Former New Jersey governor Chris Christie said Sunday that he has “no interest” in running for the recently indicted Sen. Bob Menendez’s seat if his presidential run is unsuccessful.
“No, I have no interest in being in the United States Senate,” Christie, who’s running for the 2024 GOP nomination, told NBC News’ Kristen Welker on “Meet the Press.”
“I had a chance to appoint myself to the United States Senate” after the death of Sen. Frank Lautenberg in 2013, Christie said. “If I didn’t appoint myself, the easiest way to get there, I sure as heck am not going to run for it.”
Christie, a former federal prosecutor, commended the Justice Department for indicting the powerful Senate Foreign Relations Committee chair on what he described as “horrific” allegations.
Menendez, a Democrat, and his wife were charged Friday with bribery over their alleged acceptance of “hundreds of thousands of dollars” in cash, gold bars and more in return for his influence to enrich three New Jersey businessmen and benefit the Egyptian government.
Menendez has denied any wrongdoing, but numerous Democrats, including N.J. Gov. Phil Murphy and Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania, have called for him to resign.
Rep. Andy Kim, D-N.J., who has also called on Menendez to resign, said Saturday he plans to challenge him for his seat.
“Not something I expected to do, but NJ deserves better,” Kim wrote in a post to X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter.
Menendez has been defiant, and said he has no plans to step down. “It is not lost on me how quickly some are rushing to judge a Latino and push him out of his seat. I am not going anywhere,” he said.
Christie’s appeared on “Meet the Press” shortly after NBC News released a poll that showed him lagging behind with Republican primary voters. Asked who they would vote for if the primary was held today, only 4% said Christie. The poll showed him in fifth place among primary candidates, and 55% behind the frontrunner, Christie foe and former President Donald Trump.
Christie shrugged the poll results off. “The fact is that national polls don’t matter. We don’t have a national primary,” he said.
He said if he can beat Trump in New Hampshire, “and I plan to do so,” the “sense of inevitability” around him “will go away.”
“Momentum is everything in this race,” Christie said, vowing that he’ll show that after New Hampshire.
He also offered some support for House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, the California Republican who’s trying to find a consensus within his small majority to avert a government shutdown while fending off threats to his speakership by hardline Republicans.
He’s “managing a very difficult caucus under very difficult circumstances” and “doing the best he can.”
Asked if he thinks McCarthy will survive attempts to oust him, Christie said yes, and predicted he’d remain speaker through at least the 2024 election.