Chris Christie explains how Trump created Shapiro with his ridiculous stupidity when he said Kamala Harris should choose Gov. Josh Shapiro as her running mate.
Transcript:
Christy: That would be Josh Shapiro. I don’t think it’s a hard choice. He is a very talented politician. He’s hugely popular, with a 65 percent job approval rating in the states she needs to win. This is really important. I’ll tell you this. If she chooses Shapiro on Tuesday, then Donald Trump has created Josh Shapiro.
Stephanopoulos: How could that happen?
CHRISTIE: He’s backing Mastriano, who is the weakest Republican candidate in the field. What that allowed Josh Shapiro to do is, instead of pandering to his own base to try to win a narrow election, he saw an opportunity to build a coalition election, and that’s what he did.
Now he’s seen as a coalition builder because he did that, but the only reason he could do that is because Trump made yet another ridiculously stupid endorsement by endorsing Mastriano, who Striano is a flawed, weak, terrible candidate. If Josh Shapiro ends up winning and Trump loses Pennsylvania, he could go back to his decision in 2022 and sow the seeds of that defeat.
video:
Josh Shapiro always beats Doug Mastriano. By wading into the race, Trump turned the Democratic victory into a coalition-building blowout, allowing Shapiro to define his political brand and win over moderate votes in the state. Shapiro’s center-left coalition is still visible in today’s approval ratings, which might not have happened without Donald Trump.
There seemed to be a solid consensus around Josh Shapiro as the running mate, but Christie was right. If Trump loses Pennsylvania, he has only himself to blame.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of Society of Professional Journalists and American Political Science Association
