Chris Christie Speaks Out About His New Job for Donald Trump
“Part of my job ... is for him to hear my points of view," Christie said.
— -- Chris Christie returned to his day job as the governor of New Jersey full-time since suspending his presidential campaign just over two weeks ago but said Monday that he also now has the job of making recommendations to Republican front-runner Donald Trump.
“Part of my job in helping Donald Trump as a candidate is for him to hear my points of view,” Christie said in an interview Monday night with New Jersey 101.5 radio, days after rocking the political world with a bombshell endorsement of Trump.
“Will he do that?” radio host Eric Scott followed up.
“There’s no question,” Christie replied. “I am the highest level endorser that Donald Trump has had. I am the person with the most experience in government that is in his circle, and so as a result, that gives me some credibility to make recommendations and suggestions over time where appropriate and for him to consider.”
The New Jersey governor insists that he hasn’t discussed with Trump the possibility of becoming his vice presidential nominee and that it wasn’t the part of a backroom deal to secure his support. But he isn’t ruling out the possibility either.
“I did not go there to bargain with him, I went there to offer my support. The bottom line is no one campaigns for vice president, that’s not what you do,” Christie said.
“That would be something, that or anything else governmental, has to be something that only one other person besides the person that asked that I would discuss that with, and that would be Mary Pat,” he later said, referring to his wife.
And in the course of the explaining some of the criticisms he lodged at Trump while still a candidate, Christie pointed to previous examples of eventual running mates who campaigned hard against one another in a primary only to form a joint ticket in the general election.
“The fact of the matter is when you’re running against people, you try to make your best case possible,” he said. “By the way, George Bush 41 said that Ronald Reagan’s economic plan was voodoo economics and then he became his vice president. We have seen this happen. Joe Biden ran against Barack Obama and said all kinds of things against him and then he became Barack Obama’s running mate.”
Christie went on to say that Trump “fits the bill” for the parameters he set for a president in that he has executive experience.
“Now, I was making the argument for a governor but Donald Trump has been an executive,” he said. “We don’t get to create the perfect candidate for ourselves, we get to choose, elections are about choices ... and my choice is Donald Trump.”
Still, he admitted there’s one guy who he still thinks is better for the nation’s top job: him.
“Obviously, I don’t think he’s the best person to do it because I thought I was, but of the people remaining on that stage ... I think Donald Trump’s the best guy.”
He also didn’t rule out the possibility of running for president again himself one day but said he does not foresee it.
“I don’t know, who knows, when you’re sitting here two weeks out from having done it, you think to yourself no way,” Christie said. “I don’t foresee it but I would never sit here today and say absolutely not, never.”
Christie hits the campaign trail again for Trump on Super Tuesday, saying on the radio program that he is headed to Ohio and Kentucky for a one-day trip.
Related Stories
ABC News Live