Mike Brey says Christie plans to run for president in 2024, report says

Outgoing Notre Dame Basketball coach Mike Brey said on a podcast today that former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie suggested to him that he plans to make a second bid for the White House in 2024.

“I believe he’s going to run again.  We were talking the other night about it.  He’s going to make a run at it,” Brey told Dan Dakich on Outkick, according to a report from South Bend Tribune sports reporter Mike Bernardino.

Christie, the ultimate fanboy, attended Brey’s final home game at Notre Dame and the afterparty.

“We were out at the bar hanging out, and I’m saying: I’ll be his Chief of Staff,” Brey said.

Brey got to know Christie in the 1990s when he was the head basketball coach at the University of Delaware, Christie’s alma mater.

“I’m great friends with Chris Christie,” said Brey, who said the ex-governor helped him with his basketball program.  “His daughters have been my manager.”

Following the Mike Rice scandal in 2013, Brey told Christie to shut down the Rutgers men’s basketball program.

But three years later, a joke made by Brey caused Christie some embarrassment when he said the governor would attend a big Notre Dame vs. Wisconsin game in March 2016, “if (Donald) Trump will let him.”

Christie has touted himself as a potential candidate but has not taken steps to build a campaign staff.  He has been hovering around the zero percent mark in national and early state polling.

A Monmouth University poll released in January showed that 73% of voters in New Jersey don’t think Christie would make a good president.  Among Republicans, 34% say Christie would make a good president, and 60% say he would not.