JUST IN: Chris Christie Responds To Idea Of Trump Becoming Speaker After McCarthy Ousted

Forbes Breaking News

On Thursday, former Gov. Chris Christie (R-NJ) reacted to the possibility of Donald Trump becoming Speaker of the House during a town hall in New Hampshire.

Transcript

00:00 And by the way, we shouldn't be surprised that Donald Trump did that.

00:04 I want to tell you why, because he did business in my state while I was governor.

00:08 The only person who could bankrupt three casinos when we had a monopoly in New Jersey back then.

00:16 It was New Jersey and Nevada.

00:19 How could you not make money running a casino?

00:22 [laughter]

00:24 I want you to think about that.

00:26 Three casinos went bankrupt under his management.

00:30 And the last story that I'll tell you about that was when he said to me,

00:34 when I came in with that $9 billion deficit on a $29 billion budget, we were friends,

00:39 and he picked up the phone and called me and said, "Hey, I read about that deficit. That's brutal."

00:44 He said, "Let me tell you what to do."

00:46 I'm believing, at that moment, I would have taken suggestions from anybody.

00:50 So I said, "Sure, Donald. What do you think?"

00:52 And he said, "Go bankrupt."

00:54 [laughter]

00:56 I said, "I'm sorry. You don't understand.

00:59 The law prevents a state from going bankrupt."

01:03 He goes, "Do it anyway."

01:05 [laughter]

01:06 He said, "They'll sue you.

01:08 By the time the case gets resolved in court two or three years later, everyone will have forgotten about it.

01:13 And you'll be in good shape, but otherwise, you're going to have to make some really hard choices

01:18 that are going to make people really hate you.

01:20 And I want to see you do well."

01:22 And I said, "Should we be surprised that the guy who made that suggestion to me in 2010

01:28 is the guy who ran up $7.8 trillion in debt?"

01:31 Those are just three of the issues, but I want to go back to the first one.

01:37 When we saw what happened in Washington, D.C. two nights ago,

01:43 with a Republican speaker being kicked out of office,

01:46 whether you love Kevin McCarthy or you hate Kevin McCarthy or you're somewhere in between,

01:51 it shows that Republicans can't govern.

01:55 And that's bad for 2024, everybody.

02:00 Really bad.

02:02 And while all this humor was going on in the House of Representatives,

02:07 where was the front-runner for our nomination?

02:10 And our nominee in the last two presidential cycles.

02:14 Was he down in Washington to try to help solve the problem

02:17 and cut off some of his supporters?

02:20 Was he on the phone desperately trying to win votes for McCarthy or for somebody else?

02:25 No.

02:26 He was in a courtroom defending himself against fraud charges.

02:32 And, by the way, everybody, that's where he's going to be for the next year and a half.

02:38 There's this case, then there's the January 6th criminal case,

02:43 then there's the Documents criminal case,

02:46 then there's the criminal case in New York,

02:48 then there's the criminal case in Georgia.

02:50 And, by the way, with all those criminal cases,

02:52 it's not optional to show up, like on the civil cases right now,

02:56 as a condition of bail.

02:59 And remember, he's out on bail in 49 years, there he is.

03:03 He has to be in that courtroom.

03:06 Not fighting Joe Biden.

03:08 Not fighting the Democrats.

03:10 What independent voters in this country are going to vote for that?

03:14 So we better get real about this in New Hampshire as a place, get real about it.

03:18 Character matters. It counts.

03:20 And we better vote for somebody who we think can carry the day and win independent voters

03:24 so we can win the White House back.

03:26 So I'll stop there and take your questions about anything out of your mind.

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