Republican Rescue
Saving the Party from Truth Deniers, Conspiracy Theorists, and the Dangerous Policies of Joe Biden
by Chris Christie


(Click for Amazon book review)

BOOK REVIEW by OnTheIssues.org:

Former New Jersey governor Chris Christie is trying to position himself for 2024 as someone who can deliver Donald Trump's message without out the former president's baggage. He lays out his history with the Trump administration -- which included job offers and working on debate prep in both 2016 and 2020 -- as well as his prescriptions for the future in Republican Rescue: Saving the Party from Truth Deniers, Conspiracy Theorists and the Dangerous Policies of Joe Biden. Note that last: Christie doesn't simply disagree agree with Biden's policies, he finds them "dangerous."

The book is divided into three sections. In the first, "Donald and Me," Christie adds more to the historical record of the Trump years, noting that Trump often solicited advice from him that he then did not take. Christie keeps reiterating what a loyal supporter and friend he was, while continually putting Trump in a bad light. This includes blaming him for the January 6 insurrection at the Capitol not just for the speech he gave that day to a "Stop the Steal" rally, but for his months of claiming the election was "rigged" without offering the slightest bit of evidence. But perhaps his most devastating indictment of Trump is the most personal. He recounts being hospitalized with COVID and getting a call from Trump who had just recovered himself, and what Trump asked about was not Christie's prognosis but, "Are you gonna say you got it from me?" [p.96]

In the second section Christie reviews the history of the Republican Party separating itself from extremists, such as the John Birch Society in the 1960s, before elaborating on more recent delusional conspiracies like "Pizzagate" (claims that a child-sex ring was being run out of a Washington, DC pizzeria), claims that Barack Obama was really born in Kenya (of which Trump himself was a big supporter), and QAnon. He ends by debunking the many lies told about the 2020 election and yet somehow concludes that the Republican Party is the party of truth and it's the "far-left Democrats" who should be of concern.

His final section includes a series of policy proposals going forward, arguing that Republicans should be focusing on things like increasing and reforming the police, combatting "critical race theory," getting tough with the country's enemies, and fighting COVID through education rather than mandates and lockdowns. It's the sort of thing one would expect for someone laying out his platform for a run for office. For a conservative Republican wanting to separate himself from Trump and the endless relitigating of the 2020 election it seems the right thing to do.

However as has been reported – gleefully so by many outlets on the right -- Christie's book has been a flop, selling a reported 2,289 copies in its first week of publication in spite of a blizzard of media appearances. So perhaps the key question for Christie is the one he doesn't address in Republican Rescue. What if the very people he's trying to rescue don't want to be saved?

-- Daniel M. Kimmel, OnTheIssues editor, Dec. 7, 2021

OnTheIssues.org excerpts:  (click on issues for details)

Civil Rights     Chris Christie: Trump fed the stolen election lie leading to insurrection.

Click for quotations from other sources by: Chris Christie New Jersey N.J. Governor; Republican Presidential candidate