Chris Christie to Headline Closing Ceremonies at Bill Clinton’s Forum
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Jeff Zelevansky/Getty Images(WASHINGTON) — New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie will be headlining the closing ceremonies of former President Bill Clinton’s annual international forum in Chicago on Friday.
The session, called “Cooperation and Collaboration: A Conversation on Leadership,” is the product of an odd-couple pairing of Clinton and Christie that has developed in the four years since the popular former president tried unsuccessfully to end Christie’s political career before it really took off, sources close to both Clinton and Christie said.
“They’re both similar in a lot of ways,” one Clinton insider told ABC News. Clinton “respects him and his nature and he likes him as a person. Clinton likes the straightforward style. They have similar backgrounds, they were both prosecutors, Clinton as an attorney general in Arkansas. They’re both normal guys from humble beginnings.”
Representatives of both men declined to comment for this story, saying Clinton and Christie will say what needs to be said when they take the stage at the Clinton Global Initiative event.
Intimates of both men say the real story behind Friday’s event is the private friendship that has developed between the ex-president and a governor who’s touted as a possible contender for the White House in 2016.
The two have met, traded war stories and talked on the phone, all inside the four years since Clinton campaigned hard on behalf of then-Gov. Jon Corzine, the incumbent Christie beat in 2009.
People familiar with the private conversations between the governor and the former president said this is the second time Clinton invited Christie to play a starring role at the Clinton Global Initiative in Chicago. Christie had been tentatively scheduled to attend last year but was scrubbed from the final agenda.
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