ANOTHER ONE DOWN: Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie quit his bid for president yesterday in which he failed to knock Donald Trump out of the race. As of yesterday, Christie had 3.6 percent of the likely Republican vote to Trump’s 61.3 percent.

  Christie’s graceful exit speech in New Hampshire was overshadowed by remarks he made over an open microphone before his appearance, saying about opponent Nikki Haley, “She’s going to get smoked, and you and I both know it” and “She’s not up to this.” He added about Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida, “DeSantis called me, petrified.”

  Christie did not endorse another candidate and was bluntly critical of fellow candidates who have not condemned Trump. “Anyone who is unwilling to say that he is unfit to be president of the United States, is unfit themselves to be president of the United States,” Christie said.

  He said he got into the race because “No one would tell the truth about Donald Trump. No one would tell the truth about his divisiveness, his stoking of anger for his own benefit, and putting himself before the people of this country.” 

  South Carolina’s Nikki Haley is running third in the national polls, but in New Hampshire she’s second, hoping to put a dent in Trump. The latest poll puts Trump at 39 percent to Haley’s 32.

  For his part, Christie said last night, “I am going to make sure that in no way do I enable Donald Trump to ever be president of the United States again.”

ORANGE ALERT: Donald Trump chose not to deliver his own closing argument in his New York civil fraud trial today after refusing to abide by the terms and conditions set by Judge Arthur Engoron.

  The Judge said Trump could not deliver a political speech and would be limited to the facts and the law without attacking the judge, court staff members or the New York attorney general who brough the lawsuit.

  “If Mr. Trump violates any of these rules, I will not hesitate to cut him off in midsentence and admonish him,” Justice Engoron, a Democrat, said in an email last week. “If he continues to violate the rules, I will end his closing argument and prevent him from making any further statements in the courtroom.”

  Trump has converted his legal problems into a political platform for president. His lawyer, Christopher Kise, responded to the judge that the conditions were “fraught with ambiguities” and that barring Trump from attacking the Democratic attorney general, Letitia James, was “simply untenable.”

HUNTER: Presidential son Hunter Biden surprised Republicans on the House Oversight Committee yesterday appearing in the hearing room just as they were about to vote to hold him in contempt for refusing to sit for a private deposition.

  The House Judiciary Committee later did just that, voted to hold the younger Biden in contempt.

  Hunter Biden has repeatedly offered to testify publicly in the Republican impeachment inquiry into his farther, but refuses to answer questions in private, claiming that information and quotes would be selectively leaked to make him and his father look bad. The Republicans claim that Joe Biden profited from his son’s business deals. 

  Yesterday’s appearance set was an effort to embarrass the Republicans and undercut their claim that Hunter refuses to appear.

  Before Biden left the room, Rep. Nancy Mace of South Carolina said he should be arrested and jailed on the spot. “You are the epitome of white privilege, coming into the Oversight Committee, spitting in our face, ignoring a congressional subpoena to be deposed,” Mace said to Biden. “What are you afraid of?” she asked. “You have no balls.”

  A member of the committee is Ohio Republican Rep. Jim Jordan, who defied a subpoena to appear before the House January 6^th investigating committee.

  “Hunter Biden was and is a private citizen,” his lawyer, Abbe Lowell said. “Despite this, Republicans have sought to use him as a surrogate to attack his father. 

FUNNY MONEY: After a year in which the value of Bitcoin grew by 150 percent even while the crypto-currency industry is under criminal and regulatory scrutiny, the Securities and Exchange Commission approved a Bitcoin investment fund that will track prices allow the public an easier way to buy in.

  Bitcoin, and all crypto currencies, are a thing that does not exist that rises and falls in value according to demand. It doesn’t represent oil shipments or new cars, or anything productive. It’s digits in a computer. All you have to know is that when crypto executives pay their lawyers and donate money to politicians, they do it with real money. 

THE SPIN RACK: Democrat Don Scott, a 58-year-old Navy veteran who spent eight years in federal prison on a drug conviction, was elected speaker of the Virginia House yesterday, becoming the first Black speaker in the body’s history. — A 66-year-old man was killed yesterday in an avalanche at the Palisades Tahoe ski resort in Lake Tahoe. Two other skiers were swept into the avalanche but were pulled out. — Alabama football coach Nick Saban, who has coached The Crimson Tide to seven national championships, more than any other coach, announced his retirement at age 72. And Pete Carroll has been dumped as coach of the Seattle Seahawks after 14 seasons. — ESPN host Pat McAfee has dumped Jets QB Aaron Rodgers from his weekly show after Rodgers falsely intimated that late night host Jimmy Kimmel might be among the patrons of Jeffrey Epstein’s teenage sex ring. 

BELOW THE FOLD: Nikki Haley and Ron DeSantis traded barbs and attacks during a debate in Iowa last night televised on CNN while Donald Trump got a free ride over on Fox. Haley and DeSantis are running for a distant second to the former president. Trump broke the news that he knows who he wants for a running mate but wouldn’t give the name.

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