connection something no one can live without so wow is therefore our customers with speed, reliability, value and choice. now more than ever it all starts with great internet. >> wow, along with these television companies, supports c-span2 as a public service. >> c-span now is a free mobile app featuring your unfiltered view of what's happening in washington live and on-demand. keep up with today's biggest events with live streams of floor proceedings of use of the u.s. congress, white house events, the courts, campaigns in more from the world of politics all at your fingertips. you can stay current with the latest episode of "washington journal" and find schedule information for c-span's tv networks and c-span radio plus a variety of compiling podcasts. c-span now is available at the apple store in google play. download it for free today. c-span now your front row seat to washington anytime anywhere.

>> now how about tonight program. program. are you ready? okay. great. too many people, chris christie is known as governor, abc news analyst, national spokesperson and also "new york times" best-selling author. mary pat christie also has agreed that extends beyond our borders having been successful career on wall street as well as, as well as holding the type of first lady and including her supper he was a number programs across the state and always very well received. but in these parts they are simply friends, families, neighbors and fellow coaches. we are 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 is gracious and did a fundraiser on our behalf. we held that crossed and at the

high school and i was a sold-out event on a very brisk february evening. i am pleased to say with the second book when chris was able to do a fundraiser, we jump for joy with it and i was in myself and my fellow board members said let's go for it, and we are again. both the dating three years ago and tonight are sellouts, so you could say that tonight is probably as, the book signing is probably as tough a ticket as hamilton on broadway. sort evenings program mary pat will moderate. crystal tried at the question, maybe try to get around the questions we don't know yet and that will have some q&a. there's a mic right here in the senate for a going to jump up and asking the question. and then, you know, please don't be bashful when asking questions. questions. without further ado i present mary pat and chris christie. [applause]

>> thank you, peter. make sure don't have any feedback on this, but this is really, really great. this is a nice cozy group, and i just want to say thank you to peter and the board. the library has been important part of our life and our families life for the last 30 years, which is amazing. we've been it for 30 years. we really appreciate all that the library's do and actually just paid a fine, , a $40 fine o the library. two weeks ago. i had to pick up a book and i guess i have not been in a couple of years, so i paid my $40 fine. [inaudible] >> you don't even want to know. [laughing] it was a book club book. anyway, well thank you, everybody for coming out here. it's been an interesting journey

these last i guess six for seven months that it's taken you to write this book, and what he wanted to start out to ask chris why he wrote it and also ask him to tell us a little bit about the process of writing it. >> sure. thanks, everybody for being here tonight. it's great to be home. i have been on the road for most of the last two and 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 a busy, it's been a busy few weeks and it's good 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 a few days after joe biden's inaugural. i did 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 in all the rest are we went to florida for a few days and i was sitting at the pool and thinking to myself that this is probably one of the worst two years republican party has had in a long time. we lost the majority in the house of representatives in 2018, and then we lose the senate and the white house in 2020. i thought it struck me as somebody who's been involved in the stuff a long time that may been one of worst times we've ever had. so sitting by the pool and then got on my laptop kind of looked it up. it's only happened twice to the republican party since our founding in 1860. the last time, after this one, was 1930-1932 when herbert hoover was president of the united states, he lost the house and senate and the white house

in two years. what happened after that was the democrats and the white house for 28 of the next 36 years. so what struck me that maybe somebody who had been a, you know, very big loyal supporter of president trump's needed to write a book about how we start to win again. someone who would been opposed to president trump all the way through and a couple of republicans who were, i don't think it would affect credibility in writing this book. people think were dismissive but i had real concern about where our party was headed. which stretch were going and the immediate aftermath of the election, and i had ideas about what we need to do to get back on track. so the process of writing the book is to pitch the book to publishers and we had a couple publishers who are interested but all of them said if you're going to write the kind of book the first part of the book has to be about your interaction

with the president in the last year and half of the administration after let me finish the first book ended. through to his leaving office in january. when you get a chance to read the book, if you haven't already, it is the first third of the book is kind of a recounting of the stories and incidents that happen with me and the president. that's why started writing the book. now i have collaborate under book who was my collaborator on the first book as well. and alice, alice and i have a process use in writing a book. we do is we get together, we agree on which topics we will be discussing that day. he takes out a tape recorder. he starts asking questions and i start talking. then there is a poor woman out in kansas who has to transcribe all of that. she then since the transcriptions back to me and to alice and then we draft chapters

