Chris Christie: GOP Picked 'Some Bad Candidates'
(Newsmax/"American Agenda")
By Nick Koutsobinas | Sunday, 13 November 2022 05:06 PM EST
Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, a Republican, on Sunday said the Grand Old Party "nominated some bad candidates" for the midterm elections.
Appearing on ABC News' "This Week," Christie told participants of a roundtable discussion that Democrats "got more fired up than people thought and that polls demonstrated."
"Also," he added, "we nominated some bad candidates, especially on the Senate side. That's something we've been talking about since the summer; and people thought that maybe the overall atmosphere of the poor performance of the economy, crime issues and others would overwhelm that.
"That's what I thought would happen; it didn't." Christie noted.
In the run-up to the election, Republican pundits were speaking of a "red wave." Following the historical trends of incumbent presidents losing seats in Congress, they predicted Republicans would overtake Democrats in both chambers.
But despite President Joe Biden's low approval rating and inflation, Democrats won 50 Senate seats so far and Republicans won 49, according to the Newsmax elections tracker. Georgia will hold a runoff election on Dec. 6 between Republican Herschel Walker and Democrat Sen. Raphael Warnock.
In the aftermath of the 2022 midterms, members of the GOP began blaming candidates aligned with former President Donald Trump for the poor performance.
On Sunday, Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., said Trump-aligned candidates underperformed.
Speaking with host Chuck Todd of "Meet the Press," Cassidy noted what he learned from the midterms.
"I learned that the American people want a way forward that actually focuses on ideas — ideas that will make their lives better, not just their lives but that for future generations. Those who are most closely aligned with the former president underperformed. Those who are talking about the future or who had managed their states well, they over-performed. The American people want ideas. They want a future."
In Pennsylvania, Democrats flipped a key Senate seat with their candidate John Fetterman prevailing over Trump-backed Dr. Mehmet Oz.