Republican governors give 'huge applause' when Chris Christie blames Trump for election losses: Report

Republican governors awarded Chris Christie "huge applause" on Tuesday after the former New Jersey governor blamed Donald Trump for disappointing election results.

What happened?

While speaking at the annual meeting of Republican governors, Christie reportedly blamed Trump for Republicans having lost the last three national elections. The governors responded with a "huge applause," Axios reported.

Christie told the GOP governors, donors, and consultants that voters "rejected crazy" by voting against Trump-backed candidates.

Christie also lamented that there are fewer Republican governors today than when he left office in 2018, a phenomenon he reportedly attributed to Trump valuing loyalty over actually winning elections.

The moderate Republican, once a Trump supporter, is becoming increasingly critical of the former president.

In a post-election interview with the Washington Post, Christie argued the case for moving on from Trump is simple: His electoral record is riddled with loss.

“How about this? When Donald Trump won in 2016, he said we were going to get so tired of winning we would ask him to stop winning so much," Christie told the newspaper. "In 2018, we lose the House. In 2020, we lose the Senate and the White House. In 2021, we lose two winnable [Senate] seats in Georgia. And in 2022, we vastly underperform historic norms given inflation and gas prices and crime and a president at 40 percent. I’m tired of losing."

"The only winning that has been done since Donald Trump has been president is for Donald Trump," he asserted.

Anything else?

Republican governors who spoke at the gathering focused less on Trump, according to sources who spoke to media. The event was closed-door.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who is considered the odds favorite for the Republican presidential nomination, reportedly spoke about his successful record as governor in Florida and his landslide reelection victory that proved the Sunshine State is no longer a swing state.

Indeed, earlier on Tuesday, DeSantis boasted, "At the end of the day, I would just tell people to go check out the scoreboard from last Tuesday night. The fact of the matter is, it was the greatest Republican victory in the history of the state of Florida."

Meanwhile, Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, another potential 2024 presidential candidate, also talked about his convincing reelection victory.