now, how about tonight's program? are you ready? okay, great. so to many to many people chris christie is known as governor abc abc news analyst national spokesperson and also new york times bestselling author. mary patrick christie also has the career that extends beyond

our borders here in midland township having been successful career on wall street as well as as well as holding the holding the title of first lady and quitting itself very well with doing a number of programs to across the state and was we're always very well received. but in these parts, the christie's is simply friends families neighbors and fellow coaches. so we're pleased to have them, you know pleased to have them in our community. as a matter of fact, it was just three years ago almost three years ago when chris christie's first book came out. let me finish that he was gracious and did a fundraise on our behalf. we held that crosstown at the high school and that was actually a sold that event on a very brisk february february evening. a police to say that with the second book when chris had was agreeable to do a fundraiser. we jumped for joy with it and obviously myself and my fellow board members said let's go for it. and here we are again both that evening three years ago and tonight or sellouts so you could say that tonight's probably as tough a ticket as a chris

christie book signing. it's probably as tougher ticket ticket as hamilton on broadway. so our evening's program mary pat will moderate crystal try to answer the questions. maybe try to get around the questions. we don't know yet and then we're going to have some q&a. there's a mic right here in the center for everyone to jump up and ask their questions and then that's you know, please don't be bashful and ask questions. so without further ado i present mary pat and chris christie. here thank you, peter. want to make sure i don't have any feedback on this but but this is really really great. this is a nice a nice cozy group and and i just wanted to say thank you to peter and the board the library's been an important part of our our life and our families life for the last 30

years, which is amazing. we've been here for 30 years. so we really we really appreciate all that the libraries do and i actually just paid a fine a $40 fine to the library to two weeks ago. i had to pick up a book and i guess i hadn't been in a couple years. um, so i my $40 fine. you don't even want to know. it was a book club book anyway, so, um well, thank you to everybody for coming out here. it's really it's been an interesting journey these last i guess six or seven months that it's taking you to to write this book and what i wanted to start out was to ask chris why he wrote it and also ask him to tell you us a little bit the process of writing it. sure. well, thanks everybody for being here tonight. it's great to be home. i've been on the road for most of the last two and a half weeks except for a couple days around

thanksgiving on a book tour where i've been in new york and chicago los angeles and washington and so it's been it's been a busy. it's been a busy few weeks and it's good to to have my last official book event at home. so, thank you all for coming out tonight. i decided to write the book mary pat and i went away for a few days after joe biden's inaugural. i i did the abc commentary on president biden's inaugural and then we decided to take a few days down to florida to relax after what had been a really much more grueling than normal tv schedule because of all the craziness surrounding the election how long it took for the results to come and all the rest. so we went down to florida for a few days. and i was sitting at the pool and thinking to myself that you know, this is probably one of the worst two years the republican party had had in a long time. we lost the majority of the

house representatives in 2018. and then we lose the senate and the white house in 2020. and i thought it struck me as somebody who's obviously been involved in stuff for a long time that it may have been one of the worst times we ever had and so sitting by the pool, i then got on my laptop and kind of looked it up. it's only happened twice. to the republican party since our founding in 1860. of the last time after this one 1930 to 1932. when herbert hoover was president united states, he lost the house the senate the white house within two years. and what happened after that was the democrats had the white house for 28 of the next 36 years. and so it struck me that. maybe somebody who had been a you know. very big oil supporter of president trump's needed to write a book about how we start to win again. if someone who had been opposed

to president trump all the way through and there are a number of republicans. who who were i don't think they would have credibility in writing this book. people i think would have dismissed it. but i had real concerns about where our party was headed. direction we were going in and the immediate aftermath of the election. and i had ideas about you know, what we needed to do to get back on track. so process of writing a book is you pitch the book? to publishers and we had a couple publishers who were interested, but all of them said if you're gonna write that kind of book the first part of the book has to be about your interaction with the president in the last year and a half of the administration after let me finish the first book ended. through to his leaving office in january. so when you when you get a chance to read the book if you haven't already. is the first third of the book? is kind of a recounting of stories and incidents that happen with me in the president.

and that's where i started the writing of the book now. i have a collaborator on the book ellis hannigan, who was my collaborator on the first book as well. and ellis ellis, and i have a process we use in writing the book the way we do it is we get together. we agree on which topics are going to be discussing that day. he takes out of tape recorder. he starts asking me questions and i start talking. then there is a poor woman out in kansas who has to transcribe all of that. she then sends the transcriptions back to me and to ellis and then we craft chapters out of the transit out of the transcriptions. then when we get done with that, there's another poor woman who then has to do the research to make sure that everything that we say that we're completely sure of. is actually true. and and i'll give you one example from let me finish. where i would have absolutely sworn that this was a correct recollection.

i had a good friend of mine in high school. who was murdered? and i was telling that story to ellis at that time and he said when it's happened i said it was the he had day before school started my senior year in high school. so we write the book and and write that that chapter the and and then comes back and he says are you sure it was the day before? will start for senior year i said, absolutely sure. i remember it like it was yesterday. you really sure. yeah. well this woman found. the front page of our local weekly paper in livingston and it was actually the day before the starting of school my junior year. not my senior year i guarantee you. if you all put a gun to my head. and said if you're wrong, we're going to blow your brains out. i would have said go ahead because i know it i absolutely know it. so roberta plays a really integral role in the process by

researching everything that we talk about and make sure that we have it right first and foremost for the integrity of the book and then second the lawyers at simon and schuster want to make sure that we don't say something. that's so blatantly wrong that all of us will get sued so then chapter by chapter comes in we're working on it together. i'm doing a lot of editing and changing. i'm so maybe his initial language into my voice. and we probably go back and forth on each chapter two to three times. where he makes suggestions i make suggestions and we're volleying it back and forth by email. and and then we get the manuscript done and we send it to our editor. at simon & schuster she then will send it back to us with notes in the margins. things she wants us to explain more things that she wants us to add. and in this instance, we are on a very tight. deadline because to get to start