out of the transcriptions. then when we get done with that there's another poor woman who then has two research to make sure that everything that we say that we are completely sure of is actually true. i'll give you one example from let me finish where i would absolutely have sworn that this was 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 did this happen? i said it was the day before school started. my senior in high school. so would write the book and bright that chapter, and then comes back and he says are you sure it was the day before your school started your senior year? i said absolute sure. i remember it like it was yesterday. really sure? yes. this woman found the front page of our local weekly paper in

livingston and it was actually the day before starting a school you're my junior year, not my senior year. i guarantee you if you all put a gun to my head and said if you are wrong were going to blow your brains out, i would've said go ahead and guess i know it, i know it. so roberta plays it really integral whole role in the process of 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, lawyers at simon & schuster want to make sure we don't say something is clearly wrong that all of us will get sued. then chapter by chapter comes in, were working on it together. i'm doing a lot of editing and changing. changing may be his initially which in my voice and republic of back-and-forth on east after each chapter two to three times. he makes suggestions, i make suggestions and where volleying it back and forth by e-mail.

and then we get the manuscript hunt on and we send it to her 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. in this instance we were on a very tight deadline, because to get the start of the book, we started this in march, to have it out by november is apparently like land speed record for publishing. now i don't get that but i do want to argue with the publisher because they are paying me so not going to argue with them. we were working really quickly. we got to her stuff, she then decided she wanted another, an additional chapter on something. she sent this by e-mail and ellis called and said, did you read the latest e-mail? i said no, not yet turkey said don't. said don't. i'm going to break it you

gently. she wants another chapter. so literally what we did was we were on the phone with each other and i said on what? it was a chapter on -- no, it was on covid policy. we talked about covid a lot in the book, and the first part, my experience with covid. i'm sure we will get to that. but this is on what should a policy be going forward. i 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 ellis, all right, turn on your tape recorder. we don't have time to get together. turn it on and let's go. we just ready to go and within two days we had the last chapter done. and in the last thing you do is you write the dedication and the acknowledgments. so you see the dedication in the front of the book is to our four children and the acknowledgments in the back are a 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 what you write a book. believe me, when you're finally done with the acknowledgments and you hit send, and the eight dollars they received, you don't want to see it again. you don't want -- you don't want to see the book until it looks like that. and when it does all you do is look at the book cover and title page which is fine. i have not looked at the text since late august when i sent it back up. >> and you also come also did an audiobook so that was a painful like 25 our experience i believe, as in other thing some of us read it and edited it, underscored to a little inside story, that the cover, the elephant with a life preserver. originally had a red cross on it, the red cross speeded it was holding a red cross flag in its

trunk and the red cross wouldn't give us permission to use undercover so we had to go to the red and white life preserver. >> which i think is great but on the final copies the little elephant on the side still had the red cross flag and i flag it. >> she did. mary pat cut it. i said here's how the cover looks fishy said wait a second to the elephant on the site has the flag. >> you don't want to tick off the red cross. >> that will tell you how little of one to look at this anymore. i read, whatever, go ahead. bike and we will tell them. it was a good catch because it probably would've gotten sued by the red cross. that's the process of the wait at least i've written in this book, and pretty much the same process the last time for let me finish as well. >> that's great. chris is a student of history, loves history. a part of this book, there's a lot of history and actually. talk to the audience about the fact that we go over conspiracy stories of why it's so important to review history and in

particular the john birch society and the think they might find it interesting to know that background. >> when i started to talk about the idea and make the argument for why engaging in and spending any more time on all these different conspiracy theories have been out there, qanon, pizzagate, birtherism and the election stuff, i thought i had a place in some historical context, like this is that the first time we've gone through this. as a country or as a party. so i write extensively up real arts chapter on john birch society, which in the late '50s and early '60s became a force inside the republican party, very much one that had anti-semitic stream to it. it ran into a number of conspiracy theories in that regard and became a real force inside the republican party.

