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By Mia McCarthy

Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie speaks during a town hall on Dec. 19, 2023 in Bedford, New Hampshire. | Sophie Park/Getty Images

TICK, TOCK — Chris Christie has a dilemma. And less than 20 days to figure it out.

The New Hampshire primary is just weeks away, leaving the low-polling New Jerseyan with just 18 days to make a tough decision: end his presidential bid and boost Nikki Haley’s effort to defeat Donald Trump, or stay in the race and risk splintering the vote against the former president he says is a threat to democracy.

The former New Jersey governor has anchored his campaign around “telling the truth” and attacking Trump. And he’s bet everything on a strong showing in New Hampshire.

But, truth be told, Christie remains stuck in low digits in most New Hampshire polls. He simply hasn’t moved the dial. Haley, meanwhile, is the only candidate within striking distance of Trump. Her support in the state continues to grow and she is propelled by the endorsement of New Hampshire GOP Gov. Chris Sununu.

Christie, the most vocal anti-Trump candidate in the race and the one who has most aggressively prosecuted the case against renominating him, now stands as the biggest obstacle to the consolidation of the vote against the former president.

“Chris has an opportunity to be the hero here,” Sununu said on CNN on Wednesday. “Help deliver Trump that loss in New Hampshire that we all know is very possible.”

He added, “We just don’t want his five or six percent, which isn’t really going to go much higher than that, to be the difference maker [that stops Haley from winning].”

During town halls before the holidays, voters called on Christie to drop out of the race. But he hasn’t shown any signs he’s willing to do that. He recently said anyone who thinks he would exit the race is “crazy.”

The Christie conundrum loomed over his town hall in Hollis, New Hampshire, on Thursday night. The event had a large turnout of 250-300 people, a considerable bump up from the typical 100-200 number. But the evening before, Haley spoke to 700 attendees in the same region.

And with Haley surging, the jabs that Christie had previously aimed towards Trump were now directed toward the former U.N. ambassador. He highlighted how Haley said she would pardon Trump, and how she hasn’t ruled out accepting an offer to become Trump’s vice president.

Christie closed out his town hall by cautioning that polls can’t always be trusted. “Even if the polls right now are accurate,” he added, “it doesn’t mean they’re gonna be accurate on January 23.”

He’s not wrong. And it’s not unreasonable to want to remain in the race in the only state he’s concentrated on. Haley herself hasn’t helped her own cause recently with several high-profile gaffes.

But he’s hurtling toward a moment of reckoning, a point-of-no-return in which he must make a decision that could very well determine the fate of the nomination fight.

“I don’t want Trump to be the candidate,” said Reva Beste, an undeclared voter from Nashua who said she is now weighing between Christie and Haley. “I would like New Hampshire to come through and show that there are other candidates out there that would be better.”

Christie has argued that his voters won’t go to Haley if he drops out of the race, but polls suggest otherwise. A CBS survey last month found that 75 percent of Christie supporters were also considering Haley, while only 9 percent were considering Trump.

One of Christie’s voters is Gretchen Uhas of Lyndeborough, who changed her registration from Democrat to undeclared to vote for Christie in the GOP primary. But if Christie were to drop, she said she would vote for Haley if it meant helping her beat Trump in the primary.

“But only if Christie dropped out,” Uhas said. “And I don’t think he’s gonna drop out.”

Lisa Kashinsky contributed to this report. 

Welcome to POLITICO Nightly. Reach out with news, tips and ideas at nightly@politico.com. Or contact tonight’s author at mmccarthy@politico.com or on X (formerly known as Twitter) at @Reporter_Mia.

— Supreme Court will take up Trump’s eligibility to run for president: Stepping into a political minefield, the Supreme Court has agreed to decide whether states have the power to knock Donald Trump off the ballot in the looming presidential contest over his role in stoking the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol and trying to upend the 2020 election results. In a brief order today, the high court indicated it will review a Colorado Supreme Court decision that concluded Trump is ineligible to run under a provision of the 14th Amendment that strips insurrectionists of the ability to hold U.S. government posts. The justices set an accelerated timetable to hear the extraordinary election dispute, setting oral arguments for Feb. 8.

— Court says even passive members of Jan. 6 mob can be convicted of disorderly conduct: A federal appeals court ruled today that Jan. 6 defendants can be found culpable of “disorderly” or “disruptive” conduct inside the Capitol even if they weren’t personally violent or destructive. The decision is a victory for the Justice Department in cases against hundreds of defendants charged with misdemeanor counts of disorderly and disruptive conduct, one of the staple charges that has been applied to nearly every member of the mob that entered the halls of Congress.

