TRENTON — Gov. Chris Christie had a whole lot to say about President Donald Trump on national TV over the past week.
Christie, a fellow Republican, trashed Trump’s advisers on MSNBC, revealed the job that, if Trump offered, would have likely prompted him to resign on Fox News, and defended the new president on CBS’ “Face the Nation.”
In New Jersey, Christie has said he plans to spend his remaining time in office tackling the state’s drug crisis. But at night and on the weekends, the governor, who was unceremoniously dropped as chairman of the president’s transition team in November, is still very interested in talking about national issues to an audience that goes beyond his home state constituents.
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“On the one hand, he has his own goals,” Republican strategist Matt Mackowiak said. “On the other hand … the media wants to tell the story that there’s sort of confusion and dissension inside the White House. So they want anyone willing to talk about that openly, especially a Republican, and those are hard to find.”
And, Mackowiak said, Christie likely “just misses the action.”
A common theme in each of the interviews has been Christie criticizing Trump’s advisers for what he said was a “terrible” rollout of the president’s executive order temporarily banning travel from seven majority-Muslim countries.
Without calling anyone out by name, the governor has said the president “deserves better” from his top staff. Christie has said he agrees with the president’s policy, but argued his top aides bungled the rollout and that their mismanagement invited criticism from Trump’s political opponents.
Christie, who Trump nearly tapped to serve as his vice president, made the statements after numerous reports suggested Trump insiders — including top adviser Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law — had worked to push Christie out of the president’s inner circle.
Christie prosecuted Kushner’s father when he was New Jersey’s U.S. attorney.
Gov. Chris Christie.Aristide Economopoulos/NJ Advance Media
The timing of the shots at Trump’s team are not be accidental, said Mark Behan, a crisis management expert based in Albany, N.Y.
“That looked to me like a thinly veiled reminder to the administration that he might be more capable,” Behan said.
However, Christie spokesman Brian Murray said the string of appearances are little more than accepting interview requests at a time that worked for the governor.
“They regularly invite him on the programs, and he does it when his schedule permits and the topic is something he’s interested in doing,” Murray said.
And longtime Christie supporters argued the appearances have more to do with the governor getting his message out.
“I think it’s really important for the governor to go out there and talk about his accomplishments,” state Assembly Minority Leader Jon Bramnick (R-Union) said. “He’s suffered a lot.”
“The more he’s out there, the better. He’s great on TV,” Bramnick added. “There’s nobody better on his feet than him. I think this is great. He needs to push back because he gets a lot of negative publicity.”
Other political observers, meanwhile, say Christie is looking to the future, which could include being a TV pundit.
“It’s a possible proving ground for a post gubernatorial career,” said Brigid Harrison, a professor of political science and law at Montclair State University. “It also increases his political clout, not only with Trump, but with other political leaders. But I think it has a lot more to do with his post gubernatorial career.”
Others Christie is trying to boost his image.
“It’s really about Chris Christie having some image nationally that he still is a voice,” said Matthew Hale, a political science professor at Seton Hall University.
“He’s doing everything he can to rehabilitate himself,” said Julian Zelizer, a professor of political history at Princeton University. “Part of how you reestablish your image is to go on television shows.”
However, the national TV appearances could inflict harm on Christie’s standing with voters back at home, where he already suffers record low poll ratings, said Carl Golden, who was spokesman for former Govs. Tom Kean and Christie Whitman.
“(They) just remind people that he spent the bulk of 2016 out of the state, not attending to New Jersey’s problems and pursuing his own ambitions,” Golden said.
That’s the case especially when Christie talks, like he did with Fox News’ Bill O’Reilly, about what Trump administration job he would have taken if it was offered, Golden said.
“Maybe he’s come to terms with the realization that maybe he’s not going to get his poll numbers back to where he likes them and has decided he will spend the rest of this year commenting on national issues,” Golden said.
NJ Advance Media staff writer Brent Johnson contributed to this report.
Matt Arco may be reached at marco@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @MatthewArco or on Facebook.
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