william f. buckley who was the founder of "national review" magazine and a thought leader in the conservative movement was horribly disturbed by these developments by the development of seeing how prominent john birch society was becoming an republican party politics. so he approached barry goldwater, and knowing that goldwater was considering running for president in 1964 said goldwater, look, we should do this together and push back on these people. and if we do so together i think we can have a real impact on the party, so i'll write the first editorial, the "national review", ," and then you writea letter to the editor of the "national review" supporting the editorial. goldwater agrees. and buckley write a 4000 word editorial. in the "national review" about

why the john birch society is so bad for america come so bad for the republican party, talks in-depth about the anti-semitism, why that's so bad. goldwater was 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 will not win the nomination in 1964, and so he writes back a very, very short, we could letter to buckley which is nothing like what the agreed upon. some buckley decides he's not going to publish it at first, and he goes to somebody else to see who has credibility and the conservative movement to see if he will 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 -- it was a speech entitled ron's debut with destiny and reagan have become a very popular figure inside the conservative movement because of the speech. he would be elected two years later in 1966 as governor of california. but reagan stood up and wrote a long and passionate 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. it absolutely did the trick. goldwater ran and you a you may remember goldwater speech at the convention was one of those famous lines was extremism is defense of liberty no vice. that is directly john birch language. he lost monumentally. in fact, a little morris county

historical note, barry goldwater was a last republican to lose morris county for president until donald trump in 2020. from 1964 to 2020, morris county voted for every republican residential candidate. they rejected goldwater. and they rejected trump in 2020. and i think it's interesting, i didn't put it in the book because nobody would really care about that historical comparison, but this audience will pick become you thinks something about historical comparisons that we are making. so i think it's an interesting chapter to place the chapter that follows it into context, which is whether you're talking birtherism or qanon or pizzagate or the election. conspiracies that were not any unique time. i hate when i hear commentators on television say we are in the most dangerous time in the history of this country.

we are more divided than we've ever been in our history. now, i've some would say that on abc one day and i said, george can you i said i don't know, seems to me the civil war was probably a time when we're more divided than we are now. just a random thought, but maybe we could check a little common sense and hyperbole. the reason for historical context to tell you we've been to before a member what happened after that. after that we won the presidency life of the next six times. between 1968-1992. 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 is all about. >> that's great. along those same lines as history repeats itself, i loved when you are doing debate prep with the president and you went

into debate prep with reams of examples of articles from previous presidents, incumbent president. tell the audience what you told president trump and why your advice was prescient. >> the president, i did debate prep for 2016. i watched all the ship i played hillary clinton. in debate prep in 2016, and i didn't do the first debate in 2016. he had like the cast of ben hur prepping him for the first debate and his performance kind of reflected that, and after the first debate he called me and he said look, what you did debate prep work for the second debate? and i said, only if i'm in charge of it and do if i get to decide who's in the room. because if are going up every time dick and harry in the room i don't care to play.

he said you're in charge. so we did debate prep for and in 2016 for the sake of the debate. just one quick side. 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 when he was done shaking hands on the stage taking pictures, my phone rang and it was donald trump. he said to me, my god, you are so great. that was so easy turkey goes, it was so easy compared to debating you. it was great. >> better than hillary clinton. >> he said you're a better hillary than she is here he said, so you going to debate three, right? yeah, mr. president, or donald, yes. so 2020 comes and the staff comes to the debate. his chief of staff at the time was mark meadows, and jared kushner his son-in-law who if you were the first book is a dear friend of mine.

came to me and said we want you back in charge of debate prep again. this is now in july. he goes we want to start this weekend. first debate was in late september. and i said, he's not going to like this. it's too early to say go, no, no, no. he needs a lot of work. i know he needs a lot of work, but he's not going to like this and insisted that they had spoken to him and that he was fine with it. and 3:00 on saturday in bedminster. okay, so president of the trent wants to come come to go. so i shall be we're sitting sitting in the conference room 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 and looks amigos what the hell are you doing your? 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? i'm looking now at jared and that matters were both in the room like, thanks. i just knew that this was a setup. i knew they had not spoken to them because they didn't have the guts to talk to and they just figured i would charm him. so i prepared for this. i went back and since the modern era presidential debate restored in 1976, you had the debate between kennedy and nixon in the 1960s and in the window debates in 64, 68 or 72. then in 76 gerald ford was way behind jimmy carter in the race come out of the convention. so he agreed to debates with carter. so that started the modern era. now ever since then there been

every presidential debates every four years. what a broader more articles i printed out from 76, from 80, 84, 92, 96, 2004 and 2012. those were the elections where there was an incumbent president seeking reelection or election in 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 i spoke to some of the folks in prep -- who prep those presidents they all knew i was doing trump and so i called them and the ultimately the same thing which i i suspd was, presidents don't want to prep because they are president. they are like, you know, i'm the

