Even in his own memoir "Let me finish," Chris Christie is eclipsed by Trump: NPR



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If you have forgotten the strength of Chris Christie's personality since his return to private life last year, you can now get your dose from the autobiography from Christie, Let me finish.

But if you're looking for introspection or deep thoughts, look elsewhere. It's a big, strong book written by a man full of humor, stories to tell and accounts to settle.

The subtitle of the 400-page volume outlines the agenda: Trump, the Kushners, Bannon, New Jersey, and the power of open-door politics.

You can expect to know everything about the above, but Christie's main ox is with Jared Kushner, President Trump's son-in-law. Christie blames the young Kushner for ousting Trump's inner circle. He talks specifically about his removal from office as the transition team leader from the campaign mode to the government mode, which explains, we explain, just about everything that has not been going since (19659004) . Christie is still in the first seven pages of his introduction when he jumps. on "the kid" (as he says former chief strategist Steve Bannon calls Kushner). Christie sued Jared Kushner's father, Charles, for tax evasion and illegal contributions to illegal campaigns ten years earlier, while Christie was a New Jersey attorney in the United States.

How much should we care about Christie's loss? Well, in the Introduction, we are told that the myriad of Trump administration's problems – "hobbyists, griffins, the weak" with their endless "infighting and chaos" – could have been avoided if Christie had been there and his prescription The transition plans had been followed.

"But this plan was thrown in the trash", crying Christie. "Literally, all thirty binders were thrown into Trump Tower trash, never to be seen again."

But it must often be mentioned again in Let Me Finish . The references to the lost transition often come back and dominate towards the end when Christie stacks the reasoning.

How important is being president of the transition? Christie calls it "the second biggest job of American politics, right behind the candidate." And it is clear that he has adopted the attitude that he could have adopted towards the office itself, as if this brilliant new presidency belonged to him.

But at the end of the book, we are used to hearing how important Christie was to us. Asset. How he helped save the election night speech. How he saved the president by preparing him for talks with Hillary Clinton. How did the president tell him that he "could not have done that without you". And finally, how the president, when he first showed Christie and his wife at the Oval Office, said, "That could have been your case here if it had not been for Bridgegate. "

Ah, Bridgegate. But before we move on to Christie's pious exegesis on the haunting scandal known as this, a word for readers who feel the need to check their own memories of Christie's broadcast at the Republican primaries of 2016. Was Christie so close to winning the nomination?

In a word, no. He gave up early February after scoring 2% in the Iowa caucuses and 7.4% in the New Hampshire primaries. But writing an autobiography allows a man to explain many things from his own point of view. So we learn here that Christie was the secret choice of the republican governor of Iowa (who had unfortunately promised not to support anyone publicly). And we are reminded that Christie won nearly 20% of the vote in a poll in New Hampshire after his best performance in the debate. Unfortunately, it was just before he ran out of money for commercials and the other candidates banded up against him (including Trump, who was making fun of him about Bridgegate).

So, Bridgegate. Christie devotes many pages to explaining how innocent he was when closing several George Washington Bridge lanes in 2013. These lanes typically connect Ft. Ft. Lee, NJ, with Manhattan on the other side of the road. the Hudson River. The massive traffic disruptions that resulted were ordered in retaliation against Fort. Mayor Lee, who had refused to support Christie's re-election campaign for the governorship. But apparently, Christie has nothing to do with that.

Two of Christie's associates ended up in jail for that, but months of research did not reveal any evidence of her direct involvement. Nevertheless, the whole affair is naturally a sore point, and Christie tells us that everything was meant to "eliminate [Hillary Clinton’s] the alleged Number One rival" for the presidency after his cover of the magazine Time .

Christie lays the foundation for this "number one" claim by telling us about all the famous people who begged him to run in 2012. He talks about "fifty billionaires" and the influential Koch brothers and even the Former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger – All praying for this year's GOP nomination. But he was not ready, he tells us. In 2016, he was ready.

But in 2016, something else is happening. Or someone else . At this point, we must be a little friendly. As in all autobiographies, the author himself occupies a central place. But even here, on a stage that he has built for himself, Christie discovers that he has to share the spotlight with Donald Trump.

