Chris Christie
Appearances
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
The Cons & Cons of Trump with Gov. Chris Christie
is less to, in the main on the programs and things that government does, is less about the programs in a lot of instances and more about the way they function or don't function, the way they waste money, the way they don't bring things to the people that they really need and aren't responsive. And you can look at this in a number of different ways.
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
The Cons & Cons of Trump with Gov. Chris Christie
The wildfires in California are just the latest example of it. But people are like, how the hell does this happen? Why isn't government on top of this? And we've seen it over and over again in a number of different ways. Everything from something as serious as the wildfires to something as just annoying as the air traffic control system.
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
The Cons & Cons of Trump with Gov. Chris Christie
And why are people so delayed when they're flying around the country all the time? Because it doesn't seem like the FAA can run the air traffic control system competently anymore. And I think that that anger... when people feel like they're paying a lot of money for this government and what are they getting for it, is something that Trump was really able to tap into.
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
The Cons & Cons of Trump with Gov. Chris Christie
And that, for whatever reason, the Democrats felt the need to defend it holistically. Rather than say, look, you're right. You know, it can be done better. And here are ideas for how it can be done better. Rather than say, he's wrong. You're wrong. There's nothing wrong here. Everything's okay. Well, people, you know, they have eyes of their own and they make their own conclusions.
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
The Cons & Cons of Trump with Gov. Chris Christie
So I think it's a little more complicated.
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
The Cons & Cons of Trump with Gov. Chris Christie
Well, and look, I would say to you, yeah, everybody gets selective about what they want to get outraged about. often depending upon where you sit politically or philosophically. But I do think that there are things that can and should have been done in that instance. And quite frankly, let's personalize it. We're both from New Jersey. We went through Sandy.
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
The Cons & Cons of Trump with Gov. Chris Christie
And I think we've done a lot of things since Sandy that we learned to make structures more resilient, to not be piling up houses all along the shore that can't possibly sustain storms, to reinforce all of our infrastructure in ways that recognize that these storms can now happen. so that we protect those things. And I think that that's what people are expecting.
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
The Cons & Cons of Trump with Gov. Chris Christie
communities that were really dense with millions of people in arid areas that have fired things like i'm pretty sure that was not dei that was probably a white dude who designed that like what are we doing well and i look i think you and i are saying the same thing i think that there's there's bad decisions that are made and you can't the other thing that i used to say to people all the time when i was governor was there's some things that i just can't help
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
The Cons & Cons of Trump with Gov. Chris Christie
Like, you know, you can do the very best you can, and there's some things you can't help. Now, people don't like to hear that. And part of it is that people just don't like when bad things happen for obvious reasons, and they need someone or something to blame. Now, you know, when you're also doing things that don't make sense to people, those become easy straw men to knock down, right?
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
The Cons & Cons of Trump with Gov. Chris Christie
So if people look at DEI, and I think a majority of the people in the country now feel this way, that maybe that's not the best way to be making some of these selections and choices of people for jobs, and maybe it should be based predominantly, if not exclusively, on competence.
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
The Cons & Cons of Trump with Gov. Chris Christie
And that's my point. My point is that just diversity in and of itself is not something that causes there not to be merit hires, okay? You can look at two resumes blind, and if your example is a really good one, whether it's Lloyd Austin or Pete Hegseth on the paper, Lloyd Austin has significantly more high-level experience to be Secretary of Defense than Pete Hegseth does.
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
The Cons & Cons of Trump with Gov. Chris Christie
I think that what has developed over time, because some people have taken that to an extreme, meaning the DEI implementation, is it allows people to think that, and in some instances they're absolutely true, it's absolutely true, that those decisions were made purely for the diversity part of it, with the merit being well below it.
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
The Cons & Cons of Trump with Gov. Chris Christie
Right. Look, I would give you the way that I tried to approach it. I became a U.S. attorney in New Jersey in 2002. I had never worked in the office before. So when I got there, I just did a lot of walking around the office to see, like, okay, who's here? And John, it was the whitest, malest office I had ever been in in my life. And it was, and I was coming from private law practice.
