Chris Christie

speaker

239 appearances 3 recordings 3 series first heard Jan 2025 last heard 22 Mar

Chris Christie’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.

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Recordings per month over the last 12 months — 2 in all, peaking in Mar 2026 with 1.

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The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart · The Cons & Cons of Trump with Gov. Chris Christie · 30 Jan 2025 podcast

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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?

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.

And I think people are reading too much into him philosophically. He is transactional, John. Whatever gets him from here to there.

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

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.

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 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.

Well, a few things. I think first off, to be fair about your characterization of me.

You don't have to be. I'm suggesting you might want to be.

That I did run against him in 2016.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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