a book when we started this in march. to have it out by november is apparently like land speed records for publishing now. i don't get that but i don't want to argue with the publisher because they're paying me so i'm gonna argue with them. so we were working really quickly. we got to her stuff. she then decided she wanted. another additional chapter on something and she sent this to us by email and ellis called me and said did you read natasha's latest email? and i said, no not yet because don't. don't i'm going to break it to you gently she wants another chapter. and so literally what we did was we were on the phone with each other and i said on what and it was a chapter on? no, it's not covid policy. and we talked about covid a lot in the book in the first part in my experience with covid. i'm sure we'll get to that but this is on what should our policy be going forward on how

to deal with it. i really think you need to do a chapter on that. so, okay, and by the way, and i need it. in two days so ellis i said dallas. all right. turn on your tape recorder. we don't have time to get together like turn it on and let's go and we just started to go and within the two days we had that last chapter done and then the last thing you do is you write the dedication. and the acknowledgments until you see the dedication in the front of the book is to our four children and the acknowledgments in the back are a whole lot of people who contributed to helping me with the book or just contributed to helping me in this part of my life and career. so that's the way you write a book and believe me when you're finally done with the acknowledgments and you hit send and they acknowledge. they've received it. you don't want to see it again. you don't want to so you don't want to see the book until it looks like that and when it does all you redo is look at the

cover and the title page which you sign and i i have not. looked at the text. since late august when i when i sent it back out. yeah, and you also chris also did an audiobook so that was a painful like 25 hour experience, i believe and then the other thing some of us read it and edited it. i'm just going to tell a little insight story that the cover is the elephant with the life preserver. it originally had a red cross on it, but the red cross opposed that yeah, it was holding. it was holding a red cross flag in a trunk and the red cross wouldn't give us permission to use it on the cover. so we had to go to the red and white life preserver, which which i think is great but on the final copy the the little elephant on the side had still had the red cross flag. and i flagged it she did very pat bought it i sent it to i go here's where the cover looks and she it's wait a second. the elephant on the side has the flag that will tell you what -- the red cross.

yeah that that will tell you how little i wanted to look at this anymore. i say, all right, whatever. yeah, go ahead five will tell them so but it was good catch because we probably would have gotten sued by the red cross. so good good miss on that so that's the process of of the way at least i've i've written this book and and pretty much the same process the last time for let me finish as well. that's great. well, chris is a student of history loves history and i'm part of this book. there's a lot of history and it actually talked to talk to the audience about the fact that we go over conspiracy stories and why it's so important to review history and in particular the john birch society and i think they might find that interesting to know that background, you know when i started talk about the idea of and make the argument for why? engaging in and spending any more time on all these different conspiracy theories that have been out there q and on pizza gate birtherism and the election stuff i thought i had a place in

some historical context like this is not the first time we've gone through this. as a country or as a party. so i write extensively a pretty large chapter on the john birch society. which in the late 50s and early 60s became a force inside the republican party. very much one that had an anti-semitic strain to it. it ran in through a number of conspiracy theories in that regard and became a real force inside the republican party. and william f buckley was the founder of national review magazine have a thought leader in the conservative movement was horribly disturbed by these developments and by the development of seeing how prominent the john birch society was becoming in our in republican party politics. so he approached barry goldwater.

and knowing that goldwater was considering running for president in 1964 and said the goldwater look. we should do this together. and push back on these people and if we do so together, i think we could have a real impact on the party. so let's i'll write the first editorial. in the national review and then you write a letter to the editor to the national review supporting the editorial. goldwater agrees and and buckley writes a 4,000 word editorial. the national review about why the john birch society is so bad for america and so bad for the republican party talks in depth about the anti-semitism and why that's so bad. goldwater was this out? no other way to put it. he starts to get pressure back. from john birchers inside the republican party. he's worried that if he does this he won't win the nomination

in 1964. and so he writes back a very very short week. letter to buckley which is nothing like what they had agreed upon. so buckley decides that he's not going to publish it at first. and he goes to somebody else. see who has credibility to conservative movement to see if he'll back buckley up on this. he went to ronald reagan. who at that time was not even an elected official? he had given a speech in 1964 on behalf of goldwater. early on called run it was the speech was entitled rendezvous with destiny. and reagan it become a very popular figure inside the conservative movement because of this speech. he would be elected two years later in 1966 as governor, california, but reagan stood up and wrote a long impassioned letter. as a former democrat as to why

he thought the birchers were not somebody that we should be embracing or empowering inside the republican party. and it absolutely did the trick. goldwater ran in you you may remember goldwater's speech at the convention one of the most famous lines was extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice. that's directly john birch language. and he lost monumentally. in fact a little morris county historical note barry goldwater was the last republican. to lose morris county for president until donald trump in 2020 from 64 to 2020 mars county voted for every republican presidential candidate. they rejected goldwater. and they rejected trump in 2020. and and i think there's an interesting i didn't put it in

the book because nobody would really care about that historical comparison, but this audience will and i think it says something about historical comparison that we're making so i think it's it's an interesting chapter to place the chapters that follow into context. which is whether you're talking about birtherism or qanon or pizza gate or the election? conspiracies that we're not in a unique time. i i hate when i hear commentators on television say we are in the most dangerous time in the history of this country where more divided than we've ever been in our history. now. i had someone say that abc one day and and then george came to me and i said, i don't know. seems to me the civil war was probably a time when we were more divided. you know, then we are then we are now. just a random thought but you know, maybe we could check a little common sense into all hyperbole and the reason for

historical context is to tell you we've been here before and remember what happened after that. after that, we won the presidency five of the next six times. between 1968 and 1992 so the republican party recovered they became once again a national force at the presidential level because we got back to basics. and that's part of what the book's all about. that's great along those same lines as history repeats itself. i love when you were doing debate prep with the the president and you went into debate prep with reams of examples of articles from previous presidents incumbent presidents. tell the audience what you told president trump and well why why your advice was prescient president? i did debate prep for 2016. i i watch it all the close your

eyes and picture this for a moment. i played hillary clinton. in debate prepared 2016 and and i i didn't do the first debate in 2016. he had like the cast of ben-hur, you know prepping him for that first debate and his performance kind of reflected that and after the first debate. he called me and he said look will you do debate preparing for the second debate? and i said only if i'm in charge of it and only if i get to decide who's in the room because if we're gonna have every tom -- and harry in the room, room, i don't care to play. and he said you're in charge. so we did the bay prep for him in 2016 for the second and the third debate and just one quick aside. i didn't go to the second debate. we went to the first one, but we didn't go to the second one and we watched the second debate at home. and seven or eight minutes after the debate was over. he got done shaking hands on the stage and taking pictures my phone rang and it was donald trump.

