WASHINGTON (CN) — No one seemed willing to directly address the elephant in the room.
Although some of the seven presidential candidates at the Faith and Freedom Coalition’s Road to Majority Conference were willing to talk generally about elephants, only one went directly after it.
And when former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie criticized the frontrunner for the Republican nomination, his reception showed that former President Donald Trump is the main obstacle to any White House hopeful.
“I’m running because he’s let us down. He’s let us down because he’s unwilling to take responsibility for any of the mistakes that were made and any of the faults that he has and any of the things that he’s done,” Christie said, eliciting a chorus of boos. “That is not leadership everybody. That is a failure of leadership.”
Trump is the main event at the conference on Saturday night, but his presence was still felt on Friday, with his name emblazoned on T-shirts and hats. One of the loudest ovations came when North Carolina Lieutenant Governor Mark Robinson endorsed Trump. About half of the hundreds of attendees rose to their feet hooting and hollering.
Christie, on the other hand, faced a different reception. He was first greeted with cheers as he recounted being the first to endorse Trump in 2016 and again when he mentioned serving in the administration.
But a large portion of the crowd quickly turned as Christie grew critical of the former president.
“Beware of a leader who never makes mistakes. Beware of a leader who has no faults. Beware of a leader who says, when something goes wrong, it’s everybody else’s fault,” Christie said. “But when things go right everything is to his credit.”
Speakers between presidential candidates said Trump was the victim of politicized federal charges for his handling of classified documents. But other than Christie, all the candidates themselves steered clear of any direct mention of the former president that could be clearly construed as criticism.
The Republican nomination, however, will run through Trump. Eventually anyone hoping to reach the 2024 general election will have to address what sets them apart from him, either on the campaign trail or in debates.
Trump has a polling average of 52.2% as of Friday, more than double Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who is in second place with 21.4%.
Former Vice President Mike Pence is balancing his praise of the Trump administration with his pitch to be a better candidate. Pence, polling at 5.7%, said eventual victory on conservative causes “will require new leadership in the Republican party and the White House.”
DeSantis also skirted overt criticism of Trump, instead focusing on Republicans not winning the White House in 2020 and making small gains than anticipated in Congress in 2022.
“None of this matters if we don’t win, there is no substitute for victory,” he said. “We cannot continue with the culture of losing where we lose winnable races. We have 49 Republican senators right now. We should have 55 Republican senators and we would have been able to stop a lot of Biden's nonsense."
South Carolina Senator Tim Scott, Miami Mayor Francis Suarez, former Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson and businessman Vivek Ramaswamy made no comments that even vaguely referred to Trump.
Since kicking off his campaign, Christie has been direct in saying he will go after Trump. Despite a big negative reception on Friday, Christie received moderate applause as he walked off the stage. He made it clear he doesn’t plan to change tactics.
“You can boo all you want,” said Christie, who is polling at 2.3%. “But here’s the thing: our faith teaches us that people have to take responsibility for what they do.”
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