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
The Cons & Cons of Trump with Gov. Chris Christie
So what I did was I said, look, I am forcing us to go out and recruit candidates who are African-American, Latino, Asian, women, and bring them to me. And if they're not good, I'm not going to hire them. But I'm convinced we're not seeing him.
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
The Cons & Cons of Trump with Gov. Chris Christie
And the aha moment for me on that concept and why it was the right way to go was there was a young guy that I hired very early on, African-American, University of Michigan, University of Penn Law School, clerk for Alan Page, the former Minnesota Vikings defensive tackle. in the Supreme Court of Minnesota. Absolutely. Purple people leader. And he's from New Jersey. Grew up in Maplewood.
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
The Cons & Cons of Trump with Gov. Chris Christie
And I said to him, why did you ever apply here before? And he said, because I knew people like me wouldn't get hired. And, you know, we then went about this process of hiring, you know, a large number of African-American, Latino, and Asian prosecutors. But I would tell you that every one of them checked both boxes.
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
The Cons & Cons of Trump with Gov. Chris Christie
They checked the box of they now look more like the community we represent than we did before. And these are really good lawyers.
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
The Cons & Cons of Trump with Gov. Chris Christie
And I don't think, John, that that's the way it's been implemented across the board in government. And I think people see examples of that and it makes them paint the entire effort with the same brush.
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
The Cons & Cons of Trump with Gov. Chris Christie
And my argument to you is I don't think it makes it any better to just rig it in a different direction. And I think that's what people perceive was going on with DEI. It's not rigging it in a different direction. It's unrigging it.
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
The Cons & Cons of Trump with Gov. Chris Christie
governor. I think there have been a number of areas where there are people who hire certain folks just for their diversity. And I've seen it happen here in New Jersey, you know, in the government since I left, where people say, I am going to make sure that I have one of every, it's almost like a half a Noah's Ark.
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
The Cons & Cons of Trump with Gov. Chris Christie
Okay, I'm going to have one of these and one of these and one of these and one of these.
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
The Cons & Cons of Trump with Gov. Chris Christie
No, no. What I did was get them in to interview them. And if it turned out, if it turned out, John, that they were also really good lawyers, they got hired. I'm talking about something different.
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
The Cons & Cons of Trump with Gov. Chris Christie
I'm talking about predetermining the outcome in the way that you just talked about, and I believe that legacy admissions predetermine the outcome, that there have been some in charge of government across this country who have predetermined outcomes and said, I am going to have this many African Americans, this many Latinos, this many Asians, this many lesbians, this many gay men.
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
The Cons & Cons of Trump with Gov. Chris Christie
And I think that when people see that, they say to themselves, that's not right either. Not that the other way was completely right, but now you're really screwing it up. They're both wrong. And I didn't get any objection when I did what I did in New Jersey.
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
The Cons & Cons of Trump with Gov. Chris Christie
It wasn't like a bunch of people started picketing saying when they started to see African-American, Latino, and Asian, and women prosecutors in the federal courthouse that they started saying, What the hell is Christie doing over there? He's turning a place into this.
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
The Cons & Cons of Trump with Gov. Chris Christie
Governor, what's happening? Exactly what I predicted would happen, John. I mean, you know, I ran for president for a year telling everybody that, you know, this guy has not changed. He's not different. And that character matters. And it matters more than any particular issue. And what we're seeing now in the first, you know, is it now 10 days or so?
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
The Cons & Cons of Trump with Gov. Chris Christie
I would say that airlines would not hire pilots given the importance of the safety of what they do if they didn't think they were competent.
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
The Cons & Cons of Trump with Gov. Chris Christie
I did. However, I will also tell you that I think that a lot of people don't view certain government positions nearly as critical. And so they feel like I can do this. And I think the public senses that. And that's the problem, John.
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
The Cons & Cons of Trump with Gov. Chris Christie
I think that it's being blamed on political actors on the other side of this, John, who who are using it for their own political purposes. Let's be honest. There are people who, on the Democratic side of this, who will do it to try to make themselves look more caring to the minority community, more in touch with the minority community. And I think that their motivations are craven in that regard.
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
The Cons & Cons of Trump with Gov. Chris Christie
Not everybody, but I think a lot of them.