and he said to me. my because you're so great. that was so easy. he goes it was so easy compared to debating you. it was great. he's better hillary clinton. he said yours. you're a better hillary than she is. he said so you're gonna do debate three, right? yeah, mr. prayer donald. yes. so 2020 comes in his staff comes to me his chief of staff at the time was mark meadows. and jared kushner his son-in-law who if you read the first book is a dear friend of mine. i came to me and said we watch you back in charge of debate prep again. so does the president this now in july? and they go we want to start this weekend. the first debate was late september and i said to them he's not gonna like this. it's too early. they go. no, no, he needs a lot of work i go. i know he needs a lot of work,

but but he's not gonna like this and they insisted that they had spoken to him. and that he was fine with it. and three o'clock on saturday in bedminster. okay, so president united states watching to come you go. so i show up we're sitting in the conference room at on the first floor of the clubhouse in bedminster and in walks the president from his round of golf. and he sits down and i'm sitting in the chair across from him. he sits down. he looks at me goes what the hell are you doing here? and i said debate prep and he goes are you kidding me? he said debate prep in july for the end of september. how stupid do you think i am? of looking now at jared and at meadows, we're both in the room are like thanks. i just knew that this was a setup. i knew they hadn't spoken to him because they didn't have the guts to talk to him and they

just figured, you know, i charm him. so i had prepared for his mary pat said and i went back and since the modern era presidential debates restarted in 1976 she had debate beach debates between and nixon in 1960. and then there were no debates in 64 68 or 72. and then at 76 gerald ford was way behind jimmy carter in the race coming out of the conventions. so he agreed that debates with carter. so that's started the modern era now ever since then there have been presidential debates every four years. but what i brought him were articles that i printed out. from 76 from 80 84 92 96 2004 and 2012 those were the

elections when there was an incumbent president. seeking re-election or election and gerald ford's case. and in every one of them. the president the incumbent president lost the first debate. every time and i went back and spoke to some of the folks who prepped. those presidents for the debates. i called them they all knew i was doing trump and so i called them and they all told me the same thing which i suspected which was presidents don't want to prep. because they're president. they're like you know, i'm the president. oh i need to prepare for a debate for i am the president. now this this guy or woman over here, they don't know the presidency. i know the presidency. i'm the president. so what i sat down i said we need to start now mr. president. and he said i mean no joke he goes. tell the wife to prepare for i'm president. i'm like, that's so great, right? so i go into my briefcase and i

take out a stack article this thick and i said i toss them across the table to them. and i said i want i said debate prep is over. i said we're not doing anything else today. so i want you to do is go back tonight and read those articles. and then i'll see you next time. you want you want to see me? and i got up. and jared in middleburg. well, maybe we should just talk in general about kind of biden style. and i said you guys can talk about biden style. i said read the articles mr. president and he said what are they about? and i said how every incumbent president lost because they thought they didn't need to prepare because they were president sound familiar. and he said, is that true? which is also another indication to you about kind of the the depth of historical knowledge. of donald trump about politics. i mean, he just doesn't have any and so this was all news to him and i gave it to him and i walked out and jared and meadows followed me out to the front of

the club and bedminster. and i looked upooked up and i g. you guys like? you're so fully --. um, you never talked to it right? you never talk to him. and of course they denied and said they did but you know, the guy was clearly surprised to see me there and didn't want to do prep so, you know, he read those articles. of course, he did not follow any of the advice, but he read the articles because he called me a couple of days later. and here was the conclusion he drew from that. he said he goes those other guys are so bad. i can't believe how bad all of them were. i'm not gonna be like that chris. i'm gonna be really good. okay, mr. president, you got it. yeah, he didn't go he must not have been a boy scout being prepared was not his yeah. okay. yeah, we could go into the preparation for the debates, but it was 16 was difficult. because in the midst right at the end of the prep for the

second debate access hollywood happens right, so i'm i'm in the middle of prepping him. on the friday afternoon before the sunday debate. and in came as press secretary with the transcript of the access hollywood tape that kind of derailed us for a little while. i made it difficult, but he was very receptive to preparation in 2016. and because he knew even though he wouldn't admit that he lost the first debate. he knew he lost the first debate and he didn't want to lose again. he's very receptive to preparation. he he was much less receptive in 2020. so moving on to different topic but something the book really talks a lot about is all these conspiracies theories, but talk to this audience in the way you do so well about where the proof is that obviously donald trump lost the election, but but get some specifics about the suburban women and where he lost

votes and how he actually gained votes in the cities. yeah, well like if you listen to the president talk about this. has a number of different theories. about why the election was stolen? and what you'll learn after reading and the way i try to approach it. in the book is in my job two jobs ago. not my last job. i try not to learn right like the governor. i try to write like the united states attorney. and and i take the approach of if i had to prove this. in court what would i do? because that's what i'm trying to do to all of you. are trying to set you have any doubts about this. i want to address those issues. lay out the facts and then let you draw your own conclusion. but obviously i'm taking it from the perspective of i believe the evidence. supports as i did when i was us attorney if i'm bringing a case, i think obviously the evidence supports the case. i'm bringing so a few things one of the theories is that the

election was stolen from him in, pennsylvania in philadelphia. and it was stolen from him in michigan in detroit. you've heard him say this. oh the the boxes of ballots who showed up in the middle of the night in detroit and it philadelphia, you know, they were filling out ballots there that you know, no one no one was accounted for there were ballots than people. registered to vote. you've heard all these things. well we go through what the part the registration numbers are in, pennsylvania. and how there were significantly fewer people who voted than who were actually registered to vote in, pennsylvania. we look at philadelphia. philadelphia donald trump actually got 3% more of the vote. in 2020 that he did in 2016. in the city of philadelphia and joe biden got 1% less of the vote. in philadelphia then hillary clinton did i would argue to you. that's a very unsuccessful steel job. when you let the guy you're trying to steal from get three percent more and the guy you're

