Governor Christie, shown at a town hall, said he’ll back whoever the GOP presidential nominee is if he doesn’t win the primary. KEVIN R. WEXLER/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Governor Christie hasn’t yet signed the Republican National Committee’s pledge not to run as an independent if he doesn’t win the GOP primary, but he said he’ll back the party’s nominee.
“If they want me to formally sign it, I’m happy to,” Christie said when asked about the pledge on CNN’s “New Day” Thursday morning. “I already said on Aug. 6 I’m going to support the Republican nominee for president, whoever it is.”
Christie was asked why the party is calling on candidates to sign a pledge this year, when there are 17 Republicans jockeying for the GOP nomination.
“I assume they are doing it because Mr. Trump wouldn’t agree to it on Aug. 6,” Christie said of GOP frontrunner Donald Trump’s response to a question at the first Republican primary debate.
Christie said he thinks any Republican that goes on to run as a third party candidate would hurt the GOP’s chances of winning back the White House next year.
“There should be a sore loser rule,” he said.
Trump is set to meet with RNC Chairman Reince Priebus today and has scheduled a news conference for this afternoon where he is expected to agree to the pledge.
Christie, who is headed to New Hampshire later today for a series of events over two days, was also asked about Trump’s feud with former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush in recent days. He described it as a “food fight.”
“I think that these guys have forgotten what this is about it’s not about the two of them it’s about the American people,” Christie said adding that he thinks voters will grow tired of the personal attacks.
Trump, responding to criticism from Bush, attacked the former Florida governor, whose wife is Hispanic, for speaking Spanish at a campaign event.
Asked whether candidates should be speaking English on the campaign trail Christie says each individual should decide how he or she is going to campaign.
“I’ll be speaking English because I don’t speak another language, this is the one I’ve got,” Christie said.
During the program, Christie continued to defend his call for use of FedEx-style tracking to determine when people visiting the country have overstayed their visas. He also stood by strong comments he made about President Obama and the Iran nuclear deal this week.
“I said very clearly he’s now responsible for Iran’s conduct,” Christie said when asked if his rhetoric was too harsh. “He’s climbed into bed with Iran.”
The governor was also asked to respond to a comment GOP presidential hopeful Rand Paul, a U.S. Senator from Kentucky, made about the drug epidemic. During a campaign event Paul said that if people were working they would be too busy to develop a drug addiction.
Christie, who has been working to make combating addiction a national issue, said he disagrees with Paul.
“We should treat it as a disease,” Christie said making a push for non-violent offenders to be put into treatment programs instead of prison.
