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The Guardian

Let Me Finish
by Chris Christie, Hachette Books
3.5/5 stars
Chris Christie failed to win a single delegate in his quest for the Republican presidential nomination in 2016, and garnered less than one per cent of the votes cast in the party’s primaries. He then left the New Jersey governor’s mansion with a 14 per cent approval rating. Let Me Finish, his bombshell of a book, could just as easily have been titled Everybody Hates Chris.

In time for the second anniversary of Donald Trump’s presidential inauguration, Christie drops a dollop of revenge, chilled to malevolent perfection – and White House senior adviser and Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner is his primary target. Like most tell-alls, Let Me Finish is an exercise in score-settling, albeit one written from the realm of a dystopic presidency.
But what sets Let Me Finish apart is that it is written by an elected official whom Trump offered several cabinet-levels positions – just not the ones Christie coveted, like attorney general. Christie was frequently, but not always, in the room where it happened. And so Let Me Finish is a self-serving, fascinating and informative read.
From the get-go Kushner is the bane of Christie’s political existence. In his opening pages, Christie recalls how Steve Bannon came to fire him as the head of Trump’s transition team, and in the process Christie extracted a confession that Bannon was only doing Kushner’s bidding.

“The kid’s been taking an axe to your head with the boss ever since I got here,” said Bannon.
Long story short, Christie, a former federal prosecutor under George W. Bush, sent Charles Kushner, Jared’s father, to prison more than a decade earlier for a 14-month stint.
Coincidentally, that saga also involved witness tampering, tax evasion, a prostitute, a camera and a brother-in-law, all of which Kushner thought amounted to a “family matter that should have been kept away from federal authorities”.
Kushner repeatedly stuck a dagger in Christie’s ambitions and Let Me Finish is Christie’s revenge. With the assistance of Ellis Henican, a veteran of the newspaper Newsday and talk radio, Christie paints a portrait of Kushner as callow, smarmy, entitled and way over his skis.
Kushner appears lacking in judgment even as he is cosseted by his family’s wealth and shielded by his father-in-law’s title. Said differently, if Kushner were not married to the boss’s daughter, he would not be anywhere near the Oval Office or still in possession of a security clearance.

Christie lays at Kushner’s feet the blame for the hiring and firing of Michael Flynn, Trump’s first national security adviser, and the firing of the FBI director James Comey – and thereby Trump’s ensuing legal woes. In Christie’s telling, he advised Trump to either fire Comey at the outset of his administration or be prepared to keep him. That did not happen.
Instead, Special Counsel Robert Mueller tortures Trump by day and Comey’s ghost torments him by night. Meanwhile, Trump’s White House tenure has been reduced to a mum and dad family business, complete with a full-time special counsel.
While Christie pours his bile on those who surround Trump, he seeks to leave the president unscathed and mostly succeeds.
Thai diplomat’s finest hour, and how he wooed Mao’s China
Kushner is not the only Trump official with a bullseye on his back. Christie dings a whole cast of characters. He chivvies now-former US Attorney General Jeff Sessions, blasts ex-Trump campaign chief Paul Manafort and brings the hammer down on Flynn, whom he labels a “Russian lackey and future federal felon … a train wreck from beginning to end … a slow-motion car crash”.
Critical of the initial iteration of the administration’s travel ban, Christie blames Trump’s aides and his absence from the transition staff. In other words, had Christie been allowed to stay, Trump would have hit the ground running. Perhaps, and then only to a point. Trump is chaos incarnate.
Let Me Finish also recalls how Christie, then federal prosecutor for New Jersey, first met Trump. It was a match initiated by Trump’s sister, Maryanne Trump Barry, a judge on the US Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, which encompasses New Jersey, home of Trump’s bankrupt casinos.