trying to steal four get one percent less. so illogical each they didn't steal it. now the other thing you'll hear about pennsylvania is wait a second when i went to bed. donald trump was winning, pennsylvania by 700,000 votes. and then i wake up. and he's losing by 80,000 votes. they stole it. no. we had a very unusual election in 2020 because we had the most mail-in ballots ever used in the history of our presidential election and each state. decided differently how they were going to count the votes in what order? so for instance in ohio. when you went to bed. and looked at, ohio. joe biden was winning, ohio. when you woke up. donald trump won ohio by nine points by the same, pennsylvania theory trump still, ohio from

biden now here's what happened. in ohio they counted the mail-in ballots first. the male and ballots were overwhelmingly across the country and in some places 70 to 75% democrat. for two reasons one democrats were generally more fearful of covid than republicans. so they were more fearful to go out to a polling place and vote in person. secondly, donald trump said all summer and all fall. talent ballots are rigged. don't don't trust me. i'm in ballots vote on election day. so republican voters listen to the leader of the party. and they didn't vote by mail. they voted at the machines that day. so in ohio, they voted they counted all the mailing votes first. biden was up by seven points. we're watching an abc because we

didn't know which way they were doing it until we started ask them questions. so we're going to abc say was joe biden wouldn't ohio? by seven well, then they count the machine votes in ohio, and it was a 16 point swing. trump went from down up down seven to up nine. the one by nine in pennsylvania, it was the exact opposite. pennsylvania they decided to count the machine votes first. hence, donald trump's up by 700,000 votes then they can't mail in votes. and he loses by 80 in, pennsylvania. a very similar swing in terms of numbers and percentage that you saw in ohio, but going trump's favor. lastly in pennsylvania something was in stark relief that happened all across the country and i would suggest to you. is why donald trump was the first republican presidential candidate since barry goldwater to lose morris county. the collar counties outside, philadelphia for suburban

county's outside, philadelphia chester county, delaware county montgomery county outside, what's the chester delaware montgomery bucks right box in in 2016 versus 2020 donald trump lost those four counties by a hundred and four thousand more votes. to joe biden then he lost the hillary clinton. he lost both times. but he lost by 104,000 votes more. in those four suburban counties that he did in 2016. he lost the entire state by 80. so if you need to know why donald trump lost, pennsylvania. he lost pennsylvania for the same reason he lost morris county. white educated suburban voters who gave him a chance of 2016? largely abandoned him in 2020 and i am sure in this town. and your friends across the county. and in a greater percentage by

women than men. but both both women and men suburban white educated voted far less for trump in 2020, and he didn't 2016. but could apply to yourself. if you apply to friends of yours you've spoken to. but there's no question. that that's what happened to him. that's where he lost in, michigan. that's where he lost in, wisconsin. over and over again. it was those suburbs outside milwaukee outside detroit outside, philadelphia. who had voted forum in 2016 and did not. and i talked about one anecdotal. the story in the book with a woman who shall remain nameless because she lives in this town who had been a volunteer for both of my gubernatorial campaigns and she saw me in kings the day before the election. let's go through. she said governor what's going to happen tomorrow? and i said look, i think to be a lot closer than people thi

i said i think itnk will be a lot closer than people think but i think biden is going to win. she looked at her shoes and started shaking her head. i knew she was a strong republican, she works for me twice, both times as governor and i said i know you're disappointed, she said i voted for biden. i look at her and said you voted for biden? why? she said governor, i couldn't listen to that voice for another four years. part of what we need to understand which is difficult for donald trump to accept, it was not rejection of his policies. it was a rejection of him personally by a group of voters, i can tell you something about him. first of all, winning is much better and secondly it is

intensely personal. politics differs from sports. sports you have a good day or bad day, sometimes you win and sometimes the other person is better and they have a better day, it doesn't mean you are rejected, just that day the other guy was better, the other woman was better. in politics they look at you, they look at the other person and said i will take that one. i don't want this one. i could tell you from having felt this, it is intensely personal. when people wonder why donald trump has such a hard time accepting, in part, not in whole, but in part, it is because he knows what i just said is absolutely true, that it was personal rejection. we go through all the other -- there's a number of other --

arizona, although different, georgia, places he argued about. >> that is a good segue, then we will take questions from the audience. tell us your view, and effort in the legislature to federalize voting rights and voting systems. can you tell us your view on federal lighting that, voting laws and what you would do? >> congress want to federalize all the rules. i have to tell you you don't want to live under that system. each data system how we could ever think voting rules good for wyoming will be good for new jersey when wyoming is the least densely populated state in america and new jersey is

the most densely populated state in america, the challenges we face, the complications we have significantly different. second, the constitution is pretty clear that these decisions are supposed to be made by individual states. and third of the federal government, what could possibly go wrong? imagine the federal government could be charged with counting all the vote so instead of having what we have in the firehouse when we go there, as volunteers, paid a little bit but not nearly as much as they should be, imagine those people all being replaced with federal employees who come in, i don't think so. what we need to do is look at what happened in morris county

which here is why because usually you have 10 or 12,000 paper ballots and every other time it is all in the machine. this time we had a huge multiple, 200,000 paper ballots. 10,000. because they couldn't get ready that quickly. they didn't know -- covid comes in march of 20, you can't order those machines and get them here by november even if you wanted to so one of the things all of us in this state in particular given the number of voters we haven't across the country is not assume we are going to go back in 2022 or 2024 to a small amount of mail in ballots. some people have gotten used to that, they like it. we are going to have more mail in voters over time so we

better get more machines counting votes because the other reason we have so many conspiracy theories is the longer it takes to tell you who won the more you are wondering what are they up to? who is messing around with this? it is -- i talk about that in the book, natural american things that goes back to the founding of the country, conspiracy theories about politics throughout our founding. that's what happens in a free society where people express their opinions, their opinions don't have to be right, they just have to be opinions and they get to express them. i will always remember what brendan burns used to say. i had a lot of fun with governor burns, i miss him, he was one of the funniest people i ever met at one of the lines he used use all the time was i've made my wife promise that when i die she will bury me in husband county so i can remain active in politics.