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
The Cons & Cons of Trump with Gov. Chris Christie
No, I think Donald Trump thought it was a cool slogan that would respond to what people were feeling both when he ran in 2016 and when he ran in 2024, which was they were at that moment dissatisfied with the status quo. So if you can tie into that politically, rhetorically and say, I'm going to make America great again. It does two things. It tells people, I agree with you, it's not great now.
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
The Cons & Cons of Trump with Gov. Chris Christie
And two, I'm the guy who can make it great like you remember it. And many Americans are going to have different feelings about when it was great and what made it great. The classic marketing tool of Donald Trump on this was, it can mean whatever you want it to mean, John. Mm-hmm. And so people think Donald Trump has a vision.
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
The Cons & Cons of Trump with Gov. Chris Christie
The fact that you would assume that Donald Trump knows any American history is startling to me, John, because he doesn't. I honestly don't think you're giving him enough credit. I think... No, you're wrong. Okay. I've known him a lot longer and a lot closer than you have. No, I don't know him at all. And John, I am telling you, he doesn't know.
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
The Cons & Cons of Trump with Gov. Chris Christie
I could give a lot of examples of how he messes up American history. All right, all right. We'll talk about him for a second. He took me to the Lincoln bedroom one time and he pointed to the desk in the Lincoln bedroom and he said, that's where Lincoln wrote the Gettysburg Address. Now, anybody...
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
The Cons & Cons of Trump with Gov. Chris Christie
who has read the history of the Gettysburg Address knows that Lincoln wrote the Gettysburg Address on the train on the way to Gettysburg. I guess that was why it's so short. Yeah, exactly right. It's a short train ride. What he did at the desk was sign the Emancipation Proclamation. And I said to the then president, now president, I said, no, no, no, no, no.
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
The Cons & Cons of Trump with Gov. Chris Christie
Is that, you know, the problem is going to be that not everybody, in fact, not most people will disagree with everything he does. But the underlying problem, in my view, is the pettiness, the vindictiveness, the anger, all those things will inform much of what he does. And it's going to lead to big problems, I think, in the country over the long term.
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
The Cons & Cons of Trump with Gov. Chris Christie
It was the Emancipation Proclamation there. He wrote the speech on the way to Gettysburg. And he looked at me, said, Chris, you really going to correct me on this? I'm the president. I live here. So I have to tell you, John, I think you're giving him too much credit. But let me say there's a difference, I think, between Make America Great Again and America First.
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
The Cons & Cons of Trump with Gov. Chris Christie
And what I used to say in the campaign was, America First, I want everybody to raise their hands here who believes in America Fourth. Put them up. Right, right, right. America Fourth. Yeah. Well, it's one of those things that goes without saying, in my mind. Exactly, right? So these are things that are inoffensive when you look at them literally.
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
The Cons & Cons of Trump with Gov. Chris Christie
and allows you to then sell to people a couple of things. The people who are there now, it was Obama and Hillary back in 16, it was Biden and Harris in 24. America's not great because of them. America's not first because of them.
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
The Cons & Cons of Trump with Gov. Chris Christie
It is a purely political and rhetorical idea that, and this is the point I think you were getting at when I interrupted you, there are people around him who want to populate that in a way that is much deeper and much different. But I'm telling you from Trump's perspective, he came up with that stuff and just went like, this will sell. And he's selling it. Wow. Remember, this is a Democrat.
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
The Cons & Cons of Trump with Gov. Chris Christie
Trump was a Democrat. When I first met Trump, he was a Democrat donating to Hillary Clinton. This is not a guy. But again, transactional, I'm sure, to try and get. But look, John, as transactional as you might want to be, if you are steeped in what Donald Trump now says he's steeped in philosophically, how could you write a check to Hillary Clinton?
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
The Cons & Cons of Trump with Gov. Chris Christie
You couldn't because you'd say to yourself, look, that's, to use your phrase, a bridge too far. Like, okay, I'll give to this one or that one because I have to because I need permits in New York or something like that. But why am I giving to Hillary Clinton? Well, I'm giving to Hillary Clinton because at that time, he could have cared less about anything philosophically.
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
The Cons & Cons of Trump with Gov. Chris Christie
And I think people are reading too much into him philosophically. He is transactional, John. Whatever gets him from here to there.
