Republican Chris Christie, former governor of New Jersey and Donald Trump rival for the 2016 GOP presidential nomination, told CNBC on Monday that he wants to help his "friend" the president, but he's content to do it from afar.
"I'm not one of these people who's desperate for a job. I think I turned down seven of them down," Christie said in a "Squawk Box" interview. "I'm not desperate for a title. I'm not looking to run to Washington, D.C. What I'm looking to do is to make the country better and to help my friend."
Among the jobs that Christie said he declined in the Trump administration included Labor secretary, Homeland Security secretary, special assistant to the president, ambassador to Rome, and ambassador to the Vatican.
"He hasn't offered me anything that I really wanted to do," said Christie, author of "Let Me Finish: Trump, the Kushners, Bannon, New Jersey, and the Power of In-Your-Face Politics."
"If there's something I really want to do and I think I bring real value to him and the country I'll step up and do it," he added. "I can certainly help him from where I am. And it's much better for my family if I stay where I am."
In his book, Christie describes the discussions around his support of Trump after dropping out of the 2016 race. The former governor writes that he said, at the time, his endorsement was not conditional, but he was only interested in the vice president or attorney general jobs, which respectively went to then-Indiana Gov. Mike Pence and then-Sen. Jeff Sessions.
After a tumultuous relationship with Trump over the investigation into Russia's alleged influence in the 2016 election by special counsel Robert Mueller, Trump forced out Sessions in November 2018. William Barr was sworn-in as Sessions' replacement last month. The 68-year-old Barr served as George H.W. Bush's attorney general.
