And we turn now to one of the Republican candidates
for president,
former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie.
He joins me this morning from Mendham,
NJ Good morning to you,
Sir.
Good morning. I know you say you don't believe people
tell the truth to pollsters,
but you have staked a lot in the state of
New Hampshire.
You're coming in fourth in our poll.
And the governor of that state just endorsed your rival,
Nikki Haley. Do you still see a path to victory
there?
Absolutely. Look, when you look at the poll you just
talked about,
it has fewer than half of the people it would
need to even qualify to be a poll under the
RNC polling criteria.
It has a margin of error of over 6%.
I mean, it's kind of just a foolish poll with
all due respect.
And the fact is that in the end,
look, Governor Haley got an endorsement this week that got
her a lot of free media publicity,
but it doesn't change one simple fact.
She won't answer questions about Donald Trump.
In fact, you know, she said just this week that
he's fit to be president.
This is a guy who last night in New Hampshire
used Vladimir Putin
as a character witness for the decaying democracy in America.
I mean, Vladimir Putin is an expert in democracy and
someone who says that is fit to be president of
the United States.
It's, it's ridiculous. And so,
you know, we just continue to move forward because we
know that voters are listening to the real things that
are being said.
And when they do, we'll do very well.
OK, So New Hampshire won't be the defining moment for
whether you continue or not in this race,
All right. New Hampshire will be an important moment,
Margaret. There's no doubt, but won't be what won't be
a defining moment.
Is your poll of 450 people OK?
Well, it's not just it's not a primary.
It's not just our poll,
though. I mean the National Review.
Conservative leaning, No conservative leaning.
National Review has a piece saying that even if Chris
Christie pulled off an upset in New Hampshire,
there'd be nowhere else for him to go.
A hypothetical Christie win would rely heavily on support from
independents and Democrats in the open New Hampshire primary.
Those conditions would be impossible to replicate elsewhere.
If he's as committed to stopping Trump as he says,
it's time for him to retire to his tent.
What do you have to say to them?
Well, they're just what I have to say to them
is they should try to get the the facts right.
First of all, Democrats can't vote in the Republican primary
in New Hampshire,
so they're wrong. Independents only.
Independents and Republicans. Yeah. Well,
they. You read me the quote,
Margaret, how about you get accurate?
Democrats, you said reading their quote,
can vote. They cannot vote in the New Hampshire primary.
Secondly, in Michigan, the very same conditions exist five weeks
from the New Hampshire primary,
which is that Republicans and independents can vote in the
Michigan primary.
So the fact that they say it can't repeat be
repeated anywhere,
it will be repeated to the 2 elections away from
New Hampshire.
South Carolina happens in between.
And so look, the National Review was campaigning for Ron
De Santis until they concluded that he couldn't win.
Now they're campaigning for Nikoli Haley,
and when they conclude that she can't win either,
then they'll move on to somebody else.
I don't spend anytime worrying about the editors at the
National Review.
OK, noted. So you've said,
though for Nikki Haley, who we have not just CBS,
other polls have said she is surging in the state
of New Hampshire.
You've said she's not. I'm
going to stop you. Hold on.
I'm going to stop you right there.
Because in in the last two polls that have come
out,
Nikki Haley was at 13 or
14% and I was at 10 or 11.
So I don't understand where you talk about surging,
Margaret. I know that that's the talking points up on
the teleprompter,
but it's not surging. I'm not looking at teleprompters,
Sir. I'm looking at your face.
You're up two points from our last poll in September.
You said you don't trust any polls.
You just cited some. So there are some you like.
But let me read you what you have said about
Nikki.
No, no, no, no. I'm fundamentally no,
Margaret. I'm countering Margaret. I'm countering what you say,
Margaret. I'm countering what you say about other polls showing
surges,
which they do not. And so if you want to
cite them,
at least cite them correctly.
OK, you said Nikki Haley's not a fundamentally serious candidate.
When she said, as you just said earlier on our
program,
that Trump is fit to lead.
You said you wish that she cared more about the
truth
and things she said about global trade,
for example. You say show she doesn't even understand what
she's talking about.
Are you ruling out ever working with Nikki Haley in
the future to defeat Donald Trump?
I'm working on defeating Donald Trump,
and I'm the only one in the race who is
working out defeating Donald Trump
when she hasn't ruled out being his vice president.
I don't think you could take her as a serious
contender against him.
Ron DeSantis and I have both ruled out accepting the
vice presidency from Donald Trump.
Nikki Haley is not. That's why she's not saying strong
things against Donald Trump,
why she's saying he's fit to be president of the
United States.
I mean, the fact is,
if you watched that speech last night where he says
that immigrants from Asia,
Africa and South America are poisoning the blood of America,
I don't know how you could take someone like that
and say that they're fit to be president of the
United States.
Are you surprised? Language and things that are being said.
Sorry, that is just wrong.
You were clearly distancing yourself from that sentiment.
Are you surprised that other Republican candidates and sitting Republican
elected officials have not distanced themselves from saying that immigrants
are poisoning the blood of this country?
Yes, I am surprised about that.
And I and I and look,
at the end of the day,
you know, these folks are more concerned about their primary
challenges in their House seats than they're concerned about who's
going to be the president of the United States.
Know whether or not they're fit.
And when you're a candidate for president of the United
States and someone's,
you know, you know, the incumbent essentially and Donald Trump
having won the nomination the last two times,
you need to speak directly about what you think is
their fitness.
I'm going to take Nikki Haley's word at it.
She says she believes he's fit to be president.
If you believe someone who says those kind of things
and is under 4 criminal indictments is fit to be
president,
then you can agree with her.
I don't. OK, Well, Nikki Haley,
I want to ask you about how some of your
opponents who have stood on that debate stage alongside you
have talked about her.
You did seem to come to Nikki Haley's defense after
the last debate when Vivek Ramaswami
went straight at her. You said you think he personally
has a woman problem.
Do you think your party has a woman problem?
Do you think that a woman could be the lead
on a Republican ticket?
Sure, I think a woman could be lead on the
Republican ticket.
And I don't think the party has a woman problem.
I think Vivek has a woman problem.
And I defended Nikki Haley at that debate because when
someone on the stage like Vivek treats someone who is,
as you know, smart and accomplished as Nikki is and
has been my friend for 13 years,
you know, And he says that compares her intellect to
that of his three-year old son.
The way I was raised,
Margaret, is you stand up and you defend someone
who you do respect being treated with disrespect by someone
else.
And that's exactly what I did.
I do it again and and I think it's the
right thing to do.
All right, Chris Christie, we have to leave it there
for today.
Thanks for joining us.