Chris Christie says he’s ‘caught’ Ron DeSantis in New Hampshire

Chris Christie is confident he can overtake Ron DeSantis in the race for second place in New Hampshire.

During an interview on Fox News’ “Special Report”, Christie flexed on the Florida Governor.

“Our momentum is going the right way. Gov. DeSantis is going in the wrong direction. And so our first job is to get past Gov. DeSantis here in New Hampshire, we’ve now caught him. Now we need to pass him and then we’re going to take on Donald Trump one-on-one.”

Polls support Christie’s claim that second place is in play.

A survey conducted by the Manhattan Institute last month showed just 2 points separate the Florida Governor and the former New Jersey Governor, with both men in low double digits. DeSantis stood at just 13%, 2 points up on Christie’s 11%.

A July survey commissioned by American Greatness and conducted by National Research Inc., showed DeSantis with 11% support, 30 points behind Trump and just 3 points up on Christie and Scott.

The American Pulse survey conducted between July 5 and July 11 showed Trump with 48% and DeSantis with 10.5%, just 0.5 points above Christie’s 10%.

Christie has attacked DeSantis consistently on a number of issues.

During a Fox News interview with Neil Cavuto, the former New Jersey Governor pilloried DeSantis’ defense of the state’s 216-page set of guidelines governing classroom instruction on Black history, which includes language claiming slavery benefited the enslaved.

“I think that what they’ve done is wrong and worse yet, what I really criticized Gov. DeSantis for was when he said, ‘I didn’t have anything to do with it and I didn’t know anything about it,’” Christie said. “Well, that’s not leadership. You know, that’s looking out at what’s going on in your state and saying you’re not responsible when you’re the Governor.”

During a CNN interview in late June, Christie mocked DeSantis’ fumbling response to a question about Jan. 6.

“He wasn’t anywhere near Washington. Did he have a TV? Was he alive that day? Did he see what was going on? I mean, that’s one of the most ridiculous answers I’ve heard in this race so far. You don’t have an opinion about Jan. 6 except to say I didn’t particularly enjoy what happened?” Christie told Kaitlan Collins.

“We had people trying to hunt down the Vice President of the United States, chanting ‘Hang Mike Pence,’ and Donald Trump the entire time sat outside the Oval Office, that little dining room of his, eating a well-done cheeseburger and watching TV and doing nothing to stop what was going on until it got to the point where even he could no longer stand it. … And Ron DeSantis doesn’t have any opinion on that?”

Overall, Christie has taken issue with DeSantis’ lack of message discipline and focus on niche issues as a candidate.

“What I would say is that, I think Gov. DeSantis spends a great deal of time on things in this presidential campaign, which I don’t think are the most important issues in America,” Christie said Thursday on the Hugh Hewitt Show.