i want to make clear to you, i say this in the book, not saying irregularities did not happen on election day because they did. by the way they happened in new jersey a few months ago and they happen in new jersey when i ran into thousand 9 engine 13. it happens all the time. the question is are there enough irregularities to change the result of the election in any one state let alone the five states it would have been necessary to change the results of the election and we prove in the book that is not possible. that is an important thing to remember and if you think you don't trust the county clerk in morris county to count the votes wait until a federal bureaucrat is counting the votes, forget it.

conspiracy theories will be tripled and quadrupled under that scenario. if we think she is messing around we can kick her out. you won't get rid of a federal bureaucrat in charge of the election process. >> host: if anybody has questions from the audience -- >> guest: the microphone is in the middle. that i think we need to use the microphone not because i can't hear you without it but the tv guys were here tonight. >> my question is if the biden administration could use some head wind do you think mainstream media will turn against them? >> i will say this, not completely against them, no, because the mainstream media in this country is slanted towards the left. there can't be any question about that. they are almost playing it up.

watch me on sundays. it is almost never not 3 to 1 when i am doing that roundtable. it is almost always 3 to one. every once in a while they run four republicans to sit with me but most of the time it is 3 to 1. that is even on one of the networks which if you go to the news networks they revel in their slant. cnn and msnbc are reveling, they think it is profitable for them at fox revels in the rightward slant. i say to folks all the time you should watch a little bit of both to realize there are 2 different worlds we are living in right now, two different ways to look at issues and most of the time you will come back to the way you think about things but that is why if you look at the bottom of our

driveway, our kids to use us endlessly about this that we get actual newspapers, our kids are like are you kidding? what do you get newspaper for, just go on your phone. but we still get them. you look at the bottom of our driveway, there's three newspapers every day, the wall street journal gives us the conservative side of things, the new york times, you know what the enemy is thinking in the new york post just to have fun. i think you should get a taste, same thing with mainstream media on tv as well. i painfully watch -- i don't watch every night, but i go back and forth between -- i can't watch msnbc, i have to be honest, i can't. too much from you but i will go through cnn and fox, whatever the big stories of the day are, how they cover them differently

and what you will find as they cover them completely differently and they emphasize which stores, there will be a day where, let's say, there is a big story on wall street and big story in washington dc. cnn will cover the washington dc story and they will cover it with nothing but democratic members of the house and senate and democratic pundits commenting on it. fox news won't, the washington story unless it is really big. they won't, the wall street story either, they will cover immigration and there will be stories about immigration in the border and they get to those set story second and third. everyone is taking get different approach and i think it is educational to watch all of them, as much of them as you can put up with, because it helps to inform me at least one

i'm talking to people on the other side as to why they think some of the things they think, they think it because that is what they are hearing in the news they are watching. if we have any hope of them playing it down the middle those days are over. >> i happen to think one of the biggest failings of the country is the inner city public schools, create a generation of failure. when you see lines of people desperate to get their kids into charter schools and anything not to go to the public school they are at, why hasn't it taken hold in the populations who give their to get behind school choice, school voucher, charter schools? the party they are voting for is entrenched and not supporting that and the cycle is perpetuated and never gets better. i can't understand why that

population hasn't moved to the school choice arguments, the charter school argument which can't be supported by the other party? >> i would say this to reasons. the first is abbott, folks in the inner cities have gotten into the habit of voting democrat and they have a hard time breaking that habit unless republicans aggressively campaign there to make the argument. i will tell you i think the party has done a lousy job making the argument. republicans, many of them tend to be uncomfortable going into those communities and making those arguments and i think it is foolhardy. if you look what happened with me after four years of arguing

hard that public education was failing and arguing why and authorizing more charter schools than any governor, what happened? we got more votes in newark and irvington, we won bail, we won union city, 62% of the vote in 2013. when i tried to argue to republicans across the country is you've got to go to places you're uncomfortable in and go to those places to make arguments that you know that group of voters needs to hear and to me you are right that the education issue, virginia just shows this, the education issue will cut across parties. parents care most about their children. they want their children to get a good education and i will tell you the biggest supporters i have in 2013 in the city

where the pastors of most of the major churches in place like newark, camden and trenton. of all the nominations including the imams and muslim mosques in place like patterson and camden, because they say to me we are tired of seeing the children who sit in our pews every sunday constantly be failed by the public school system. the reason that this and take hold 2. 3 is the teachers unions across the country spend an exorbitant amount of money in making sure of that. like i here now our current governor touting that we have the best schools in america, for some kids, he is the

democrat who is supposed to be the one who cares more about the underprivileged, yet he won't say one word about the failure in our urban schools, to do that would run counter to his nature with the teachers union, you all saw in 2009-10 and 11 they beat me senseless, the money they spent was extraordinary. to end on a more upbeat note, in 2010 we were in the midst of the first big fight with the teachers union. me and pat not all four children were in the suv going someplace, i don't remember where, we got through the exit, going through the tall and up

to the left was a picture of me that said chris christie hates children. it was an awful picture of me, awful picture of me. at that time our son patrick who, for those of you who know our family, who serves the drinks in our hearts, he was 10 years old at the time, i didn't know they noticed, patrick goes hey, dad, your people have to get better pictures of you. and i said patrick, did you read what the billboards said? those are not my people, i don't know, it was a really bad picture. that's another reason it happened as well. >> hi, you brought up governor

burns in hudson county so i am compelled to tell a story that goes back to 1985 when brendan burns and ed brodrick were supporting a democratic candidate for senator and he happen to have a fundraiser in princeton, new jersey at the time. he gets up and looks at bradley and says you know, i don't understand why you happen to be running as a democrat because most of the democrats i know from hudson county follow the same pattern, they get elected, they get indicted and they get sentenced. >> i had the similar experience in my old job, yes. >> on another note i wanted to ask about october 22, 2020, an event you happened to be there, the garden party preceding the

debate between biden and trump, and i think we all know what happened subsequent to that garden party, namely the trump obviously tested positive for covid and there were all sorts of supporters of trump sitting in those chairs yourself included, how do you feel that the time he knew he had the coronavirus, how do you feel about trump now, a gentleman you supported for president in terms of his loyalty to his closest associates and putting them essentially in peril as result of the subsequent test he had. >> i will say a few things about that to gently correct the record a little bit. my understanding is he tested positive the next day from what i have read now.

