A controversial political figure tightly intertwined with President Trump’s administration is coming to Barnes & Noble in The Villages.
Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie will be at the highly popular bookstore in Lake Sumter Landing on Saturday at 4 p.m. to sign copies of his newest book titled “Let Me Finish: Trump, the Kushners, Bannon, New Jersey, and the Power of In-Your-Face Politics,” which was released late last month. The book promises to deliver a “no-holds-barred” account of his rise to power in New Jersey and his insights on the president’s inner circle.
Christie, who stunned many in the Republican Party when he endorsed Donald Trump after dropping out of the 2016 presidential race, points out that he and Trump had been friends for many years. And he claims that he “understood the future president as well as anyone in the political arena.”
Christie quickly became one of Trump’s most trusted advisers, was tapped to run his transition team and came very close to be being named his vice presidential running mate, according to the book’s overview.
But there was controversy brewing, and the day after Trump’s surprising victory over Hillary Clinton, Christie was cut loose, with his plan for the transition apparently never even being considered. Christie says in the book that he was officially fired by former Chief Strategist Steve Bannon but he knew the order came from someone else and he pushed the issue until Bannon told him it came from Trump’s son-in-law and top adviser, Jared Kushner.
That prompted Christie to respond in his new book and share his side of the Kushner saga – an ordeal that had started years earlier when as a federal prosecutor Christie put Kushner’s powerful father, Charles, behind bars on charges that included tax fraud and election law violations. And, Christie claims, his ouster was nothing more than the younger Kushner getting revenge.
“Let Me Finish” also promises to tell “with the kind of bluntness few politicians can match” Christie’s takes on the “ego-driven battles for Trump’s attention among figures like Bannon, Corey Lewandowksi, Reince Priebus, Kellyanne Conway, Jeff Sessions and Paul Manafort.
Readers also will learn about Christie’s own “hot-button issues” from his years as a Republican governor overseeing a Democratic state, along with what really went down during the Bridgegate scandal, where a Christie staff member and political appointees colluded to create gridlock in Fort Lee by shutting down toll lanes on the George Washington Bridge during the morning rush hour.
It was believed that the actions were taken as retribution against the borough’s Democratic mayor because he hadn’t supported Christie’s candidacy in the 2013 New Jersey gubernatorial race.
When Christie arrives Saturday, he will become one in a long line of high-profile authors who have visited Florida’s Friendliest Hometown and signed books at the Lake Sumter Landing Barnes & Noble in the past year. The others include:
- In November – a little over a year after he was gunned down by a sniper – U.S. Rep Steve Scalise signed copies of “Back in the Game: One Gunman, Countless Heroes, and the Fight for My Life.
- Popular Fox News commentator Tucker Carlson signed copies of his book, “Ship of Fools: How a Selfish Ruling Class Is Bringing America to the Brink of Revolution” on Oct. 6.
- The night before, “Fox and Friends” co-host Steve Doocy and his wife, Kathy, signed copies of their new cookbook, “The Happy Cookbook: A Celebration of the Food That Makes America Smile.” And Steve Doocy appeared in live segments during Friday’s edition of “Fox & Friends” from Lake Sumter Landing outside RJ Gator’s.
- In August, former White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer signed copies of his new book, “The Briefing: Politics, the Press, and the President.” And later that same month, Greg Gutfeld, co-host of “The Five” signed copies of “The Gutfeld Monologues: Classic Rants From The Five.”
- In May, Bret Baier, host of “Special Report with Bret Baier” and chief political anchor for Fox, signed copies of his new book titled: “Three Days in Moscow: Ronald Reagan and the Fall of the Soviet Empire.” Baier, who along with his family was recently injured in a vehicle crash while vacationing in Montana, is no stranger to The Villages, as his aunt, Kathy Scarito, lives in the Village of Sunset Pointe.
- And this April, Elisabeth Hasselbeck, who is known to viewers worldwide for her roles on “The View” and “Fox & Friends,” will be at Barnes & Noble to sign copies of her new book, “Point of View: A Fresh Look at Work, Faith, and Freedom.”