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
The Cons & Cons of Trump with Gov. Chris Christie
democratic system that can be used in the way that it was designed to create a more autocratic system well a good question and here's what the founders also didn't count on that we would elect lousy people to the other branches or appoint lousy people to the other branches now
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
The Cons & Cons of Trump with Gov. Chris Christie
You know, you look at what's happening in Congress right now, and you have a group of people who in the main are unwilling to stand up. I mean, the only way a check on a power is effective is if you're willing to exercise the check. And the founders couldn't also make it self-actualizing. There are human beings who have to actually do it.
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
The Cons & Cons of Trump with Gov. Chris Christie
And my problem with folks in my party right now is that people who I know disagree, who I know know better. are so wed to their position that they are unwilling to say what they truly believe. And that's the problem with the way the system's operating, John. The system is fine.
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
The Cons & Cons of Trump with Gov. Chris Christie
The people we've handed the keys to operate the system, not just in the executive branch, but in the legislative branch, are not doing their job, even to being honest with themselves.
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
The Cons & Cons of Trump with Gov. Chris Christie
Well, a few things. I think first off, to be fair about your characterization of me.
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
The Cons & Cons of Trump with Gov. Chris Christie
You don't have to be. I'm suggesting you might want to be.
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
The Cons & Cons of Trump with Gov. Chris Christie
That I did run against him in 2016.
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
The Cons & Cons of Trump with Gov. Chris Christie
That's different. Well, no, no, no. It became pretty clear early that he became the front runner. Well... And I'm not one of those people who... tries to hit in the side pocket, John, as you know. Right, right, right. I went right at him in 2016. No question. And in 2024. But I believed in the system that we just talked about. Okay. And I said, okay, this is who the people have chosen.
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
The Cons & Cons of Trump with Gov. Chris Christie
I'm going to go try to make him better. I'm going to work within the system to try to make him better. And that's what I did in 2016 and throughout the first term of his presidency was to continue to be the agitator to him to try to do things differently. And one of the people had known him for a long time, so I could get him on the phone and say, this is wrong.
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
The Cons & Cons of Trump with Gov. Chris Christie
Suggest people to serve that I think would make it better. That was a manifestation of my belief in the system. And what I concluded on the evening of 2020 was he didn't give a damn about the system right down to its very basic, which was the democratic act of electing a president. And that's when I said, I'm out. Do you still believe in the system? I do.
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
The Cons & Cons of Trump with Gov. Chris Christie
And the reason that I still believe in the system is because there's no frigging alternative. Well, apparently there's a bunch of alternatives. There's not. I mean, and I don't think there will be one with him either. You know, I still believe that. And you talked about the consent of the governed. That's why we have elections every two years. Now, if he does the things that I fear he will do.
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
The Cons & Cons of Trump with Gov. Chris Christie
No, I think the chaos is being done because that's the way he loves to operate. That's where he is most comfortable. He is most comfortable in chaos. And he's most comfortable in having people fight with each other and have him be the ultimate arbiter of those fights. He loves that. He loves the interchange and the back and forth, not for educational purposes.
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
The Cons & Cons of Trump with Gov. Chris Christie
So this is all just a fucking episode of The Apprentice? It's all a TV show.
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
The Cons & Cons of Trump with Gov. Chris Christie
It's all a TV show, John. Look, John, what have you heard him say about the way he makes selections for positions?
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
The Cons & Cons of Trump with Gov. Chris Christie
The greatest compliment he feels like he can give to anyone, which he said about Pete Hegseth, for instance, was he's out of central casting. And so for anybody to think that this is anything other than that, but with real-life ramifications, has not watched him over this period of time. Now... There will be things that he will do that I will agree with philosophically.
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
The Cons & Cons of Trump with Gov. Chris Christie
But the problem for me is I cannot rationalize away the character mistakes, the pettiness, the vindictiveness, and all the rest of it by saying, yeah, but I agree with him on what he's doing on fill in the blank, whatever it might be. And that's where you have a lot of Republicans right now are rationalizing it that way. Well, I agree with this, but I don't like him.
