Let Me Finish: Trump, the Kushners, Bannon, New Jersey, and the Power of In-Your-Face Politics

This is one of the best recent books by a politician. I found it very readable and engaging, and as anotherreader noted, it reads the way that he speaks. At the beginning of the decade, in 2011, the GOP seemedto be lacking in strong Presidential candidates, and there was a strong push for Chris Christie to enterthe race. At the end of the decade, he has completed his term, returned to his family and private practicedue to a number of turns of events.He begins with family, marriage to Mary Pat, and the 1986 Mets. After just a few chapters on youth,he tells of being a U.S. Attorney in New Jersey, and the Charles Kushner case which would haunt himmany years later. During this time Christie also became friends with Donald Trump, and they and theirwives would socialize. Trump's sister, the judge Marianne Barry, approached Christie when her brotherwanted to meet him. Christie observes that Donald collected people and relationships who mightbe handy later on, even if it wasn't clear exactly how.As Governor he had battles with the teachers' unions, and his blunt speaking style worked. He easilywon re-election and his outspokenness became a new political model, which was taken to a greaterextreme by Trump. The beginning of Christie's downfall was Bridgegate, where a traffic jam wascreated at the George Washington bridge to retaliate against the local mayor. Christie says his mistakewas giving too much trust to his friend, whose flaw was that he was unable to say no to the schemeof his own best friend.In 2012 Christie said no to running for President, because he wasn't ready yet, but for 2016 he expecteda four way race with Jeb Bush, Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz as the other front-runners. While Bush wasnot successful, he drained most of the money from the establishment. It seems that Christie should haveseen that coming and had a plan. His debate exchanges with Rubio became famous when Rubio keptrepeating the same points about Obama.After dropping out of the race, Christie endorsed Trump, which at the time seemed out of nowhere, asonly Sarah Palin and later Jeff Sessions did so early on. This book helps to make more sense out of that,because the relationship grew gradually over 15 years. Christie comes across as street smart and booksmart, and could help to focus the wild Trump energy. Furthermore, he had a dislike for Hillary Clintonand didn't want her to be president. Christie was in charge of the transition team, and coming up withnames to fill the cabinet. Trump saw the concept of preparation as "bad karma" but left it to Christie.In the end, they had to wing it as they had everything else. Christie was interested in being vice presidentor attorney general, but not in any other cabinet job. For VP, it came down to Gingrich, Christie and Pence,and finally just Christie and Pence, but he barely lost out.Then he was fired from the transition team job, undermined by Kushner and Bannon as well as Priebus.The legendary Christie wit is quite hilarious when directed toward Bannon, who can look "pretentiousand like an unmade bed" at the same time. He was "clearly brilliant and clearly arrogant, and thoughthe knew everything about everything". But it was Kushner who was really in charge of everything, anddidn't trust Christie because of his prosecution of his father years before. Interestingly, Ivanka is presentedfairly neutrally. Christie claims that while he wanted to help Trump and the country, the others (with exceptionslike Conway) had their own agendas. He also contests the information that Bannon gave to Bob Woodwardand other authors.