president. what do i need to prepare for a debate? i am the president. this got a woman over here they don't know the presidency. i know the presidency. i am the president. so when i sat down i say we need to start now, mr. president. he said, i mean, no joke him he goes what do i have to prepare for? i'm president. i'm like, this is so great, right? cycling to my briefcase and a takeout a stack of cards this dick and and i tossed them s the table to him and i said, i said, did -- debate prep is over, without doing anything else today. only want you to do is go back tonight and read those articles. and then i'll see you the next time you want to see me. i got up. jared and metals were like i think we should talk a little about by the stock was i said you guys read articles, mr. president. he's one of the about? i said however income at president lost he conceded they could need to prepare because

the president. sound familiar? and he said, is that true? which is also another indication to you about kind of the depth of historical knowledge of donald trump about politics. i mean, he just doesn't have any. and so this is all news to him and and i gave it to them and i walked out, and jeered and meadows fold out in front of bedminster and a look at them i go, you guys, you are so full of crap. you never talk to them, right? you never talk to them. of course they denied it but it was clearly surprised to see me there. he didn't want to be prepped. he read those articles. of course he did not follow any of the advice, but he read articles because he called a couple of days later and he was the conclusion he drew from that. he said that he goes those of the guys are so bad. [laughing] i can't believe how bad all of

them were. i'm not going to be like that, chris, i'm going to be really good. okay, mr. president. you got it. >> he must have been a boy scout. being prepared was not his forte. .. 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 kin transcripts of the supply. it made it difficult he was receptive for preparation and because he knew even though he wouldn't admit lost, he knew he lost and didn't want to lose again. he was very receptive.

>> moving on to a different topic for something the book talks about conspiracy theories but talk to the audience about whereio the proof is donald trup lost the election but give specifics about suburban women and where he lost those and where he gained votes in the city. >> if you listen to the president talk about it, he has a number of different theories why thes election was stolen and what you will learn, the way i try to approach it in the book is two jobs ago, not my last job, if i have to prove this, but what i do?

i would remove any doubts and express the issues and play out the facts and that you draw your own conclusion but from the perspective of bringing a case, one of the series is if the election was stolen in pennsylvania, philadelphia, michigan, you heard him say those who showed up in the middle of the night and philadelphia were filling out ballots and no one was accounted for and more ballots thanu' people registered to vote. we go through the registration numbers there were significant if you are people who voted in actually registered. look at philadelphia, donald

trumpp got 3% more of the vote n 2020 and 2016 joe biden, 1% less of the vote in philadelphia than the clinton. i would argue the unsuccessful job you let the guy you're trying to steal from the guys who try to steal for his 1% must so it's illogical. they didn't steal it. the other thing about pennsylvania is when i went to bed, donald trump was getting pennsylvania by 700,000 votes and then i wake up and he's losing by 80000. they stole. no. hit an unusual exit in 2020 because most ballots ever used in the history of the presidential election.

each state decided differently how they would talk about so in ohio when you went to bed and looked at ohio, joe biden was winning ohio and when you woke up, donald trump won ohio by nine-point. the same pennsylvania theory, trump school ohio from biden. here's what happened. in ohio, they count the mail-in ballots first.. they were overwhelmingly 70 to 75% democrat for two reasons. one, democrats generally are more fearful in the polling place and second, donald trump said all summer and full ballots

are rigged, don't trust the ballots, vote on election day. they voted at the machine that daypo so they counted all mail d notes first and biden was up by seven points. we were watching because we didn't know which way until he started asking questions. and they count the machine votes in ohio and they were 16.6. trump went from down to up nine. pennsylvania, opposite. pennsylvania didn't have the team votes and donald trump by 700,000 votes. the main count the mail-in votes and they lose by 80.

last in pennsylvania it happens across the w country, why donald trump was first broken president in this. in 2016 versus 2020. donald trump lost those i 104,000 votes. joe biden lost to hillary clinton. they lost by 104,000 and those for suburban counties than in 2016 and lost the entire state.

if you need to know why donald trump lost pennsylvania, is the same reason, white, educated, super folks 2016 abandoning him in 2020. in this town and friends across county, both women and men voted far less than a 2016 no question that's what happened, where he lost to michigan, in wisconsin over and over again suffer outside philadelphia.

