Chris Christie on Trump, 2024 race, abortion and trips to Israel and Ukraine
(CBS, KYMA/KECY) - Former New Jersey Governor and 2024 GOP Presidential Candidate Chris Christie spoke with Face the Nation moderator Margaret Brennan on the 2024 presidential race.
Brennan and Christie talked about if Republican National Convention (RNC) told Christie if he was qualified to attend the December 6 debates since the RNC will announce who will be on the debate stage on Monday.
"I don't think they've told anybody yet who all of us are going to be on the stage, but I'm confident...that I will be there and that we have all the qualifications necessary to get there," Christie expressed.
When asked if the field needs to consolidate to beat former President Trump, Christie said, "Anyone trying to predict this is just shooting in the dark."
"He acts like someone who wants to be a dictator," Christie said of Trump. "He acts like someone who doesn't care for the constitution."
Trip to Israel and Ukraine and abortion
During the interview, Brennan and Christie touched on his trips to Israel and Ukraine, making Christie the only GOP presidential candidate to visit both countries.
"I think if you want to be President of the United States, you have to see these things for yourself. You can't count on reports from pundits or the press, or from other folks in public life. You've got to see it for yourself and I will tell you, when I went to Israel...just a couple of weeks ago, the inhumanity I saw that Hamas rained upon the Jewish people in Israel. I went into one home of a 24-year-old couple recently married. Both were murdered in their small three-room home. And there were 140 bullet holes in the walls to kill two people...It’s not just the inhumanity that Hamas executes, it's the joy they take in that inhumanity. And that's why Israel has to do what they need to do to eliminate that military threat. And I think I would not have completely understood it, and couldn't be an effective president if I didn't see it for myself.
Chris Christie, Former Governor of New Jersey, 2024 GOP Presidential Candidate
Christie reaffirmed his position that decisions on abortion being in the hands of the states saying:
"I've been consistent on this. I believe the conservative smart approach is to let the states make these decisions and that's what I think they should do. And that's why I said, I wouldn't sign a six-week national abortion ban as Governor DeSantis and now just recently in Iowa, Governor Haley has said she would sign a six week ban. I don't think you can say one thing in one place and something else in another, you need to be consistent."
On other candidates’ stances, Christie said, "I'm concerned…candidates in this race have been all over the block on this. And it's not right. People deserve to have a straight answer from you and that's my straight answer."