As to be expected, Christie omits inconvenient details. Describing his appearance on Trump’s shortlist of vice-presidential candidates, Christie lets it be known he had also been considered as a running mate by Mitt Romney in 2012.
Nowhere does Christie mention that his earlier vice-presidential gambit ran aground after he was unable to quell the reservations held by Romney’s vetting team.
Likewise, Christie writes of how Steven A. Cohen – believed to be an inspiration for the television series Billions – was his strongest backer in 2016. But Let Me Finish fails to refer to Cohen’s hedge fund, SAC, being convicted of insider trading or Cohen himself being disciplined by the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Don’t be distracted by China – Asia, on the whole, is the real powerhouse
Throughout, Christie conveys a misplaced sense of being put upon. Unfortunately, victimhood does not suit him, not after Bridgegate or Beachgate, the time Christie and his family hung out on a closed beach during a state government shutdown.
In the end, Let Me Finish is a tale of Christie’s willingness to dance with the devil and turn a blind eye when needed. He never convincingly explains why he thought Kushner would let bygones be bygones, or why he concluded that Trump was constitutionally capable of faithfully discharging the obligations of office.
Claiming that “the president was ill served by poor advice” and observing that he is surrounded by “amateurs, grifters, weaklings, convicted and unconvicted felons” rings tinny. It elides how Trump got to where he got and why Christie felt forced to be part of the circus he now seems to abhor. This is what sour grapes sounds like.


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Let Me Finish has Donald Trump’s White House firmly in the firing line – and Chris Christie doesn’t hold back

Former New Jersey governor Chris Christie with US President Donald Trump. Photo: AP

In this Sunday, July 2, 2017, photo, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, right, uses the beach with his family and friends at the governor's summer house at Island Beach State Park in New Jersey. Christie is defending his use of the beach, closed to the public during New Jersey's government shutdown, saying he had previously announced his vacation plans and the media had simply "caught a politician keeping his word." (Andrew Mills/NJ Advance Media via AP)

Let me Finish cover

U.S. Republican presidential candidate Governor Chris Christie speaks to supporters in West Des Moines, Iowa, U.S. January 31, 2016. REUTERS/Brian C. Frank/File Photo

Jared Kushner, senior White House adviser, at the White House in Washington on July 25, 2017. MUST CREDIT: Bloomberg photo by Zach Gibson.

How the US should respond to China’s rising sea threat examined in new book

Warships and fighter jets of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Navy taking part in a military display in the South China Sea on April 12, 2018. Photo: Reuters

FILE - In this May 13, 2018, file photo, provided by China's Xinhua News Agency, China's aircraft carrier leaves Dalian in northeast China's Liaoning Province for sea trials. Chinese navy pilots aboard the country's sole operating aircraft carrier have completed their first nighttime takeoffs and landings. The missions are being hailed as a major step forward in the Liaoning's combat ability. (Li Gang/Xinhua via AP, File)

Red Star Over the Pacific, Second Edition:

***PLEASE CLEAR THE COPYRIGHTS BEFORE REUSE*** The guided-missile frigate Hengshui (Hull 572) and the guided-missile destroyers Yinchuan (Hull 107) and Lanzhou (Hull 170) steam in formation during a 4-day maritime live-fire training exercise in waters of the South China Sea from Oct. 24 to 27, 2017. They are attached to a destroyer flotilla with the South China Sea Fleet under the PLA Navy. (eng.chinamil.com.cn/Photo by Yu Lin)

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The former New Jersey governor drops a dollop of revenge, chilled to malevolent perfection in his tell-all book about Trump’s team
His target? White House senior adviser and Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, who ‘repeatedly stuck a dagger in Christie’s ambitions’ 


Former governor of New Jersey Chris Christie drops a dollop of revenge, chilled to malevolent perfection in his tell-all book about the Trump administration. His target? White House senior adviser Jared Kushner


US Politics

Trump-Russia collusion investigations

Let Me Finish has Donald Trump’s White House firmly in the firing line – and Chris Christie doesn’t hold back

The former New Jersey governor drops a dollop of revenge, chilled to malevolent perfection in his tell-all book about Trump’s team His target? White House senior adviser and Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, who ‘repeatedly stuck a dagger in Christie’s ambitions’

The former New Jersey governor drops a dollop of revenge, chilled to malevolent perfection in his tell-all book about Trump’s team

His target? White House senior adviser and Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, who ‘repeatedly stuck a dagger in Christie’s ambitions’