By Michael Aron
Chief Political Correspondent
Chris Christie went around the world last night from hot spot to hot spot, condemning what he called Hillary Clinton’s flawed judgment.
“She was the chief engineer of the disastrous overthrow of Gadhafi in Libya,” Christie said.
As a former prosecutor, he said, he would draw up an indictment against Clinton’s foreign policy and ask the audience to be the jury.
“She called President Assad a reformer, she called Assad a different kind of leader. So we must ask this question: Hillary Clinton as an awful judge of the character of a dictator, a butcher in the Middle East, is she guilty or not guilty?” he asked, to which the crowd replied, “Guilty!”
It became an assault on Clinton, and the hit of the evening.
On China, on Iran, on Nigeria.
“These al-Qaida terrorists abducted hundreds of innocent young women two years ago. These schoolgirls are still missing,” Christie said.
On Russia.
“She went to the Kremlin on her very first visit and gave them that stupid symbolic reset button,” he said.
“Lock her up,” they spontaneously erupted — again and again.
A fact-checker might have challenged some of his accusations, but there were none on stage, just one tough ex-prosecutor playing call and response.
On Cuba.
“So let’s ask the question: Hillary Clinton as a coddler of the brutal Castro brothers and betrayer of the family of a fallen state trooper Werner Foster and his family. Is she guilty or not guilty?” he asked. “Guilty!” the audience replied.
Christie seemed to relish the moment.
“As to Hillary Clinton lying to the American people about her selfish, awful judgment in making our secrets vulnerable, what’s your verdict? Guilty or not guilty?” he asked. “Guilty!” came the response.
He talked to Chief Political Correspondent Michael Aron after his speech:
Aron: Governor, that was quite an attack on Hillary Clinton. What made you decide that that was the tone you should take?
Christie: Someone has to do it, Michael. You’ve watched me prosecute cases for years. It felt good to get back to my old job for a little bit.
Aron: You really had the crowd there eating out of your hand.
Christie: Well that’s your characterization and I’ll take it.
Aron: Is Hillary Clinton really responsible for the Nigerian girls being abducted? Can you really lay things like that at her feet?
Christie: Michael, for two years she fought that al-Qaida affiliate being put on the terrorist watch list. It’s reckless and irresponsible. And I love the fact that Hillary Clinton’s attacking me tonight, it’s great.
Aron: She’s attacking you on Twitter or where is –?
Christie: Yeah. Look forward to more.
Aron: One cannot help but think this should be the running mate up there. It’s the role of the running mate.
Christie: Michael, listen, my job as governor of New Jersey and my vocation is to help my friend, Donald Trump, get elected as president and I’m going to do that any possible way that I can and as chairman of this transition and making a few speeches like that I think I’ll do OK.
Aron: One also can’t help but think back four years to the Mitt Romney speech. It’s as if you learned a lesson that night and you mentioned Donald Trump in the first sentence tonight.
Christie: Michael, four years later you’re always older and wiser. I know you are.
Aron: Thank you very much, governor.
Christie: Thank you, Michael.
A delegate from New York said the speech blew her away.
Christie got especially high marks within the New Jersey delegation.
“He nailed it on the head when he was describing how Hillary Clinton is going to be as a president,” said Christine Serrano-Glassner. Was it too aggressive? “No I don’t think so, not for the governor, it wasn’t aggressive. It was right in line with exactly how the governor would speak. Would we want him to speak in a manner that is sheepish? I don’t think so. This is New Jersey, after all,” she said.
“That was one of the finest speeches I’ve heard in this campaign. He laid out details, details and details about why Hillary Clinton should not be elected president and why Donald Trump should be elected as president. He put it on a level where everyone could understand it,” said Steve Rogers. Did it make him think Christie should be the running mate? “Well, I’ve always believed that because I’m a Jersey guy let’s pick a Jersey guy to do the job,” he said.
“Well, I knew it was coming. I saw the speech. He’s very effective at that. He is very effective at methodically making the case for or against someone. In this case he chose to make it against Hillary Clinton and I think he did it very effectively. He brought the house down here so I think it was well received,” said Michael DuHaime.
“This is why Chris Christie is such a great communicator. He engaged the audience. Not for one moment were you bored. You are fully engaged. That’s what a speaker does,” said Assemblyman Jon Bramnick.
So last night was the opposite of four years ago, when Christie’s keynote speech for Mitt Romney fell flat.
This time he rose to the occasion and hit his target.