"Stylistically, he was all I was, but on kerosene," writes Christie. "He was impetuous … direct … in your face, I did everything I normally did and I did it well, critics strongly criticized me, but he still dominated."

is a trick of cruel fate that Christie is eclipsed by someone who looks like him. But, of course, fate will become even more cruel before it is finished.

Let's pause, and note here that the first parts of Christie's memoir are a fairly classic autobiographical material. We hear about the modest New Jersey origins evoked by Bruce Springsteen. We see the Irish father and the Sicilian mother, their sacrifices, their righteousness and their constant love. This part of the story is moving, but it soon leads to tributes to Christie's exceptionalism – the flashes of his promise and his legendary confidence.

As president of the upper class, he defeats the main defender by painting the class figures. the roof of the school. After graduating from college and law, he is drawn to politics, but he is frustrated when he tries to get up too fast. But wait, there is another way because he is campaigning with candidates for the George HW Bush family in the 1990s and in 2000.

His eventual reward will be to be appointed US Attorney of New Jersey, but not before having physically confronted the acting governor (a Republican) on an oceanic wharf. down his support. This kind of ultra-personal confrontation plays like a loop in Christie's story – and sums up Christie's way.

After several chapters, Christie is just starting to warm up, but he can probably feel that it has taken too much time. without going back to Trump.

Trump invites Christie to dinner at home after Christie is appointed US Attorney. Contacts with Trump continue as Christie is elected governor and all those who wish to run for president. At one point, Trump calls to ask for information on the bridge and tells him that he believes in his denials. They are then on the stages of the Republican debate together in 2015 and in 2016. They become a kind of team team, rivaling their rival Marco Rubio.

When Christie leaves the race, we hear how all the other candidates call and offer him all kinds of things. for his approval. (Jeb Bush reportedly proposed to call him campaign president.) But Christie can see how the energy flows. And he is interested only in two jobs: Vice President or Attorney General.

Christie loses a lot of detail about the process by which Peter Pence loses his position as Vice President, then we repeat all the dance steps before he loses to Jeff Sessions for the Attorney General. Sessions was the first senator to support Trump and, for a long time, the only one. But Christie quickly insists that his endorsement of Trump is a little earlier, which makes him "the first governor and the first major political figure of the genre" to do so.

Christie keeps us informed of all things. He held posts : secretary of labor, secretary of internal security, ambassador to the Vatican, ambassador to Italy. He agrees to chair the Republican National Committee, but it is also denied.

He finally confronts Trump in a hallway and says goodbye to him. More offers. More consolation prize. He congratulates Trump and tells him to be fair to himself. And he tells her a lot more in a 400 word gush that Christie offers as if he remembered word for word. This is a technique we see in Introduction to Epilogue, since Christie recounts long conversations as if she were recorded. Assuming that he does not record each of these events in real time, he must possess the auditory equivalent of a photographic memory. Either that, or he just puts in quotation marks his own memories of past conversations.

In the end, like Shakespeare's King Lear, Christie is still "more sin than sin"

. was totally innocent in the notorious incident of the closing of the lane on the George Washington Bridge, and also without fail in a closure of the Government of the State of New Jersey that is still remembered for the press photos showing that He was spending the sun at his residence on a beach near the public. Finally, and it is very ironic, he loses his own inner way with Trump simply because he has been practicing his police officer job years earlier. What world.

And think how everything could have been better.

In truth, Christie probably should have known that he could not have a surrogate presidency through these 30 workbooks, that a process as orderly and systematic as it was for Trump or someone like Trump. It may have been for Christie, or for someone who is more like him.

Christie's name still appears when big jobs are opened in the Trump administration, an extremely common event.

Christie could he come back in Trump World? Strange things happened.

More likely, this look at the past has an even longer view of the future. If, afterwards, the Republican Party wants a candidate as fair and tough as Trump but ready to assume the presidency from the first day, well, Chris will not be too far away – tanned, rested and ready. 19659036] [ad_2]
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