(USNewsMag.com) – Republican presidential candidate and former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie criticized Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis this week, particularly for not meeting with President Joe Biden when Biden paid a visit to Florida after a hurricane struck the Sunshine State.
Christie made three interview appearances on Tuesday, and in all of them, he described DeSantis as a “big government” Republican. Christie also criticized DeSantis’ disaster relief voting record and then accused the Florida governor of “playing politics” by avoiding President Joe Biden during the president’s visit following the havoc of Hurricane Idalia.
In 2012, Christie worked closely with the Obama administration to coordinate recovery efforts in New Jersey after the impact of Hurricane Sandy. In one of the interviews on Tuesday, he said that it’s DeSantis’ “choice” to play politics but that he also isn’t “the least bit surprised” that DeSantis chose not to meet with Biden.
Christie said that as a state’s governor, if the president comes and you’re asking him or Congress “for significant aid,” which DeSantis did himself, then such a leader “should have been there” to welcome the president.
Christie added that DeSantis should have met with Biden “especially” because the Florida governor voted against federal aid a decade ago after Hurricane Sandy. Christie believes DeSantis “put politics ahead of his job” and is calling him out for “hypocrisy” for voting against aid for states like New Jersey ten years ago while requesting such aid from the federal government today.
DeSantis is one of Christie’s GOP rivals for the 2024 nomination, and he sits in second place behind former President Donald Trump. Although Christie has taken many shots at Trump over the last couple of years, with the two of them even taking shots at each other’s appearance, the former president is so far ahead of him and the other candidates that he isn’t even their most immediate obstacle.
Before Christie gets a real shot at the Republican nomination, he’ll have to go through DeSantis, former Vice President Mike Pence, former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, and newcomer Vivek Ramaswamy.
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