I read “Let Me Finish” because I wanted to understand why a man of Chris Christie’s caliber, reputation, accomplishments, intelligence and integrity could possibly be friends with Donald J.Trump, and why he would, time and time again, go back to the Trump Train for, what looked like to many Americans, just one more dose of disrespect and abuse.I read Christie's book in one day and when I was done, I went back to reread parts I had flagged as bothersome. I think it's important to note here that it’s tempting to give lower stars in a book review when you are upset and find displeasure with the author or the author’s politics, but it’s not fair to the author. It’s incredibly difficult to write a book, especially if you are not a writer. Angry and mean-spirited one-star reviews should be dismissed as relevant.“Let Me Finish” is good but not great, and I did see some mistakes that the editors missed, but I gave it four stars anyway. The writing is blunt and in your face, but was that on purpose because "blunt and in-you-face honesty" is who Christie is? The style of writing didn't matter to me, because I think he did a good job of telling his story the way he wanted to tell it. He wanted to set the record straight because many of the stories out there about him are false.A writer loses some points with me when their anger and bias makes its way into their otherwise well-written and credible book, and I did see Governor Christie's deep dislike for most things Left. Leave it out of the narrative because it makes you look small and petty and it diminishes your efforts. For example, at Trump’s wedding to Melania, Hillary Clinton “held court like a queen” when greeting people. No she didn’t. Hillary was just being Hillary, and Christie dislikes most things Hillary.The title of this review "An Astonishing Display of Political Opportunism" came from Christie's former national finance chair, Meg Whitman. She was referring to Christie's endorsement of Trump for President. When I heard that Christie had endorsed Trump that was my reaction as well. "What's in it for me?" "How can I benefit from my close relationship with Trump?" From Christie's explanation in the book, he believed he had a lot to offer the forty-fifth president and his administration. With Christie's experience as a US Attorney, Governor of New Jersey, and decades in the political arena, he could help Trump become the successful president this country desperately needs. The cast of characters that surrounded "the boss" had their own best interests in mind, not the President's and not the country's. Those people, not Trump, are the true villains here.After Mr. Christie spent over two years of being accused of knowing about and possibly orchestrating Bridgegate, and after the turmoil and never-ending investigations that eventually cleared him of any wrong-doing, Christie’s good friend Donald J. Trump says to the world that Christie knew about Bridgegate. He threw him under the bus and he enjoyed it. "Who does that?" Trump does; that's who. At one point in the book the governor of New Jersey--the man who many thought would be our next president--admitted he felt so fortunate that Donald J. Trump hadn't given him a nickname. Wait! What? Really? The man who Christie is loyal to over and over and over again, breaks his promises, treats him with disrespect, and does life-altering damage. But Christie gets back up, forgives Trump, and goes back for more, which begs the question: Was Christie sacrificing himself for the good of America or was all of this an astonishing display of political opportunism? I chose to believe it was the former because I do believe the story as Governor Christie told it.

I couldn't put this book down, a great insight into the workings of government and politics. Chris is a shrewd politician but I have to question that he let his loyalty to Trump interfere with his judgement and the instance that stands out for me was the meeting with Trump when Jared came (whose father Chris had prosecuted) . Surely he must have realised that Trump had set him up for a confrontational meeting for his own entertainment. This is the best book I've read for a long time but Trump used and abused Chris as he does to so many others and this I fear will reflect badly on his future career. Yet again Trump guilty of corrupting everything he touches. I like many others just can't understand why people don't just see Trump for what he is? Chris seems only to willing to blame Trump's advisors rather than Trump himself, which again I believe shows a lack of management judgement and unfortunately leaves a serious cloud over him.

Fabulous book, about This NJ no nonsense Politican ,his early life, entrance into POLITICS , becoming NJ STATE Prosecutor. How he sent NJ REAL ESTATE Thug Charles Kushner to Prison,and his Trump Campaign experience as head of 6 months Transition preparation by him and expert experienced workers, thrown out by Jared Kushner & wife Ivanka ,Jared Kushners - Ivanka's Vendetta Power Play against Christie for sending his Dad Charles to Prison how ALL The Trump Adult Children ran the Campaign , Insisted upon Mike Pence as VP. Donald Trump's MASSIVE EGO, SHALLOW Bully, a NON READER who LISTENED ONLY TO his inexperienced Family. HOW Christie's Transition Work was thrown out,ignored as ok by Trump, and all the Leaks to the Press by Ivanka & Jared Kushner,lies about Christie & anyone they didn't like and the betrayal by Shallow Donald Trump of giving Atty Gen and the VP positions according to Ivanka & Jared Kushner's choice. How they insisted James Comey be FIRED against THE STAFF ADVICE TO wait for now due to possible Lash back, Trump listened to Ivanka-Jared who heard Comey was looking into Russia thier finances & Dad Charles ,fired Comey causing the Mueller Investigation. How Jared & Ivanka always conviently got out of town -on vacation when thier bad advice-interference Exploded. How without regret/ shame Pres ElectDonald Trump Dismissed Gov Chris Christie who returned to running NJ watching the havoc of Trump's Oval Office .All the Power Plays by THE FAMILY...Really a wonderful book by Chris Christie who, just says the FACTS without Hate.

A good read, and highlights his views on Trump.R

Nothing new in here, never lived up to the hype expensive mistake, just a autobiography of himself. Which is boring

It's Chris Christie. Great balance Trump insight too.