What did Chris Christie say about Nikki Haley? Hot mic moment goes viral amid move to drop out of presidential bid

Former New Jersey Governor and 2024 GOP primary presidential candidate Chris Christie dropped out of the race for the White House on January 10, 2024. However, before he exited, he also revealed things about the competitors inside his own party.

For instance, he stated that another GOP primary Nikki Haley was “gonna get smoked,” even though he did not refer to her by name. However, since Haley had the most to gain from Chris Christie’s exit, news outlets such as Politico guessed that he was talking about her.

As per The Daily Beast, Chris Christie’s comments were made off-stage and were caught on a hot mic while speaking to Wayne MacDonald, a former chair of the New Hampshire Republican Party, before going onstage for his event at Windam, New Hampshire.

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Internet reacts to Chris Christie’s comments about Nikki Haley before dropping out of the presidential race

On Wednesday night, politician Chris Christie was attending an event in New Hampshire. However, before appearing on stage, he talked to a former member of his party off-stage which was caught on the audio of a live stream broadcast, but with no video feed.

Christie could be heard saying how the former United Nations ambassador Nikki Haley and another Republican primary for the 2024 election was going to get “smoked,” without directly taking her name.

“You and I both know it. She’s not up to this… People don’t wanna hear it, ” Chris added.

The former New Jersey Governor also continued by saying how Nikki spent “$68 million so far just on TV,” and confirmed that there was no return on her investment as of now.

Notably, this was not the first time Christie has shown contempt towards Nikki Haley and her campaign. In the past few weeks, he refused to take calls from Haley’s campaigners requesting him to leave the race.

He also went on record to slam her for standing against former President Donald Trump in the race.

An insider source even told Politico that Chris Christie decided to drop out in the last 24 hours and his “part of the reasoning” was to ensure that Haley or others could not use him as a “scapegoat.” The source further added how Chris Christie would not be “endorsing” Nikki Haley.

As soon as Christie’s hot mic moment became viral, netizens had diverse reactions to it. Here are some of them from the comment section of @LauraLoomer’s tweet on the same.

Interestingly, Nikki Haley did not respond to Chris Christie’s remarks about her. Instead, she reacted to his dropping out of the presidential race by saying during one of her own events in the state:

“Chris Christie has been a friend for many years. I commend him on a hard-fought campaign. Voters have a clear choice in this election: the chaos and drama of the past or a new generation of conservative leadership. I will fight to earn every vote, so together we can build a strong and proud America."

Meanwhile, the 61-year-old Christie was also captured on the hot mic saying that Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said that he was reportedly “petrified” of him.

However, it remains unclear what the GOP Primary was petrified of. A spokesperson of DeSantis told Politico that he was merely referring to Christie’s departure from the race, but appreciated his role in the campaign.

The person also revealed how Christie was on a call with DeSantis before his hot mic moment where he said Haley had no chance to win, was a “joke” who “performed terribly” and was “not up to the task.”

The Florida Governor later took to X to state that he agreed with Chris Christie that Nikki Haley was going to get smoked.

So far, the polling status revealed how Trump was at the top, with Haley and Christie behind him. The latter’s departure is expected to provide momentum to Nikki’s leftover campaign.