Christie back on Spadea’s NJ 101.5 show: What he said

Former two-term New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie joined me on the show again on Monday.

The last time he was on the air with me, it was a heated battle over the gas tax.

Despite our disagreements, when the governor is right, I've been quick to point it out.

Can Christie reach Trump voters?

This time, the governor joined me to discuss his campaign for president. 

A poll was released by WPA Intelligence and Fair Vote showing a change in the rankings after the second debate.

Here's an excerpt from a note sent to Christie supporters:

"A new poll out today shows Governor Christie leading the New Hampshire primary with 39% of the vote. Donald Trump registers second place with 25%. Gov. Nikki Haley is in double digits at 10%. Gov. Ron DeSantis has dropped to 5%. Just as importantly, the poll shows Christie at 9% nationally, up 4 points from their previous poll before the last debate, and ahead of Haley, Vice President Mike Pence, and Senator Tim Scott"

The next debate will be held in Miami on Nov. 8. Christie asks you to spend a dollar to help him qualify for the debate stage. Click the link here if you'd like to help.

Here are some of the questions I asked the governor:

❓— How do you plan to appeal to Trump voters?

❓— Your numbers in New Jersey are low, what do you want to say to New Jersey voters? Why should they put aside the past and support you now?

❓— Will you support Trump if he is the nominee?

❓— Would you commit military support to Israel to destroy Hamas?

Check out his very direct answers below

Story continues below video.

What issues are resonating with voters in New Hampshire?

"First and most important is the border and everybody is concerned about that and rightly so.

"Joe Biden set an awful tone during the campaign in 2020, basically inviting people to come up here illegally from not only Mexico but all through Central America. Now people seem shocked that that's what's happening.

"You had folks like Gov. Phil Murphy, Mayor Eric Adams, Gov. Cuomo and now Kathy Hochul all saying we're sanctuary states and sanctuary cities where there was no cost to it. Now with people pouring in now all of a sudden they want help."

Christie on U.S. military support of Israel

"I would commit to them whatever military hardware they needed.

"I don't think that Israel would want American troops on the ground nor do I think they would accept them, nor do I think it would be wise to escalate the war that way. Israel is the strongest military in the Middle East.

"They were caught off-guard as were all of the Western intelligence agencies and we're going to need a real after-action study as to to how that happened. But I have complete confidence in Israel's military if they are armed appropriately. I think the United States should provide whatever we need to provide to the only democracy in the Middle East."

How would Christie secure the border?

"You need to finish the wall. Only 52 miles of wall was built during Trump's time, so we need to finish that.

"Second, on my first day, I'll sign an executive order sending the National Guard in large numbers to the border to stop the flow of drugs coming over the border.

"We need to add 10,000 Customs and Border Patrol officers.

"Over the last 11 months, there have been an average of 200,000 apprehensions a month. You know how many beds we have to be able to detain these people? 38,000 total. It is obscene. And so we need to more than double that bed capacity.

"We also need to triple the number of immigration judges. The idea that it takes four years to get an asylum hearing and we can't send them back until then and we have no place to put them and so we release them into the country, it's outrageous."

It's a law enforcement problem

"What you need are people who make the system work. And 700 judges is nowhere what we need. We need to have nearly 3,000 of these judges to be able to do what needs to be done down there to move things efficiently because if you capture people and you have no place to keep them and you have no way to process them, then when people say we need to be strong at the border, what the heck does that mean?

You've got to do those things and you need to do them as soon as possible because the problems are not going to get any better; it's only going to get worse if people don't believe there's going to be any penalty for coming into this country illegally.

How does Christie appeal to Trump supporters?

First, to remind Trump voters that I was the first person to endorse Donald Trump in 2016 when I got out of the race in that year. I was chairman of his transition. I was chairman of his opioid and drug abuse commission. He offered me four different cabinet positions. I prepped him for debates in 2016 by playing Hillary Clinton. I prepped for the debate in 2020 — I had to take a sedative first. I took a sedative and played Joe Biden."

I'm not a Never Trumper

"You know, I am not a Never Trumper but what I've come to the conclusion is that he has become so divisive in this country that he won't win a general election and we can't afford to have four years of Joe Biden. If you watch that speech Joe Biden gave over the weekend on Isreal, who is going to be intimidated by the United States with him standing in the White House? Who's going to respect us and take us seriously?

"So this is about winning. We haven't done any winning since 2016: 2018 we lost the House; 2020 we lost the White House and some governorships; 2021 we lost the Senate; 2022 we lost another couple of governorships and another seat in the Senate. we need to go back to our policies being what people vote on, not personalities."

Would Christie support Trump if Trump is the nominee?

"The problem with that is Donald Trump won't commit to supporting anyone else in the race. In fact, what he does is demean everybody else in the race and I think what he needs to do is to show that he would participate in the process by showing up at the debate and to be able to treat all the rest of the candidates with respect.

"He's calling Nikki Haley a bird brain, he's calling me Sloppy Chris Christie. I mean, look, the fact of the matter is he's been honored with being the nominee of this party twice and that is an extraordinary honor that we bestow on any American and in return he insults 2/3 of the people who are in our party when he does things like that. So, let's continue to have the good argument about who is best to represent the party and we will deal with the rest of this stuff when we get down the line."

The post above reflects the thoughts and observations of New Jersey 101.5 talk show host Bill Spadea. Any opinions expressed are Bill's own. Bill Spadea is on the air weekdays from 6 to 10 a.m., talkin’ Jersey, taking your calls at 1-800-283-1015.

Report a correction 👈 | 👉 Contact our newsroom