Christie flabbergasted most 2024 GOP foes ok with ‘convicted felon as our nominee’

Former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie on Sunday said the “most amazing” part of last week’s Republican primary debate was that most of his 2024 rivals said they would back Donald Trump as the nominee even if the former president is convicted.

Christie and former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson were the only presidential hopefuls on stage not to raise their hands when asked if they would support Trump, 77, in the event of a conviction during Wednesday’s debate.

“The most amazing part of the debate to me, was the idea that the majority of my competitors believe that you can have a convicted felon as our nominee for president and that they support that and that he could win,” Christie told ABC News’ “This Week.”

In order to make the debate stage on Aug. 23, aspirants were required to sign a pledge vowing to support the eventual nominee.

Christie signed the pledge, but previously caveated that he’d take it “just as seriously as Donald Trump took the pledge in 2016” — in other words, probably not very seriously.

“We can’t have a convicted felon as our nominee for president and expect we’re going to win,” Christie added on “This Week.”

Since launching his campaign back in June, Christie has fashioned himself as an unabashed Trump attack dog.

In lieu of Trump, who skipped the first debate, many speculated that Christie may latch onto Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who is the next highest polling contestant. Instead, Christie dogpiled on entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy.

“If there’s something that someone says that I drastically object to, and I have the opportunity to do so, I’ll do it as you saw me do with Vivek on a number of occasions,” Christie explained. “DeSantis’ answers that night, while some of them might disagreed with, I didn’t think it rose to the level of having to get into back and forth with him.”

At times, Christie was showered with boos from attendees, including during a high-profile clash with Ramaswamy, who became a political punching bag for candidate on stage.

Christie later dinged the moderators for allowing the verbal bout to devolve into chaos and shouting matches at times.

Trump is facing 91-counts spanning across four indictments for alleged “hush money” payments, hoarding of classified documents, 2020 election subversion and Georgia election tampering.

He has denied wrongdoing across the board, pleaded not guilty to the first three cases pending against him, and his poised to be arraigned in the Georgia case next month.

Taking note of Trump’s legal woes, Christie issued a warning to Republican voters who believe Hunter Biden’s legal perils could overshadow Trump’s.

“You know, some of those voters who say that say the Hunter Biden thing matters but Donald Trump’s doesn’t — that’s just wishful thinking,” Christie said.

“The fact is that the two people who would be on the ballot if we nominated Donald Trump, will be Donald Trump and Joe Biden, not Hunter Biden,” he continued. “Trump is out on bail in four different jurisdictions in this country.”