice system that is going after Trump over classified documents, but
refusing to go after Biden over his possession of classified documents.
We're gonna get to that clip in just a moment, but before we do.
Cenk, you have a theory as to why Chris Christie, who's really not registering
with voters at all, I know it's early, but they don't really seem interested in him.
You have a theory into why he's doing this?
Why he's like specifically branding himself as the attack dog against Trump?
>> Yeah, so look guys, I'm not saying Chris Christie can't win.
In fact, I instantly put him in the top three because of this fighting attitude,
which I'll get back to in a second.
But what I'm seeing right now is interesting.
You can see it for yourself.
So Chris Christie is polling at somewhere between 0 and 2%.
So de minimis, almost nothing, right?
But yet, he's all over all of media.
So now I call both right wing media and mainstream media combined,
corporate media, right, because they play good cop, bad cop with us, right?
So all of a sudden, he's on CNN and Fox News and ABC and right wing media, right?
So all of corporate media has decided, we don't really care where he's polling and
we don't really care if he has any chance to win at all.
We like the message this guy is putting out there, why?
Because they've decided they don't want Trump.
And honestly, they're making it super clear.
So CNN does a town hall where all they do is they allow Trump to speak for
a little over an hour and everyone in media loses their mind.
They're like, he shouldn't be allowed to speak.
Okay, and
almost like the CNN staff's talking about quitting because they allowed
someone that is now verboten by the establishment to speak on the airwaves.
Meanwhile, Chris Christie is apparently allowed everywhere.
And did you notice the softball Steve Doocy gave to him?
Are you trying to save America?
>> No, save the Republican Party.
>> Save the Republican Party.
That's right.
And so what that means to me is, Rupert Murdoch has sent a giant
memo with big bold letters saying, go get Trump, okay?
We're done with that son of a bitch.
Bring on Chris Christie and anyone else will take his head off.
>> So you put him in the top three.
You think there is some possibility that he could win the Republican primary.
I put the probability at approximately 5%, and I'm gonna explain.
>> I thought you were gonna go zero.
Don't do it.
I think he's got a shot.
>> I'm tempted to go 0%, but I'm gonna keep my powder dry.
>> Okay, good, I like that.
>> All right, but it's probably 0%.
With that said, I want to go to one other moment from that interview on Fox and
Friends and then I'm gonna show you, well, how Trump likes to throw his jabs.
Let's watch.
>> I also see a huge double standard.
You got classified documents all over Joe Biden's house,
offices, lawyers offices, garage.
Do you believe that what Donald Trump has done from what you know is criminal?
>> Well, look, I don't know, Brian, exactly what they're gonna find and
what's gonna come in any indictment that may come, but I will say this.
The problem with all this is that it's self inflicted.
In the end, I don't know that the government even knew that Joe Biden had
those documents or not, but they did know Donald Trump did.
And in fact, I asked for them voluntarily for over a year and
a quarter and got them back in dribs and drabs.
And at least if you believe the accounts that you're reading right now, and
I take them with a grain of salt, because I did this work for seven years,
and I know you can't believe anything until an indictment comes out.
If in fact, you're keeping those things knowingly even after the government has
asked for you to bring them back.
The excuses about, they were declassified automatically when I left the office.
Well, that's just wrong.
>> So he's both very gently pouring cold water on the claim that Trump and
Biden did the exact same thing.
Right, they committed the same crimes when it came to classified documents because it
wasn't the same thing.
Biden had no problem providing the documents after discovering them in
a place they weren't supposed to be in,
whereas Trump was fighting it from the very beginning.
He wanted to continue possessing both top secret and classified documents that he
had no business taking home with him from the White House.
So I actually thought he did a good job there in not
seeming too defensive on behalf of Biden while taking jabs at Trump.
>> Yeah, no, no, the reason why I put Chris Christie as having a real chance is
because, he's the one guy in the race that at this point appears to be fearless, and
it's an absolute prerequisite.
Otherwise, you've got no chance against Trump.
Trump's gonna brutalize you, right?
You gotta fight back.
You gotta be able to punch back.
DeSantis is so nervous.
>> He is. >> Trump punches him and then DeSantis
pokes at him a little bit, and then he's like, how did I do?
And he's like, he's just a hot, sweaty mess.
And the rest of them are standard plastic Kendalls from
the corporate politics factory.
>> Cenk being generous by calling them Kendalls.
So you're going too far, Cenk.
>> No, I mean, look at Mike Pence.
I don't know.
>> Unfortunately, I have and I wouldn't say Kendall.
>> Kendall extraordinaire.
But all of them, Tim Scott, all of them Nikki Haley.
So they're all like, hello, we are corporate Republicans.
We love war.
We love tax cuts for the rich.
Donald Trump no, I don't know what to do.
Nikki Haley with a giant white ice.
I don't know if I should criticize him.
Please leave.
>> Okay, so you're right about all of that.