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
The Cons & Cons of Trump with Gov. Chris Christie
And I disagree with him personally, but I feel like I agree with many of his policies, so I'll be with him. The problem is that he does things like this, pulls the security detail from Mike Pompeo. Now, that is nothing but pettiness and vindictiveness colored with absolute mortal danger.
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
The Cons & Cons of Trump with Gov. Chris Christie
Here's Pompeo as CIA director and secretary of state who executes an order from the commander in chief in alignment with our system and gets Soleimani assassinated. The Iranians now say we're going to kill Pompeo and a couple of other folks too, John Bolton, Brian Hook. And as a result, the intelligence community says we need to give these guys security.
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
The Cons & Cons of Trump with Gov. Chris Christie
Because they didn't jump through hoops to support Donald Trump, he's now pulled it and said, hey, they have money. They can buy their own security. Well, that may or may not be true. I don't know the financial circumstances of those three guys. But what I will tell you is having had public security and private security, public security is much better. Because they have access to intelligence.
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
The Cons & Cons of Trump with Gov. Chris Christie
They have access to information that private security guys just don't have. To me... That's the essence of the problem here, is that no matter what he may do from a policy perspective that you agree or disagree with, he will always revert back to pettiness, vindictiveness.
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
The Cons & Cons of Trump with Gov. Chris Christie
How? Well, I think that for different people, it's different things, John. I think both of those factors that you just put up there are the real reasons for lots of different people. For me, back in 2016, I had known him, but not extraordinarily well. I'd known him for a long time, but nobody really gets very close to Trump. But when you are an acquaintance of his,
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
The Cons & Cons of Trump with Gov. Chris Christie
First off, I'd say they overplayed and over litigated the character things on Trump, especially in the 24 campaign. Um, The people who were not going to vote for Donald Trump on the character issues already determined they're not going to vote for Donald Trump. The people that the Democrats had to persuade were the people you and I were just talking about who said like, look, I get that.
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
The Cons & Cons of Trump with Gov. Chris Christie
But the government sucks and you guys are running it and it sucks. And what's your answer to that? And neither Biden nor Harris during this last cycle had an answer to that, nor did Chuck Schumer, nor did any of the rest of them because their answer to all that was, yeah, but Trump will be worse. Well, you know what they figured out? People went, eh, maybe not.
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
The Cons & Cons of Trump with Gov. Chris Christie
Because you guys aren't giving me an alternative. And I think that the problem is that there is two things going on inside the Democratic Party. There is an unresolved conflict within the Democratic Party from the very progressive wing of the party to the more traditional Democrats about who's going to run the show and who's going to write the playbook. They haven't resolved that problem.
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
The Cons & Cons of Trump with Gov. Chris Christie
And they all papered it over. And you've got to have the fight inside the Democratic Party to what is it that we stand for governmentally? What do we believe in? What would we do for people to deal with that disconnect and the discontent that's going on? They haven't answered those questions.
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
The Cons & Cons of Trump with Gov. Chris Christie
You're right. They don't right now. And that's the problem with having gone back to Biden. Going back to Biden in 20 was a reaction to Trump. It was like, okay, he's the guy who will be least offensive and will make Trump the focus. But he won. I mean... Well, but won what? Then he came in. The presidency. Right, but no, but John, this is what I mean. Like...
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
The Cons & Cons of Trump with Gov. Chris Christie
When he got there, he started to go much more progressive than he had talked about during the campaign.
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
The Cons & Cons of Trump with Gov. Chris Christie
Let me finish the thought. All right. It was cognitively dissonant for people. They didn't believe that's who Biden was either outside the party or inside the party. So he got the worst of both worlds. The people inside the party who were progressive never trusted him. They didn't think he was one of them. The people outside the party who were more moderate said, son of a bitch. He lied to us.
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
The Cons & Cons of Trump with Gov. Chris Christie
He is a progressive. He got absolutely sandwiched politically and now no one knew who he was. And the worst thing in politics to be John is to be perceived to be inauthentic and Trump's power. is that people believe what he believes, what he says.
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
The Cons & Cons of Trump with Gov. Chris Christie
Correct. I totally agree that he is a transactional speaker, right? Whatever gets him, you know, the old song, whatever gets you through the night. For Trump, that's the way he speaks all the time. Whatever gets him through this moment. But my point on the Democrats is they were in the worst possible space they could be.
