Gov. Chris Christie refrained from saying "I told you so" when he introduced Ivanka Trump at an appearance in Bayville earlier this week.

But he had every right to, especially when it comes to the recent developments concerning his old rival Jeff Sessions.

During the presidential campaign last year, the governor of New Jersey and the then-Senator from Alabama were among the first prominent Republicans to come out for Donald Trump.

At one point in that campaign, Trump said Christie would make "a great attorney general" in the event he won the election.

Trump went on to win, but Christie lost out in the fight over who would get the job of attorney general. That went to Sessions, who has spent the past year trying to win a place among the worst cabinet picks ever.

Sessions hadn't made it through his confirmation hearing before he made the second biggest mistake in recent political history. That came when he assured Democratic U.S. Sen. Al Franken of Minnesota that he had had no contact with Russians during the campaign.

Franken hadn't asked him whether he had any such contacts, but Sessions offered that information anyway. When it later surfaced that Sessions had had a couple of perfunctory meetings with the Russian ambassador, Sessions went to make the biggest mistake in recent political history: He recused himself and let a special prosecutor take over the probe.

Trump was livid over that dumb move. But it was the Donald's own dumb move that led to the debacle now dominating the headlines.

That move was to name a sitting senator to his cabinet. That put Sessions' safe seat up for grabs. Now it looks like the Democrats might grab it, cutting the GOP margin to a razor-thin 51-49.

That's because of allegations that the GOP nominee, Roy Moore, sexually harassed some teenaged women 40 years ago.

Sessions has come out against Moore, saying "I have no reason to doubt these young women."

And I have no reason to doubt Sessions should have stayed in the Senate. The Washington Post, which first published the allegations against Moore, is reporting a plan among Beltway Republicans to do just that by running him as a write-in.

They might as well wish for a time machine. Imagine for a moment that the Donald had taken Christie's side in that post-election power struggle between him and the tag team of Sessions and Vice President Mike Pence.

I'm sure Christie has imagined it. The Trump transition was going along fine until Christie was ousted in that post-election purge by Pence and Sessions.

Pence took Christie's place as head of the transition team. He presided over a transition that is still being bungled to this day, at least according to one New Jersey pol who was working on the team until Christie was canned.

"The firing of Christie three days after the election has had a major negative impact on the entire first year of the Trump presidency," said Jeff Bell, a two-time GOP Senate nominee who works for a conservative think tank.

The decision to pick Sessions over Christie as attorney general was a mistake that's still haunting Trump in the form of that special prosecutor's probe, Bell said.

"Christie never would have recused himself because he had nothing to recuse himself about," said Bell.

Sessions is what he appears to be - a small-town lawyer unprepared for the Washington wars.

Christie by comparison would have been less of an attorney general than a consigliere, if I may invoke a term popularized in "The Godfather." It's difficult to imagine someone like Franken luring him into the trap into which Sessions voluntarily ventured.

Sessions was at it again the other day when he once again bungled a question about the Trump campaign's contacts with the Russians.

That came when he was asked about a campaign meeting at which a participant suggested setting up a meeting between Trump and Russian leader Vladimir Putin. Sessions testified he had "no clear recollection" of the meeting but it later came out he chaired the meeting.

If it had been Christie on the hot seat, it's easy to imagine him turning the question back on the questioner: Why shouldn't the potential leader of one major power talk to the leader of another major power? Didn't Nixon go to China?

Sessions seems incapable of generating even that obvious cliche for an answer.

If Trump wishes to send him back to the Senate, that write-in vote won't be the ticket. Moore's name can't be taken off the ballot. He is giving every indication he will keep campaigning right up until that Dec. 12 election.

If the Democrats win that key seat, Christie will have yet another opportunity to say "I told you so."

Once out of office, I expect he will.

BELOW:

Is Jeff Sessions dumb? Or does he just sound dumb?