— NRA CEO Wayne LaPierre steps down amid corruption charges: National Rifle Association Vice President and CEO Wayne LaPierre resigned from the organization today, just three days before the embattled leader is set to face a corruption trial in New York. Per an NRA press release detailing LaPierre’s resignation, Andrew Arulanandam, previously the organization’s head of general operations, will take over for LaPierre as interim CEO and executive vice president after LaPierre steps down on Jan. 31. Although the 74-year-old LaPierre cited health concerns as the reason for his resignation, the gun organization’s release addressed the fact that LaPierre is “an individual defendant” in New York Attorney General Tish James’ corruption case.

— U.S. job growth beats expectations, taking pressure off Fed cuts: The U.S. economy in December added 216,000 jobs, exceeding economists’ expectations and giving the Federal Reserve another reason to tap the brakes on the fervor for interest rate cuts. Today’s Labor Department employment report is the most significant snapshot of the U.S. jobs picture since the Fed signaled last month that it was done hiking rates amid mounting evidence that inflation is declining. The pivot helped fuel a year-end stock market rally as well as hopes for an initial rate cut in March.

DANGER TO DEMOCRACY — President Joe Biden today declared that defending democracy from the extremist forces that fueled the Jan. 6 insurrection three years ago was the nation’s “sacred cause,” one that would be at the heart of his reelection bid.

In what resembled an unofficial campaign kickoff, Biden took square aim at his likely general election opponent, Donald Trump, denouncing his efforts to remain in power after the 2020 election. Unleashing his strongest language yet against his once and possibly future foe, Biden tore into his predecessor, deeming Trump “despicable” and a danger to the nation he once led. “Whether democracy is still America’s sacred cause is the most urgent question of our time. It is what the 2024 election is all about,” Biden told a crowd gathered in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania.

NATO NO MORE — Republican candidate Vivek Ramaswamy has told multiple people he would withdraw the U.S. from NATO as president, the furthest anyone vying for the Oval Office has gone on the idea of ending America’s role in the alliance.

The remarks made to different groups experts and supporters, detailed to POLITICO by three people familiar with his comments, signal NATO’s days may be numbered if Ramaswamy or someone who shares his general worldview, like former President Donald Trump, wins the election in November.

14TH AMENDMENT WATCH — Wisconsin’s Democratic governor opposes keeping Republican Donald Trump off the ballot in the battleground state, saying that those who think he should be disqualified “can vote against him.”

Gov. Tony Evers also told The Associated Press in an interview Wednesday that in order for President Joe Biden to win Wisconsin, he must be a frequent visitor to the state and focus his message on his successes and issues that matter to the middle class, not just the argument that the fate of democracy is at stake. Evers’ comments came ahead of the filing of a lawsuit today seeking to remove Trump from the ballot in Wisconsin.

China's President Xi Jinping and France's President Emmanuel Macron taste wine during the China International Import Expo in Shanghai on Nov. 5, 2019. | Ludovic Marin/AFP via Getty Images

DRINKING ENEMIES — The trade relationship between the EU and China took another hit today as China announced it would investigate whether European producers of liquors are dumping their products on its market, POLITICO EU reports.

In a step that appeared targeted primarily against France’s large brandy sector, Beijing revealed its displeasure over the EU’s assertiveness in its trade ties with China, including a probe into made-in-China electric vehicle subsidies that was strongly backed by President Emmanuel Macron’s government.

“It’s about sending a message,” said trade lawyer Laurent Ruessmann, a partner at Fieldfisher.

“The EU has opened several cases in the last few months: anti-dumping on biodiesel and also on boom lifts. [China is] basically pressuring these high-profile French brandy producers to use their open ear with the Elysée Palace to tell them the EU should be careful.”

The probe comes three months after the European Commission started an investigation into whether subsidies for electric vehicle producers from the Chinese government are unfair.

Beijing’s investigation deals another blow to the already fraught relationship between the European Union and China, last illustrated by an EU-China summit in December that ended without substantive outcomes.

It will also cast a shadow over a state visit to Beijing next week by Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo, who took over at the helm of the Council of the EU this month. The Belgian leader is set to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping next Friday.

GUATEMALA’S BABY BROKERS — There are over 40,000 international Guatemalan adoptees who live in the U.S., Canada and Europe, second only to China for the number of children adopted by internationals. And they got there often with adopted parents paying a significant price — thousands to tens of thousands of dollars to private brokers who could make getting an adopted child possible. But many of these children were found through networks of “baby brokers” who often tricked indigenous Mayans in Guatemala to give up their children through signing fake legal documents — while others were “disappeared” by kidnappers while Mayans faced the brunt of state violence during the extended Guatemalan Civil War. Now, these children are in the midst of a swirl of questions about violence, war crimes and heritage. Rachel Nolan reports in The Guardian in an edited excerpt of her new book.

On this date in 1993: President George H.W. Bush wipes his face during his speech at the United States Military Academy in West Point, N.Y. The president got emotional after speaking about a Somali child he saw in the arms of a U.S. serviceman. | Bebeto Matthews/AP

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