the story in the book, the woman shall remain nameless, a volunteer for the campaign and the day before the election the governor was going to happen said i think it's a lot closer than people think and you have to shake yourea head. instead oh no, i voted for biden. why? the governor, i couldn't listen to the. part of what we need to understand invites the acceptance because it was not the policy, it was rejected by a

group of voters and somebody's been on the ballot and losing. a good day or a bad day, sometimes they have a better day and that day. the politics, they look to you, i don't want you. i could tell it's intensely personalh so people wonder why

donald trump was accepting in part what i said true more personal rejection we go through all the other examples but there's a number of other, arizona, georgia. >> that's a good segue into the last question but tell us your view right now and ever into legislature to federalize voting rights, can you tell us your view on finalizing the voting law and what you would do? >> congress they want to federalize the votes. each state is different.

how we couldld say voting ruless good for wyoming would be good for new jersey when wyoming is the least densely populist state in america, the challenges we face with voting in conversations we have today in the constitution is pretty clear that these decisions will be made by each state and i go back to federalng government saying what could possibly go wrong? imagine the federal government to the part of counted all the votes so instead of having all the great ways we go there as volunteers, paid a little bit

but not nearly as much as they should be and help with the votes. imagine they are all replaced and federal employees coming. , ten or 12,000 paper ballots and every other time it is the machine. this time almost 200,000 paper ballots in the same number of the ballots. they didn't know covid would come, it comes in march of 2020. they can't order the machines and get them here by november even ifar you wanted to. all in the state and across the

country do not assume we will go back to 20222024 to a small amount of mail-in ballots. i think some people got used to that and t they like it and it's convenient and i think will have more mail-in votingg over time o you better get more machines. the reason we have this theory is those 21 the more you wonder what they are up to, whose messing around with them? talk in the book natural american thing goes all the way back to the founding of the country, conspiracy theories about a politics and that's what happens in a free society and their opinions on how to be right. a i always remember what brendan

byrne is to say and he was one of the t funniest people i ever met in one line he would use all the time was i made my wife promise when i die she'll bury me and has been county so i can remain active in politics. [laughter] i want to make clear to you and i say this in the book, i'm not saying irregularities didn't happen on election day, they did. by the way, they have been in new jersey a month ago and when iran in zero nine and 13. it happens all the time. the question is this enough irregularities to change the results of the election in any one state let alone five states necessary to change the results of the election and that i think is what the book proves.

that's an important thing to remember and if you think you don't trust county clerks in morris county to counsel vote, wait for the federal bureaucrats. forget it, conspiracy theories will be triple, quadruple. at least we know who this is and we began messing around, we can kick her out. he won't get rid of federal bureaucrats in charge of theyo election. >> thank you for explaining that. i think if anybody has questions. >> the microphone right in the middle and not because i can't hear you but the tv guys are here. >> thank you. my question is if the biden administration continues, do you

think mainstream media will turn against him? >> not completely against him, no because mainstream media in the country is planted toward the left. thep. canopy this question, they are almost playing it up. just watch me on sunday. it's almost never not three to one on abc. it's always free to one. every once in a while they throw in some form or republicans for most of the time kids three to one and that's even one of the networks. if you go to the news network they revel in it. cnn and msnbc revel limit and they think it'sox profitable for them fox rebels in right-wing names so id say all the time,

watch a little bit of both so you realize that there really are two different worlds we are living in right now, two different ways to look at issues and most of time you will come back to the way you think about things that's why if you look at the bottom, we still get actual use it in our kids are like are you kidding? just go on your phone but we still get the newspaper. if you look at the bottom of our driveway, there are three newspapers every day. the "wall street journal" to give us the conservative side, new york times i know what the enemy is thinking and the new york post. [laughter] so i think you should get a taste of tv media as well.ch i painfully watch, i watch it

every night but when i do, i go back and forth -- can't watch msnbc, just too much for me local back and forth between cnn and fox because of emergency over the big stories of the day are,fe how they cover them differently and what you find is a cover them completely differently and emphasize which story so there's a day like let's say thursday big story on wall street and the big story in washington d.c. cnn will cover the washington d.c. story and will be nothing but democratic efforts the house-senate and democrat group commenting on it. fox news will cover the washington storyt that's really big, they will cover the wall

street story either, they will cover immigration and stores about immigration and the border so everybody takes a different so it's important to watch all of them because it helps for me at least, i'm talking to people on both sides why they think of the things they think and i think it because that's what they a hear. so i don't think we have hope of them changing. >> i happen to think one of the biggest pieces of the country is in a public, it creates a generation -- i know why the democratic party can get there and when you see the line of people trying to get their kids into charter schools, why hasn't it taken hold in the populations who live there?