Okay, but here's the thing.
I don't know if Chris Christie's attacks on Trump will land, especially when
you juxtapose how Christie throws his jabs with how Trump throws his jabs.
So with that said, earlier this month on June 2nd, Trump went on Fox News and
had a town hall with Sean Hannity.
And here's how that went.
>> I hear Chris Christie's coming in.
He was at 6% in New Jersey, which is I love New Jersey.
But 6% approval rating in New Jersey.
What's the purpose and he's polling at zero?
And others are, I call him Ada Hutchinson.
I don't call him Asa, I call him Ada Hutchinson.
I gave her a little name for some reason, for certain reasons.
>> Okay, I included the Ada Hutchinson part specifically to make my point
about how gross Trump is when he decides he wants to attack his opponents.
So Asa Hutchinson, former governor of Arkansas.
He's deeply, deeply conservative.
I mean, former governor of Arkansas.
The one thing he did was veto a bill that would have banned gender affirming care in
the state, which is why Trump is attacking him by calling him Ada Hutchinson.
He's disgusting.
But my point is, while Chris Christie is out there,
I think calling Trump a loser and really honing in on how much the party has lost
as a result of the Trump brand in general elections is a smart move.
But Trump is gonna get real dirty.
And recently, John and I talked about the insane mocking of Christie's
weight that Trump and all the Republican goons have been engaging in.
They're gonna do a lot more of that.
I don't know if Christie's counterpunches are gonna resonate with the voters.
I don't know. >> No, yeah, look,
he's counterpunching ten times harder than any other Republican.
>> That's true, Christie, right?
>> Yeah, Christie.
So Trump does over the top stuff, but at some point it might backfire, right?
But only against the counterpuncher.
If no one can punch his back, then he's gonna obliterate them, right?
So in the case of Chris Christie, what did he do?
He's like, no, I welcome Christie into the race when he first announced.
He's like, he's gonna eat DeSantis's lunch, like he ate Rubio's lunch.
There's a lot of wink emoji in there.
>> Not too many winks.
>> And then if it wasn't clear enough,
he put picture of Chris Christie in front of a buffet on Truth Social.
Okay, so that's the kind of dirty player he is.
And generally people love that kind of entertainment,
especially on the right wing, right?
And so I get that.
But again, Christie not just punching back, but punching back smartly.
Because talking about how Donald Trump's a loser is definitely the correct strategy.
Because the only way to beat Donald Trump is not to tell Republicans he's too mean,
he's too offensive.
That has a 0% chance of working.
Now what Christie's saying to them is, look, he's a schmuck, he's a loser,
and all we've ever done is lose under him, which is actually totally true.
They've lost bigly under Trump.
And if you keep pounding away at that ferociously and you have the entire
corporate media on your side, okay, well, then you've got a fighter's chance.
And guys, now remember, the court, don't mistake me for
saying I like Chris Christie.
Chris Christie is a classic corporate Republican goon.
I got no interest in him.
And corporate media is deeply biased.
So I never saw the 6% poll, but I did see a poll in New Jersey where
Chris Christie left office at a 14% approval rating.
>> Do you think Bridgegate had something to do with that?
>> Of course, because he's deeply corrupt, okay?
So now he did tons of things wrong in New Jersey Center, but
look at the juxtaposition.
Mary Anne Williamson is ranging between 5% to 11% against Joe Biden.
No media, almost no corporate media appearances.
Chris Christie's polling at 0%, and his last poll when he was governor was at 14%.
Credibility, he has no credibility.
>> This is what manufacturing consent looks like.
Mary Anne Williamson doesn't get booked on every single possible television news show
because she will not serve the purposes of what honestly, corporate America wants.
Corporate America wants stability, and
they want someone that they're familiar with,
someone who is going to do their bidding, and Joe Biden is just that, right?
In fact, Joe Biden, it's become very clear.
I mean, his campaign has decided to hire Tom Perez as one of its top advisors.
It's very clear to me that Biden is now making the pivot back to his roots, right?
There was some decent attempts at progressive policy, but
he's now completely pivoting over to what we've been familiar with
when it comes to Biden, let's just put it that way.
The bankruptcy bill Biden that we're familiar with.
So any final words on this?
>> Yeah, just look, Biden, when he got rid of Ron Clinton and
hired a corporate goon as his chief of staff, decided very actively, and
everyone acknowledges, to go back to being a right winger.
And he thinks the brilliant strategy is I'm gonna outright wing the Republicans,
which is, look, I'm sorry, I'm sorry if it hurts your feelings, but
that's a moronic strategy.
It's never worked.
It's never gonna work.
And that's why he's doing miserable polling.
But the corporate media loves Biden and
they love Chris Christie because they're going to get the same results either way.
The donors are gonna win on every thing.
And that's why even though Marianne Williamson is pulling infinitely
better than Chris Christie,
you won't see her on TV and you'll see that guy a hundred times over.