In the upcoming televised Republican presidential debate candidate Chris Christie might get demoted to the JV team; the junior varsity candidates who debate off the main stage because their poll numbers don’t make the cut. Chief political Correspondent Michael Aron discusses what Christie’s been up to in New Hampshire and in the garden state.
Christie’s in New Hampshire for three days, holding four town halls and a round table. “This afternoon he was at BAE Systems in Nashua, a defense contractor. In his remarks there he told people that he’s learned over the past few months that in New Hampshire you ask people for their votes,” Aron said.
“I want you vote, but as much as I want your vote I want your trust and your confidence and your support. Because if I don’t have your trust, and your confidence and your support I’m not going to be an effective president. I’ll just be the president. I’m not going there just to be something; I’m going there to do something. And hopefully with your trust, and your confidence and your support I’ll get there,” Christie said.
“He’s sounding like he’s still a believer in himself,” Aron said. His campaign announced that he would be traveling with a special guest, be he didn’t say who. It turned out to be Walt Havenstein who was the Republican candidate for governor in New Hampshire. He was unsuccessful last year when Christie was raising money for Republican gubernatorial candidates. He’s also a former CEO of BAE Systems. He put out a statement seeming to glowing about Christie:
“America cannot lead without a president that is not smart, tough and tested for the most difficult job in the world. Chris Christie is the only candidate who embodies those attributes.”
Still, the polls are not good for Christie. We should know by tonight if he’s going to make the cut for the next debate. “To make the main stage candidates must average 2.5 percent in the four most recent polls. He’s at three percent in NBC, he’s at three percent in Quinnipiac, he’s at two percent in Fox News and he’s at one percent in last week’s CBS poll. That averages out to 2.25 percent. That means he would not make the cut if those are the four that are being used,” Aron said.
The emergence of two viral videos over the course of the past few days may give Christie an edge in a different way. The videos show him talking at speeches about addiction and compassion for those who are addicted, and how they should be treated like they have a disease. He spoke about his mother:
“No one came to me and said ‘Don’t treat her because she got what she deserved.’ We know that lung cancer was caused by the smoking. We know it was. But no one came to me and said, ‘Hey, listen. Your mother was dumb. She started smoking when she was 16 after we told her it was bad for her. She kept doing it, so we’re not going to give her chemotherapy, we’re not going to giver her radiation, we’re not going to give her any of that stuff. You know why? Because she’s getting what she deserves,” Christie said.
“He goes on to say someone who’s addicted to heroin, or cocaine or opiates would not get that kind of sympathy,” Aron said. “This seems to have resonated. It’s been seen five million times on YouTube in the last few days. Why now I’m not sure, but it was ironic to see Ted Cruz talking about his sister’s drug addiction on CNN this afternoon.”