the party they vote for is entrenched in this and it is perpetuated and never gets better. the population hasn't moved the school, choice, the charter school movement that can't be supportede . >> i would say to reason. the first, have it both in the inner-city, the habit of floating democrat and they have a hard time breaking that habit unless republicans aggressively campaign their. i would tell you the main part of the job to make that

argument, u publicans many of tm seuncomfortable going into those communities making those argumentsk. if you look at happen in 2013 after for years of arguing hard public education was failing their children and why and all that, what happened we got more votes for the city. what ian try to argue across the country is you got to go to places you are uncomfortable in and make arguments that you know the voters need to hear.

the education issue, the education issue will cut across the party. parents are most about the children they want them to get a good education. the biggest support i have in 2013 and the city was pastors of the major churches like trenton and patterson including an e-mail because they say to me we are tired of seeing the children who sit in the pews every sunday constantly being failed by the public school system. the reason it doesn't take 2.3 teachers unions across the

country spend an exorbitant amount of money to make sure it's up. we have the best schools in america is touted it for some kids, he's the democrat, supposed to be the one who cares about the underprivileged yet he won't say one word about the failure in urban schools because i would run counter to the teachers union. you saw when he ran against in zero nine and ten and 11, the money they spent was extraordinary and i ended on an upbeat funny note. in 2010 we areig in the midst of

the fight with the teachers union, who were in going someplace, i don't remember where but we got off the exit and up to the left was a picture of me is that chris christie it was an awful picture of me. about time our son patrick for those of you who know our family,ou he was ten years old t th' time their people to get better pictures of you. [laughter]

i said patrick, did you read with the billboard said? those are not d my people he sad i don't know, dad. it i was a really bad picture. that's another. >> you brought up governor burn in hudson county, a story that goes back to 1985 when brendan byrne supporting a democratic candidate for senate and he happened to have a fundraiser of the time and he gets up and says no, i don't understand why you happen to be running because most of theso democrats i know from hudson county followed the same pattern. they get elected, and died and sentenced. [laughter]

>> i had a similar experience of my old job. [laughter] on another note i wanted to ask about october 22, 2020. an event you haven't to be a, the garden party debate between biden and trump. i think we all know what happened subsequent to that, obviously tested positive for covid andf all supporters of trump sitting in the chairs, yourself included among others, how you feel of the time which he knew he had coronavirus, how do you feel about trump now, a gentleman who supported the president in terms of his loyalty to closest associates and puttingn them essentially in peril as a result of this test

for testing positive? >> a few things to gently correct the record. my understanding is he tested positive the next day from what i've read now. it doesn't change the thesis of theor question but the changes r what happened the day before. the day before everybody was sitting there. i don't believe by the way that event was a super spreader event. the people who got covid in the main, three people at that party who got covid not involved is the base, one of them was robert jenkins and there were two others. i am convinced they all got covid.

to have heard for the first time in mark meadows book the president tested positive for covid prior to sitting closer that i am to you and preparing for debate and there's a story in the book how i got put in the hospital and he was m in the hospital as well and he calls me and this makes more sense than it did two days ago. he called me and said how are you doing? is it and well and i said you sound bad to said can you believe to tough guys like us got this thing? beer so tough, how could this have gotten us? we are like the two toughest

guys in america and i don't understand it. he then got to the reason for the call, he said how do you think we got it? so i don't know, i said confident got it at the white house but six or seven of us got iton, who knows who patient zero was but i said obviously got at the white house. he then said you're not going to blame it on me, are you? i said why would i blame it on you it happened in the room, but i know so he says you're not going to tell theay press i give it to you? i said i wouldn't say that because i don't know that is true. up until two days ago my thought process on that was that was just donald trump's paranoia, he didn't want to be blamed.