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
The Cons & Cons of Trump with Gov. Chris Christie
They didn't have a game plan, as you mentioned, an offering to the American people substantively, and they were viewed as inauthentic. Well, shit, what's going to happen then? People want common sense. They want a common sense articulated alternative to what they're being presented with. And in the absence of one, They'll vote for the group that they think looks most authentic.
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
The Cons & Cons of Trump with Gov. Chris Christie
as I was during the years prior to 2016, he can be enormously charming. I'm sure. Enormously engaging, very solicitous. And for me, both as U.S. attorney for seven of those years and then as governor for a number of those years, he was all those things to me. And so that was part of it. And the other part for me was that it was like, OK, I ran in the primary against him. He beat me.
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
The Cons & Cons of Trump with Gov. Chris Christie
Now, the challenge for Republicans to not make it seem like it's going to be all like hearts and flowers and it's going to be easy. When you've got a three or four vote majority in the House, two right now, everybody's a king. And whatever's happening right now, remember, it's all been executive orders. Not a thing has happened through Congress. He's basically nullified them. Right, at the moment.
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
The Cons & Cons of Trump with Gov. Chris Christie
But he's not going to be able to do that on the tax law. He's not going to be able to do that on real substantive changes to immigration.
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
The Cons & Cons of Trump with Gov. Chris Christie
It does through the Senate. But in the House, here's his problem on reconciliation. There is a large group of Republicans, and by large I mean 25 to 30, that are going to say like, hey, we're not increasing the debt ceiling in March unless there is significant reductions in government spending.
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
The Cons & Cons of Trump with Gov. Chris Christie
You should be extraordinarily disappointed in your team and the lack of any coherent, saleable, authentic plan. I totally agree with you. But remember this. Games are both offense and defense. Uh-oh.
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
The Cons & Cons of Trump with Gov. Chris Christie
It's exactly right. We're going to get on FAN any moment now. There you go. Look, it all comes back to offense and defense. There are big expectations on the Republicans to deliver on a bunch of the stuff they're talking about.
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
The Cons & Cons of Trump with Gov. Chris Christie
And for instance, when you talk about significant cuts in spending, when you only have a two or three vote majority, there are a lot of moderate Republicans from New York, Illinois, California, who are going to have a hard time voting for some of those things. And let us not forget the premise of what I mentioned before. What they care about the most is keeping the title, John.
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
The Cons & Cons of Trump with Gov. Chris Christie
And the title is kept for them by the people back at home, not by the people in Washington. So the challenge for Republicans and for Trump is going to be, can he muscle this through and have them basically say, you're going to have to sacrifice your career for what I want to get done here? And I got to tell you something. I haven't seen that type of political courage out of any of them.
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
The Cons & Cons of Trump with Gov. Chris Christie
Because they're unwilling to stand up and do those things. So Democrats, though, if they're counting just on that to get them over the finish line to getting a handle of power in either the House or the Senate, I think they're going to be sorely disappointed. They have to do both. They have to hope that the Republicans make strategic mistakes in that regard.
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
The Cons & Cons of Trump with Gov. Chris Christie
But they got to come up with a plan that is authentic and genuine. That... That people in the center of this country, and I mean the philosophical center of this country, can say, oh, I agree with that. Yeah, no, that doesn't offend me. And they don't have that right now. And you're right about Chuck Schumer.
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
The Cons & Cons of Trump with Gov. Chris Christie
I'm a Republican. He's going to be the nominee. I'll be with him. And try to make him better than what he is at the moment. And that was my motivation at the time. And I turned out to be wrong.
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
The Cons & Cons of Trump with Gov. Chris Christie
I mean, if you could have a worse salesman to put up next to Trump, I don't know that it's possible, right? Now, I think Hakeem Jeffries is a little more politically skilled than Schumer. Of course, that's a low bar. But nonetheless, I think he's a little more skilled than him. And getting Pelosi out of there would be a real help because –
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
The Cons & Cons of Trump with Gov. Chris Christie
rightly or wrongly and you know people have a certain perception of her in the middle of the the philosophical middle of the country that's not positive so the fact is that democrats have to change the cast if we're going to go back to the tv show analogy they got to change the cast and they got to get some better writers um for the script because they don't have that now
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
The Cons & Cons of Trump with Gov. Chris Christie
And here's what's frustrating for a guy like- Perhaps if they opened up the hiring to- See how we tied it all around? I'm telling you, this is really one of those things that people say, wow, those two guys really get it. To me, John, the frustrating thing for somebody like me is- Like as governor, I tried to be this way. I tried to be practical and consistent.
