. happening now. there s majora breaking news out there for the republican presidential nomination. a source now tells cnn that chris christie is dropping out of the race. we are standing by to hear directly from him live this hour in new hampshire. we will bring that to you as soon as it begins and all this comes as the final republican debate before the iowa caucuses are now just a few hours away right here on cnn. nikki haley and ron desantis preparing to face off tonight as both candidates make their closing pitch to try to naur row t narrow the gap with donald trump. welcome to our viewers in the united states and around the world. i m wolf blitzer. you re in the situation room. this is cnn breaking news. let s get straight to the breaking news and the race of the republican nomination. he s got details on the major developments that are unfolding. exactly, omar, what are we expected to hear directly from chris christie in the coming minutes? yeah, wol
them up maybe that changes the whole trajectory of the race or do i stand here and continue to fate f fight for what i believe in? that is a tough choice to make, there is a huge 180-degree difference between what he was saying yesterday and what he was saying today. i hope he clears that up tonight. elena, how do you think donald trump is likely to react to chris christie s decision to get out of the race? well, publicly, wolf, i think you can expect donald trump to gloat. i think that he ll celebrate that christie is dropping out, and i know from my conversations with trump s advisers they never considered him a real player and they weren t worried about him impacting trump s standing in the race and the other part of this is what him dropping out means for someone like nikki haley and that would be a big concern for the trump campaign
some momentum. i think it is also a sign of chris sununu s influence and power. we heard yesterday christie kind of deny sununu and he had talked about him dropping you and the and sununu had been calling for christie to drop out for some time. he endorsed nikki haley some time ago, but i think he has become a very important voice in this gop primary, and i think that probably weighed into some of the decision making, as well. now, listen, chris christie probably was never going to win the nomination, but he was and can continue to be an important voice of opposition to go where some of the other candidates haven t been willing to go and whoever gets his endorsement will inherit that, as well. will inherit his bombast and his courage in going after trump where a lot of the other candidates have not.
this just in. chris christie expected to drop out of the 2024 presidential race and he s about to make this announcement and i want to go back to the panel and your reaction. it was always a long shot for him to get the nomination. it helps nikki haley in the long run in new hampshire. i hope he keeps throwing purchases at donald trump if the other two folks won t do it. i don t think we ll see christie will endorse nikki haley for someone who has 40 points, but his voters will probably go to nikki haley and conceivably, if she gets all of them that would put her ahead of donald trump. there were people on his leadership team, christie saying dropout. christie responded to that saying he was a liar and now we re expecting this announcement according to a source that he is going to be dropping out indeed. thank you both and much more on this with wolf blitzer in the situation room.
and we know from my reporting and the reporting of my colleagues that donald trump has increasingly growing concerned about haley s rise particularly in new hampshire. you re seeing them pour millions of dollars into attack ads against haley in new hampshire and he s been escalating his attacks on haley throughout the past several weeks now and so if they think that the voters who are backing christie now, if he drops out of the race and those people go to someone like haley, that could be problematic for him. good point. david, are you surprised by how quickly, quickly, chris christie s calculation on whether he was staying in the race or not has changed? wolf, i m not sure we know yet how quickly that calculation is. yes. i think every candidate is in the race until the end until the moment they decide they re not in the race anymore, and if you look at what the denial was about chris sununu, chris