Chris Christie Slams Trump Ahead of 3rd GOP Debate, Warns Against Nominating ‘A Fool Like This Again’

A super PAC linked with Republican presidential contender Chris Christie slammed former president Donald Trump in an ad released last week. 

On October 16, the Tell It Like It Is PAC produced a new campaign ad titled 'Fool' that emphasized Christie's criticism of Trump's remarks about Hezbollah. The ad contained a clip from a recent CNN interview in which Christie repeatedly called Trump a "fool" for making such remarks. “He’s a fool. Only a fool would make those kinds of comments,” Christie said to CNN, The Hill reported. “Only a fool would give comments that could give aid and comfort to Israel’s adversary in this situation.”

Christie was referring to Trump's comments about Hezbollah, the Iran-backed Islamist militant group. In an address, the former president was heard praising the group, saying Hezbollah is “very smart, they’re all very smart.”

Christie, a former Trump aide, went on to slam Trump while cautioning the GOP against nominating him. Christie described Trump as a selfish person, saying, “But he cares about one person, one person only: the person he sees in the mirror when he wakes up in the morning.”

The former New Jersey governor emphasized that Trump is a 'fool' who cannot be nominated again. He said, “We cannot once again nominate a fool like this and get him anywhere near the presidency of the United States. And having a fool like Donald Trump, who would make those comments in the tone that he made them is proven to folks that he has no business being president United States.”

Weeks before this, Christie got into another verbal spat with the former president when Trump proposed that the Republican National Committee cancel the remaining GOP debates, per The Hill. Christie criticized him, stating that he was only afraid of competition. “He wants to end these things for purely selfish reasons because he doesn’t want to give exposure to the candidates who are challenging him out there,” Christie said in a CNN interview.

But Trump has received the most criticism from other GOP candidates like Christie for his remarks about Hezbollah. The Trump campaign has attempted to distance itself from the remarks, claiming that just because the former president labeled Hezbollah "smart" does not imply that he was endorsing the organization. “Smart does not equal good,” read a tweet from the campaign’s War Room account. 

Tensions between Lebanon's Hezbollah and Israel have increased since Hamas launched its fatal strike on Israel on October 7. Hezbollah has launched numerous missiles at Israel, which has responded by firing back and striking multiple Hezbollah targets.

The United States has designated Hezbollah, like Hamas, as a terrorist organization. According to the Israel Defense Forces, nine rockets were fired from Lebanon into Israel, but Israel's air defense intercepted five of them. IDF also announced that it would undertake a retaliatory strike on the launch site in Lebanon.