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
The Cons & Cons of Trump with Gov. Chris Christie
And sometimes you're going to like it and sometimes you aren't. But my job is to run this thing and to get it to work as best as I possibly can get it to work. And I don't think anybody's thinking about it that way right now. They're all thinking about it from a political advantage, a chess or checkers, depending upon the level of intellect that's going on in this stuff.
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
The Cons & Cons of Trump with Gov. Chris Christie
No, John, my pleasure. Always happy to come back. And I'd say as things go along here, because it's going to change. It's going to change. No, I know. And I would say there are not many people out there who know Trump as well as I've gotten to know him over time and been someone who he said was the greatest governor in America and And now is the worst SOB. And he's not hyperbolic. At all.
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
The Cons & Cons of Trump with Gov. Chris Christie
And now I'm the worst SOB in the world. And every cruel beam he could send out, he does. And I never believed it when he said I was the greatest. And I don't believe it now. I'm calling balls and strikes here because I know him well. And I will say one thing, if I can, about the governors. Please.
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
The Cons & Cons of Trump with Gov. Chris Christie
I say to my kids all the time when they accuse me of being biased on something, I say, okay, I'm biased, but it doesn't mean I'm wrong. And I'm biased about governors because they're the ones who have to give practical results, not the people in Congress. They have to actually plow the snow. They have to do things that run the schools, do all the things that need to be done.
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
The Cons & Cons of Trump with Gov. Chris Christie
And I do think that you're going to see a lot of people on both parties emerge from the governor's ranks to try to set a different path and a more creative path, and a more practical path. And hopefully it's the right ones who emerge. There's good ones and bad ones. Well, we'll have you name those next time. Well, that's right. That's good, but that's a little preview.
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
The Cons & Cons of Trump with Gov. Chris Christie
You know, this is also showbiz. Look at you. You're giving a little preview for my next appearance, John. It's a teaser. It's a teaser. Very nice. Very nice. Yeah, that's what I do. Well, and I believe that's really important for us to focus on, that everything in this country doesn't happen in Washington.
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
The Cons & Cons of Trump with Gov. Chris Christie
And that in state capitals all over this country, you can make a real difference in people's lives. And I'd argue probably a more direct and substantive difference at that level than ever happens in Washington because they're all scared of their own shadows and want to just protect their title. They want to be called congressman and senator forever. Get that good health care.
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
The Cons & Cons of Trump with Gov. Chris Christie
That's what they're in there for. It's not bad, John. Right. It's not from what I'm told. Never been there.
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
The Cons & Cons of Trump with Gov. Chris Christie
Mr. Jersey. There you go. Good to be on with you. I appreciate it, John. Beautiful. Thanks, Mike.
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
The Cons & Cons of Trump with Gov. Chris Christie
Well, in 2020, I think what it was was looking at these two guys, looking at Joe Biden and Donald Trump. And I really felt at the time like Biden was just too old to be president and wouldn't be able to do the job. And so I didn't like either choice, quite frankly. But this is-
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
The Cons & Cons of Trump with Gov. Chris Christie
Right. I went with that one as opposed to the one who was, in my mind, mentally incapable of doing the job.
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
The Cons & Cons of Trump with Gov. Chris Christie
Yeah, and known him for a long time. I've known Joe Biden longer than I've known Donald Trump because Biden and I both went to the University of Delaware. Obviously, not not at the same.
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
The Cons & Cons of Trump with Gov. Chris Christie
But Biden was a regular presence there when I was a student and I was the president student body. So I wound up getting to serve on the board where Biden was as well. So I got to know him and we kept in touch over the years and then reacquainted when he was vice president. I was governor and he was very helpful during Sandy.
