Republicans pandering to liberals for approval backfires every time. If there’s been one lesson from the past few years, that’s probably it.

John McCain tried to extend olive branches to the left, and was roundly defeated in 2008. Mitt Romney put on his best “nice guy” face and still lost in 2012, while Republicans like Jeff Flake and Paul Ryan repeatedly seem more worried about being liked by liberals than getting things done.

Add Chris Christie to that list. On Tuesday night, the former governor of New Jersey and failed presidential candidate made a chummy appearance on “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert,” doing his best to be pals with the hard-left host while hawking a book.

It was, to be frank, pretty embarrassing.

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The appearance got off to an awkward start when Christie asked for liquor and started downing shots like a frat boy on spring break. We’re not kidding.

“Before we get to (my book) … are we drinking tonight or not?” the portly politician asked as he leaned in.

Colbert was apparently expecting that request, and pulled out a bottle of tequila from under his desk.

“Now, this is that liberal George Clooney tequila,” the host pointed out, referring to a liquor brand owned by the actor. “I hope you don’t mind.”

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“Lemme tell you something,” replied Christie. “If it gets me loaded, I don’t care.” He then down the first large shot in a single swig.

The liberal Colbert, of course, gained fame as a sarcastic pundit mocking conservatives on “The Colbert Report,” a dubious tradition he continued after taking over “The Late Show.” So it’s no surprise that things got political fast, but Christie wasted no time in trashing Donald Trump.

“Where do you think the wheels came off during the shutdown?” the host asked the former presidential candidate.

“The president blew it,” Christie declared.

“When?” questioned Colbert.

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“When he shut the government down, with no plan on how to re-open it,” Christie declared.

That response got cheers from the audience but didn’t make a whole lot of sense. After all, the government had already re-opened by the time of the interview, and there had always been a surefire way to keep it open all along: Democrat lawmakers simply had to agree to fund the border wall.

But the governor who left office in New Jersey with appallingly low approval ratings and not much of a political future in sight wasn’t finished lambasting Trump.

“I don’t think, given that (the shutdown) went 35 days, that he had a plan,” Christie said, seemingly laughing off the president’s attempt to finally secure the border.

Christie went on the lecture Trump as if he were an expert on winning.

“You don’t get anywhere by doing that kind of stuff,” he scolded, referring to Trump’s criticisms of the Justice Department. “I’ve been really clear with him about that … it just doesn’t help.”

Yep, Christie just told a man who beat over a dozen other Republicans for the 2016 GOP nomination and then pulled off one of the biggest political upsets in history that Trump doesn’t “get anywhere by doing that.” Except, you know, the White House.

When asked by Colbert if he would have been a better president than Trump, Christie replied without hesitation: “Yes.”

At the end of the day, Christie is, of course, free to peddle his book and schmooze with leftists on the talk show circuit, but this is exactly why voters rejected him during the presidential cycle. It’s also, ironically, part of why Trump won.

The large swath of the American public which leans right is fed up with the Clintons, the Christies, and all the rest who smugly treat politics as a social club to brown-nose all the other elitists.

Trump didn’t even try to be friendly with the media or the liberal elitists, intuitively understanding that they’d despise him either way.

Getting drunk with a Hollywood blowhard who hates the president might make Christie seem “cool” for about thirty seconds, but it detracts from the one thing he keeps claiming to value: Respect.

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