doesn't change the thesis of your question except for what happened the day before. the day before, everybody who was sitting there, i don't believe that event was a super spreader. the people who got covid in the main, only three people who were at that party who got covid who were not involved in debate prep and one of them was father jenkins of notre dame. there were two others the time absolutely convinced we all got covid in debate prep. there were 7 of us in debate prep including the president and six got covid and it is disturbing to me to have heard for the first time a day or 2 ago, in mark meadows's book the president tested positive for covid prior to him sitting closer than i am to you for

days and preparing for debates. there is a story in the book, i got put in the hospital, he was in the hospital as well, he called me and this story now makes much more sense than it did two days ago. he called me and said how are you doing? i said not well, it is really bad. you sound bad too. he goes do you believe two tough guys like us got this thing? we are so tough, how could this have gotten us? we are the two toughest guys in america and i don't understand it. i don't know either. even got to the point of the call. he said how do you think you got it? i don't know, mister president, i said, pretty confident i got it at the white house but six

of that we 7 of us got it, who knows who patient 0 was, i don't know. obviously got it in the white house. he then said to me, you are not going to blame it on me, are you? i said to him why what i blame it on you? i don't know that you are the one who gave it to me, it happened in that room but i don't know who gave it to me, he goes you are not going to tell the press that i gave it to you? i wouldn't say that because i don't know that it is true. up until two days ago my thought process on that was that that was just donald trump's paranoia, that he didn't want -- i was always a little suspicious because every one of us beside him got tested every day before we went in so the process was during that time, went to a gate at the white house, someone escorted you to the eisenhower building

next door and that is where the medical unit is, you go into the medical unit, they swab you, sat there for 15 minutes, got the result of the test, if you were negative you are authorized to go over to the west wing so i was always a little bit suspicious as to whether one of us got a false positive, false negative, or whether it was him. he was the only one we didn't know whether he was getting tested every day or not. wouldn't know, he was the president. for me, especially how bad my experience with covid was and any intensive care unit for 7 days, a couple moments feeling like it was going to go the wrong way, finding that out a couple days ago, if in fact what meadows says is true, he tries to hedge it a little bit,

then he got a negative test after that so they weren't sure but at a minimum, what we were owed. everybody in that room, me and kelly and conway and steve miller and hicks. i said stevens, jason miller, the only one who didn't get it but presumably he is owed nothing but the rest of us were all owed to be told that because i will tell you this, we all would have worn masks. we didn't wear masks because we said we are getting tested every day and that -- every person sitting at the ama barrett event had not been tested before they were allowed to come in and it was negative but what i said "after words" and whatever the president did, he's got to live with his own conscience.

i'm not going to be able to impose guilt on him. he will feel or not about what he did if he was positive, to all of us. what i will tell you is for me's and after i got out of the hospital it was a mistake not to wear the mask. i became convinced that i was in a safe zone because all of us had been tested and i was wrong. now i probably know why i was wrong, i didn't know then but i should have worn the mask the whole time, would have been an extra layer of safety for me and that is why i said what i said "after words". as you might imagine, when we saw that pop up on our phones earlier this week, early in the morning we had an interesting reaction. >> thank you. >> thank you, governor, for the

book. as you mentioned, the irregularities in the election that you agree there were irregularities don't you believe the democratic party, the system, there implement it for the town they control and mail in ballot and using the system and somehow the we definitely have to be concerned about and the same happened to donald trump in the same -- i know certain -- highly controlled, they used machine and they do all the things to influence, a lot of fraud going on. doing that also using the machine especially school system to teach with kids and they graduate they become 90% democratic so it is the system, a corruption.

how do we stand up, it doesn't exist, as much, to worry about, i am feeling the it is got to that point and eventually new jersey, california, illinois, new jersey has been happening, you got elected but you see the assembly and senate they know how to win it, they have that recipe. >> let me respond to a few things. i don't disagree with most of what you said except they didn't steal the presidential election. it is just too hard. think about this for a second. you think joe biden masterminded a nationwide conspiracy to steal votes in six different states? joe biden couldn't masterminded a one car funeral let alone mastermind that type of operation and have it be unfound.

yes, our liberals using the education system in a way to indoctrinate our children's thought process absolutely. that is a different fight. that is the fight we should have. mail in ballots, i support the georgia election law, the texas election law. i will say a quick story. this whole idea of not having to show id when you vote, somehow being asked to show id is discriminatory, i went to new york city 8 or 9 weeks ago and walked into an office building to go to a meeting. i walk up to security, governor, amazing to see you, such a big fan. can i come around and take a picture? sure. comes around, gets his phone

out and takes himself a met, prints out my past. can you sign the visitor pass for me, can i have your autograph, can i see your id? i looked at him and i said all right, you are convinced enough that i am me that you took a picture with me and give you an autograph but you want to see a id? i'm sorry, it's the rules. okay. i went in my wallet, got my drivers license and gave it to him. if i have to do that to answer an office building in manhattan to go to a meeting with a shouldn't i have to show people in the firehouse my drivers license? i am a bad example because i walk in here and if they don't know me it is a problem, but i think everybody should have to show id. one of the things i did when i

was governor, why you should be less concerned about voter rolls in this state, i mandated the counties update their voter rolls. we knocked a lot of dead people off the voter rolls. a lot of people moved off the voter rolls, it has to be a constant process, people move all the time because the voter rolls in new jersey are in better shape than they were before. they are going to continue to be a factor and i don't want republicans complaining about it anymore. it is not that hard. you know what they do, they send out the ballots, then they sent a piece of mail saying you got your ballot, make sure you return it. to give him a your ballot yet?