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
The Cons & Cons of Trump with Gov. Chris Christie
and made a number of trips to the state where I hosted him to help see the damage and do all that. So when we had kept in touch over all those years, and I just saw the precipitous decline in the Joe Biden I knew when I was a student, to the Joe Biden I knew even when he was vice president, to the guy who was running for president. And so that was the reason that I did what I did.
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
The Cons & Cons of Trump with Gov. Chris Christie
And quite frankly then, on election night of 2020, was when I made the break because when he came out, meaning President Trump, came out and made his speech on election night where he said, you know, the election had been stolen. Right. I was on ABC at the time. That was your bridge too far. Yes.
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
The Cons & Cons of Trump with Gov. Chris Christie
Thank you very much, John. Your kindness is overwhelming. Thank you so much. We usually use, that was the water over the dam. But again, that's just in our family now. Okay, fair enough.
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
The Cons & Cons of Trump with Gov. Chris Christie
You got to be very careful. So many different scandals. But in the end, I said to him, and I said it to him that night, that you have no way of knowing that this election was stolen, and what you're doing here is damaging our democracy, and I can't be supportive of it. And I said that on the air.
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
The Cons & Cons of Trump with Gov. Chris Christie
I said it was a disgrace on the air that night, and we really, except for one or two conversations, have not spoken since. And that was November of 2020.
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
The Cons & Cons of Trump with Gov. Chris Christie
Well, I think there's two things, right? First off, we have to concede that he is the most fearless communicator I've seen politically in my lifetime. And I don't mean that as a compliment. He is willing to say anything over and over and over again with passion. And for a lot of people who, John, you know, look, you and I spend a lot of time thinking, reading, talking about this stuff.
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
The Cons & Cons of Trump with Gov. Chris Christie
Most Americans don't. And so for them who just hear a snippet of this or that, they listen to who they think is most convincing. And that sways a lot of people. I think the other thing about what happened in 2024 is that elections are always choices at the presidential level. Most Americans feel some type of obligation to vote in a presidential election.
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
The Cons & Cons of Trump with Gov. Chris Christie
They may not vote in any of the other ones, but they feel like for president, I should vote. And turnout reflects that. And it was a choice here that I think really unfortunately for the country, the Democrats didn't present a choice that for a lot of Americans made sense. And I blame that on President Biden because he made a promise to us in 2020. He said he was going to be a transitional leader.
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
The Cons & Cons of Trump with Gov. Chris Christie
And we all understood or thought we understood what that meant, which was he was going to serve one term because at 82, he was just going to be too old to be able to do this. And then for whatever reason, he changed his mind. And I think if Joe Biden had left and said, not left the presidency, but had said after the midterms, you know what? I held off the Republicans here at the midterms.
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
The Cons & Cons of Trump with Gov. Chris Christie
I did my job. And now it's time to turn it over to a new generation of Democrats to see who the next nominee will be. I think the Democrats would have had a vigorous primary, a lot of really good potential candidates out there. Josh Shapiro from Pennsylvania, Gretchen Whitmer in Michigan. You go through a whole list of them.
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
The Cons & Cons of Trump with Gov. Chris Christie
And instead what he did was hang on till he was practically being, you know, shoved out the door with his fingernails grasping the door jam and left Kamala Harris as the only option. And vice presidents are never well thought of, no matter which party it is. It gave her 107 days to try to convince the American people that she was better.
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
The Cons & Cons of Trump with Gov. Chris Christie
And I think strategically for her, the big mistake was she didn't distance herself from Biden. And when 72% of the country, as the last poll the last weekend, said the country's on the wrong track, not separating yourself from the person who was president when it went to 72% wrong track is a politically fatal mistake.
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
The Cons & Cons of Trump with Gov. Chris Christie
So I think, John, for people who don't focus on politics, who maybe didn't think about this election until two or three weeks or maybe even less before election day, all that stuff matters and is part of the explanation for why he did as well as he did.
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
The Cons & Cons of Trump with Gov. Chris Christie
I think that maybe the goal of some of the folks who work with Donald Trump I don't think Donald Trump has any overarching philosophical goal except that he wants to be powerful and listen to and in charge. I think what is causing this is you're right about the underlying problem, which I've heard from Republicans and Democrats, which is I just want some competence. Like it's their objection to,