Global Courant
Former New Jersey governor Chris Christie, who is running for the GOP’s presidential nomination, on Sunday called the Republican National Committee’s demand that candidates pledge support for the eventual nominee a “useless idea.”
In a interview on CNN’s “State of the Union,” Christie said, “I think the pledge is just a useless idea,” after being asked if he would pledge to support Donald Trump, the party frontrunner, even if the former president has been convicted of a crime.
“By the way, in my entire life, we’ve never had to swear Republican primaries,” he said. “You know, we were Republicans. And the idea is that you would support the Republican whether you won or lost. And you didn’t have to ask anyone to sign anything.”
In a interview with ABC NewThis month, Christie said he would take the pledge “as seriously as” Trump did in the 2016 election cycle.
“I will be on the debate stage and I will take the promise the RNC puts before me as seriously as Donald Trump did eight years ago,” said Christie, who said Trump “absolutely ignored” the promise in 2016. and was not punished.
Hutchinson indicated in early June that he would sign the pledge, telling NBC News, “I’ll do what we have to do to get the debate going.” But in one interview with Politics said last week he would not vote for Trump if convicted of criminal charges in the classified documents case.