fill out your ballot yet? then they text you, then they email you. it is not turnout anymore, it is drag out, they drag those votes out of those houses. no reason we can't do that, no reason, we have the same technology and all the rest is what makes it harder is the door to door portion of it. it is harder than door to door, i have done both and it is much harder. that part of it we are always at a disadvantage. i was at a week before the election for senator john and a woman raised her hand and asked a question and what to do to

combat, he's not going to determine any of that and i said to her it will be caused and we don't know how to do mail in ballots. it turned out i was exactly right. on from machine on phone machine, jack to rally was elected governor, he loses by 75,000 votes. but the bigger point is we've got a bunch of things we have to do to continue to be a competitive viable party. moaning and complaining and looking in the rearview mirror at past elections never helps you when the next one ever. voters don't want to hear about that.

that's not why they vote for you. last story i will tell you on that, right after sandy, we built a boardwalk in asbury park, we could go 5 months to take a victory lap, walking down the boardwalk, a guy comes up to me and says governor, you are running for reelection, why should i vote for you? look at this boardwalk, you're going to get this, what do i get for voting for you next time? voters care about tomorrow, not yesterday, that shows we are hopeful country, we think tomorrow can be better, we don't want to dwell on yesterday, we want to look at tomorrow. stopped the politics, the moaning and complaining, fight in the places we can fight, fight to do better on mail in

ballots, to make sure they have voter rolls. take those things out of play and then our ideas, we will do okay. in an election we picked up 60 and a lot of local seats. except for the top twee 6, in action day is good for republicans across the state and a clear message that legislative democrats are more reluctant to do what you want them to do because they are backup for election. that stuff is very difficult. we've got a map right now, think about this. when i got reelected in 2013 i got 60% of the vote statewide,

we didn't pick up one seat in the legislature. if that is not a gerrymandered map i don't know what is. 60% of the vote and we didn't win one seat underneath, that will tell you we need to negotiate a new map now, we could be in control of the legislature. >> one last question but a short answer. >> we will see. i might take two. just to show people you don't run everything. >> definitely don't. and two short answers. >> two guys there. >> two short answers. >> i will make a short answer. >> a straightforward question. nice to see you. looking forward like we've been talking about a lot tonight

especially the midterms next year and even 24, how do you think the republican party best unite itself nationally where you still have a section of the party that would like to see a new face in 24 and even sooner and another section that likes donald trump, the glenn youngkin model -- >> i will give a short answer to that. never forget the other side unites us. by the way, donald trump unites the democrats more than in my lifetime. remember, part of this process is all my god, what are they doing? we have to stop them. republicans willing to put out the differences to stop that. the second piece of that, we've

got to talk about things voters care about. elections are not about what candidates think, they are about what voters think are important. part of what we need to do to get ourselves back in that mode, we haven't been, we have been yelling and complaining and screaming about things voters didn't care about. we need to listen. >> i will try to make it fairly quick. needless to say having been a public figure, everyone was aware of donald trump's foibles, personality quirks, but one thing i think made

people loyal to him is he came in saying i will do certain things and by and large he did them. someone who generally voted republican i've been disappointed by my party in terms of failure to keep promises made, we will do this and nothing is done except the fact if you look at trump, he made, he fixed new york after 6 years of nonsense, build a golf club on a dump in a short period of time, started building a wall when no wall was ever built, moved the embassy in israel to the capital of israel and said this will happen. we are looking if somebody is

going to be a more acceptable alternative to the for blend personality problem, we want somebody still going to do what he says. i don't know why the party has done that. >> bunch of democrats will say that as well. in the main i agreed with the things donald trump tried to do. not hugely significant, here is where i part company? i can't stand up behind the president of the united states, the east term of the white house. the election was stolen and not present any efforts. the words of the president of the united states matter more

than the words of new york real estate developer. he talks like a new york real estate developer, the president of the united states. the american people want to believe the president, any president whether you voted for him or not you want to believe what he said. it would be like barack obama standing up in april 2012 and saying osama bin laden is dead and then he wasn't. what would we have thought at that moment? that is of enormous gravity to the american people like the election. the idea someone would say he had been killed when he wasn't would have been something we would never accept. same that an election was stolen and not presenting any evidence, here we are 13 months later, still saying the same

things. to me that is a huge credibility problem that diminishes what you just talked about. i said this to him the saturday after the election. if you don't either present the evidence that it was stolen now, or concede the election, you are going to diminish your legacy in a way that will damage you personally and damage the party for a long time. i agree with you there are many things he said he would do that he got done and a number of things he said he would do that he didn't get done. election night was to me a line that made it possible for me to say that is okay, because it is just not. we get into this business

knowing -- sometimes you think it isn't fair. i lost elections i thought weren't fair. he is stand up like an adult and say i think that was fair, but the people have spoken and i will fight another day. that is where the divide is now, something that was not necessary to do. not welcoming biden to the white house inaugural morning, not going to the inauguration, you think hillary clinton wanted to be sitting there in january 2017 when donald trump was in office, you think al gore wanted to be sitting there in 2001 at george w. bush's inaugural? george bush 40 one wanted to be sitting there at bill clinton's inauguration, i am confident

they would rather not but they went. not only did they go, they welcomed the victor to the white house and said this is the way we do it in this country, a peaceful transfer of power where the vanquished congratulate the victor and we leave. he didn't do any of that and it diminished him and it diminished our country. you can still say i don't think it is fair. al gore fought like crazy for 34 days in court all the way to the supreme court, when the supreme court ruled, al gore walked by and didn't say i'm not moving out of the naval observatory, i am staying, i'm still the vice president. he conceded, went out and welcomed bush to the naval

observatory, they met and he showed the country this is the way we operate and they we have operated in the main for the last 250 years. that is one that he should have done much differently. >> my wife and i drove from the shore to be here and glad we did. we would love to see you as our candidate in 2024, going back to your point about how your own constituents felt about trump and not wanting to hear that voice which i worked for a company in the midwest, spent a lot of time there, a lot of right-thinking people out there but when it comes to new yorkers or anybody from the northeast, and we talked too fast, don't give him a chance to hear what we are saying to them and took a chance on trump, and feel they got burned. how would someone like you overcome what has become a bias

against the northeast? >> they took a chance on trump and in other parts they didn't. i can tell you when i was in iowa in 2016, you got to come uphill a little bit. you have about what at the end of the day. it will come. i think for any of us our own attend to city -- authenticity has to be will realize on. there are plenty of people who don't like me. that's okay. that is their right. even the people who don't like me, most of them don't call me a phony. they have gotten to know me, they don't like me, okay.

