GOP primary voters ‘are just starting to engage’: Chris Christie

let's go right to 2024 presidential candidate and former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie so Governor Christie you have spent a lot of time in New Hampshire lately let me ask you based on what you're hearing from voters when Trump goes out and says incendiary things like calling January 6 prisoners hostages suggesting that the chairman and The Joint Chiefs of Staff should face the death penalty to voters notice is it make does it make a difference I I think it does make a difference John and I tell you from the turnout we've been having at our town hall meetings just in the last two weeks we see people really starting to engage you've seen our numbers go up over the last two weeks in the polls in New Hampshire and uh last week right before Thanksgiving uh we had a joint Town Hall uh in Nashua with uh with governor cunu and it was a standing room only crowd completely packed the room and had people standing three rows deep in the back um I do think that those polling numbers are correct in this way I think people are just starting to engage even in a place like New Hampshire um you know I I really see people now finally starting to dig in figure out who they think is saying the things that they want to hear um and and telling the truth to the voters in New Hampshire um I think that's going to make a huge difference and so um look you look at those numbers uh John McCain was in third place at this point in uh in 2007 going into the 08 primary that's exactly where I am and and we think we're going to have a very similar result again we've seen DeSantis and Nikki Haley increasingly go after each other I mean they they are taking Trump on a bit now but but spend a lot of time going after each other you're starting to take both of them on as well isn't this exactly how Trump wins is having that opposition uh to him the anti-trump vote uh aimed at each other instead of taking him on John look I've spent the majority of my time going after the guy who's in first place I'm going after Donald Trump and all I point out about Rona santis and Nikki Haley is that they're not going after Trump and I don't understand why they're spending time going after each other and not going after Trump if all three of us would go after Donald Trump well then the the most credible amongst the three of us in terms of those uh those critiques uh would wind up winning uh winning this primary I believe and so we need to all be talking about the guy who's in first place you know I don't understand I'm not playing for second place here John I'm playing to win and that's why my campaign from the beginning has been that way and look Governor Haley has said things like she thought he was the right president at the right time um she's also said that she'd be inclined to Pardon him um Ron de santis has had you know a lot of glowing things to say about Donald Trump over time I think we need to focus on who's in front here who's bad for our party and who would be bad for this country and in my view that's Donald Trump and we need to go directly at him um and that's why you're seeing people in increasing numbers come to our town hall meetings in New Hampshire go to Chris Christie and donating they're doing the things that we see um in the week after the last debate John um we had our best fundraising week of the entire year so things are really starting to pick up for us and I think people are starting to focus and that's why okay so but let me ask you if you pull off an upset Victory or if Nikki Haley pulls off an upset Victory if Trump loses does he concede does he concede and graciously offer I don't care you don't care I don't care John no look no one will expect him to concede he hasn't conceded the 2020 election who cares um the Secretary of State of New Hampshire will certify the votes um uh you'll get the delegates per the RNC rules and we'll move on to the next race I don't suspect he'll ever concede he's ever lost any election even though he lost primaries in 2016 to uh to Ted Cruz and uh he'll lose primaries this time as well but it doesn't matter John um in the end the rules will govern here just as the rules governed in 2020 and he he moved out of the White House and Joe Biden is sleeping in the white house tonight I don't want that to continue after January 20th of 2025 that's why I intend to beat Donald Trump and beat Joe Biden but but isn't this a problem for whoever the ultimate nominee is if it's not Trump to have him on the outside carping saying it was stolen maybe running as a third party you know dividing uh the Republican vote I mean how do you deal with that I I know it's a problem you'd like to have but but I mean isn't this a fundamental problem for Republicans going forward as long as Donald Trump is on the political scene I think the public in in mass will begin to ignore a four-time loser like Donald Trump um if he loses this set of primaries you know he lost in 2018 in the house he lost in 2020 um in the Senate and in the White House and in 20122 he led us to more losses in the governorships and in the Senate and if he loses in 2024 will be a four-time loser I think he'll go back to Mara Lago he'll continue to carp and moan and complain and say we don't deserve him um anything that gets him out of this race and out of keeps him out of the White House is fine by me okay so we're almost out of time but but it looks from your campaign schedule like sometimes you're running for president of New Hampshire so what is the plan if you pull off this upset in New Hampshire what what what do you do Post uh Post New Hampshire our next two focuses John will be South Carolina and Michigan um and we believe in both of those States we can do quite well we've already been on the ground in South Carolina a number of times in this campaign and we're getting ready to start going to Michigan but right now in in with 58 days to go until the New Hampshire primary um we are going to focus most of our time and energy um on the state of New Hampshire because we believe that New Hampshire has a long history of determining who the nominee of the party will be um we intend to be the guy who uh who surprises everybody in that race on January 23rd all right Governor Chris Christie thank you for joining us hi everyone George Stephanopoulos here thanks for checking out the ABC News YouTube channel if you'd like to get more videos show highlights and watch live event coverage click on the right over here to subscribe to our Channel and don't forget to download the ABC News app for breaking news alerts thanks for watching

Channel: ABC News

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Keywords: 2024, Biden, Carolina, Chris, Christie, DeSantis, Democrats, Donald, GOP, George, Haley, Hampshire, Iowa, January, Jersey, Joe, New, Nikki, Republican, South, Stephanopoulos, This, Trump, Week, election, p_cmsid=2494279, p_vid=news-105160480, president, presidential, primary, vote, voters

Id: rtV8AMo6MEY

Length: 6min 27sec (387 seconds)

Published: Sun Nov 26 2023