that's fine. that is there call. but i think we can't back away from authenticity. one of the reasons trump got elected is people said, not savoring the way i like to say it, that is who he is, that people were willing to take a chance based on that, the single -- authenticity. you can tell when they are not. when you look at certain candidates iran against a bunch of them. they are trying to think what the answer should be and what you want to hear. and give it back to you.

the american people prove themselves -- the only way to overcome that, northeastern bias against southern bias, no doubt that exists. talk about a weird accent, they think we have one, look at them. there will always be that bias, certain candidates, with our approach, their personality, that is what you rely on. the only woman who stood up -- i am not telling her to sit down and i mean that. no chance. if i'm going to get in trouble with this woman, not that woman, i'm okay with it. >> thank you for indulging me. i do admire you and happy to be here tonight. i' m a moderate, pretty much an independent moderate but i think what people need to

understand is biden was a placeholder. he was a viable candidate to trump and that was really it. not the people were so in love with biden, that is what biden is struggling with. he is going way over to the left, what are you doing? that's how a lot of us are feeling. >> glad you said that, keep going. >> i'm glad to say it. the majority of biden voters are feeling that way. the question to you is, you represent the minority. and i wonder if donald trump and his minions going after you, how are you going to react and i would rather see you on the ballot. >> you have watched for a long

time, longer than new jersey. the president attacked me a week or so ago. talked about my approval rating in the run up to governor. my approval rating is bad enough when i left. he made it worse, lied about it to make it worse. why didn't you tell the truth? it was really bad when i left, you could have used the real number and it would have been terrible. my response to him was i don't know, when i ran for reelection i got 60% of the vote. when he ran he lost to joe biden. that is what i will do. donald trump has never gotten in a fight, i know how to fight back.

in the 16 race, i was one of the only guys who didn't get a nickname. low-energy job, little marco, crazy john. i didn't get one. i am susceptible to any number of nicknames. i said this to trump in 2017. we went for lunch with the president on valentine's day 2017 for three weeks. on valentine's day -- look around, do you believe i'm here? show me the oval office. i said yeah, sure, you won.

i said to him remember something. you didn't win this election, she lost. it doesn't matter. because your hand was on the bible on january 20th we are sleeping upstairs, you are sitting in this office, it doesn't matter but you need to make the next four years about you because you will be judged four years from now. what i want to know, i didn't win. i lost. i'm not a big enough egomaniac to think everybody went over my god, what i really want is chris christie. they went on my god, i don't want john corzine. i, like biden, looks like the reasonable alternative to someone they had already rejected. i understand what you mean and that is how trump got elected.

hillary clinton, this was demonstrated by the polling data, the single most unpopular presidential candidate on election day in american history. by the way, the second most unpopular presidential candidate on election day was donald trump. but better than her. so he won. when i told him that he got so. i won, i won in a landslide, that is outrageous. she didn't lose, i beat her. look, you can think that but it is not true. you shouldn't be upset about it, don't get upset. i felt the same way. i know i didn't win, every day i went to my campaign manager that they have to the election,

won with 48% of the vote. every day from here on out your job is to figure out how to build that coalition, what i need to do to convince 51% of the people who didn't vote for you. if donald trump had done that he would still be in the white house today. instead what he did was play to his base. when that happened in a close election you don't bring the country together, you wind up going down. that is what is happening to joe biden. president biden promised to be a uniter and return it to normal. to the base of his party. and doesn't try to bring the

country together. in 2013 when i was reelection, got 50% and 20% of the african-american vote. four years earlier i got 11% of the vote and 33% of the latino and that didn't happen, we worked every day, the folks who didn't do that. and deal with the issues they were concerned about. biden abandoned them first. standing in the middle of the country going where did joe biden go? and elizabeth warren and bernie

sanders, the democratic party rejected elizabeth warren and bernie sanders and kamala harris. they dominated the 78-year-old guy for two reasons, he is in the middle and wanted to beat trump. i don't understand why this is so complicated. may be i am getting too old. asking too much. and how to govern and when, winning is the hardest part, once you get there, the power of the governorship, the power of the president. you have the ability to bring people together. i am disappointed trump didn't, and that biden didn't. i think the american people

center clear signal in 2020 and again in 2024 but we want someone, tired of being divided, a conversation about politics, tired of people, we are tired of people giving us a hard time. when i grew up in politics, that's the way it was. i think i can bring it back and so this is an effort to start with my own party. >> why don't you run as an independent? >> my point -- >> you can probably win. what decides, the middle candidate is going to win. >> what you need to do is start with your own party. start with these truths. either i will convince people

are i won't. that's what this business is all about. when i was governor, say this, i would say to the my job is to change polls, not to follow them. if you are a persuasive leader, to change polls, not to follow them. started a conversation, rupert murdoch made a speech two days later, at the meeting where he said donald trump is wrong, the election wasn't stolen, we have to stop talking about it, talk about the future and stop worrying about the past. if trump doesn't stop talking about it he can't be part of the future. the head of fox news is saying that we might be starting to get someplace. that is why we started the conversation.

that is a great place. besides thanking my wife, is that this place is special to us. and to feel welcome here by all 30 years, with no children and don't know who they were. and being the governor, for twee 8 years around town. and lived in new jersey. you live in the safest place. the times that were difficult.

with that kind of public life you come home, you don't worry about that at home. when things weren't great everybody says they are great even when they disagree with them they did it on away that is respectful of the fact that we are one of you. we thank you for that because you provided us a community to raise all four of our children in the way we want to and there was a public spotlight, you made it better, not worse. on the middle east field, just four more kids. thank you for coming tonight.

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