i was always a little suspicious because every one of us beside him was tested every day like the process was you went to the gate at the white house and got admitted and someone escorted you the eisenhower next door and that's with the medical unit was and they go and swab you and you sit there for 15 minutes and get the results of the test of your negative you are then authorized to go to the west wing. i was always a little suspicious as to whether one of us got a false positive -- false negative rather or whether it was him because he was the only one who didn'tev know if he was getting tested every day or not. who wouldn't know, he's the president so i think for me and mary pat, especially how about my experience with covid was in

a couple of moments really feeling it would go the wrong utway, finding that out a couple of days ago, if in fact what he said was true, he tries to hedge a little bit in the book sitting on a negative test after that so they weren't sure but at minimum what we were owed, kellyanne conway, stephen miller and the other guy -- jason miller, the only one who didn't get rest of us were owed to be told that because we would have won a mask if we want. we didn't wear one because we were tested every day and that's

why we weren't't wearing a mask because every person of the amy coney barrett s testifying, we'd all tested negative for what i said and whatever the president did, he got to live with his own actionst and i'm not going to e impose that on him. but what i will tell you is that for me, i became convinced that i was in a safe zone because we were all tested, i was wrong. now i probably know why i was wrong but regardless i probably should have formed a mask, it would just be t an extra layer f safety for me but you might

imagine on our phone earlier this week and morning. >> do you believe democratic party to double up the system and implemented for the town they control and mail and valid uses system, we have to be concerned in the same for the election here. in the use it to do all the

things to implement all the stuff going on. at the time you need to worry about but i have a feeling not that. they were probably going to get elected. d they know how to win it. >> i don't agree with most of the things that you said except election, it's just so hard. think about this, do really

think joe biden masterminded nationwide conspiracy to steal votes in six different states? joe biden couldn't mastermind one let alone mastermind that type of operation and have it unbound. yes using the educational system in a way to indoctrinate our children, absolutely. that's a different fight. i support the georgia election law because i will tell you a quick story. this idea of not showing id yet somehow being asked tory show id is discriminatory. i went to new york city eight or

nine weeks ago and i walked into an office building to go to a meeting and walk up and say governor, i am a big fan. can i take a picture? he gets his phone out prince this and says can you sign this for me? he goes back and says can i see your id? [laughter] i said all right, out. you're convinced enough you took a picture with me and give you an autographed? sorry it is the goal. okay. if i have to do that and answer an office building in manhattan,

why shouldn't i have to show the people there might license when i come to vote? about example because i walk in here and if they don't know me, it's a problem i think everybody should have to show an id. one thing ish did when i was governor about the voter role, i mandated the counties updated political. we knocked a lot of them off and ghthey removed off during my eit years. it's got to be a constant process, people move all the time but they were in much better shape than they were before. on mail-in ballots, it will continue to be a factor and i

don't want republicans complaining anymore. it is not that hard. you know they do, they send out the ballot and then a piece of mail saying with gotth you ballot, return and then they call for a five times and say did you get your ballot yet? then they text you and then e-mail you and not turn out anymore, they drag the votes out and there's no reason we can't. we have the same technology, it just makes it a little bit harder because door to door amends them. i've done both and it's much harder.

they tend to be in more suburban and rural areas but before the election this year, fundraising events stopped. it will raise her hand and asked about bill stadia on 101.5, what are we going to do to combat this?ot is not going to determine any of that. it's going to be because we don't know how to do mail-in ballots. turnout six days later i was right. on the machine he was elected governor. he got the mail and votes. but the bigger piece is we have

a bunch of things to do and i talked about in theue book, it'a competitive and viablean party. moaning and complaining and looking in the rearview mirror never helps you win next ever. voters don't want to hear about that. that is not why they vote for you. the last story, 2013 right after sandy, we've rebuilt five months and walking on the boardwalk and he says governor, a free election. he said look at this boardwalk. what drink it for voting for you next time? voters in maine think about tomorrow.

tomorrow can be better. we don't want to dwell on yesterday so our party will start doing that so stop the moaning and complaining and fight to get variety and mail-in ballotsse. take those things out of play in our ideas versus their a ideas. an election where we lost, we hepicked up 60 for the assembly and a lot of local seats. election day was good for the public across the state and it's a clear message, the legislative democrats will be more elected because they are back up for

election. it is difficult and we got a map right now -- think about this. in 2013 i got 60% of the vote statewide and wooden pickup one. if that's not a gerrymandering map, i don't know what is. 60% of the vote with one seat underneath, that will tell you everything. hopefully they are negotiating o new map now and we could be in control. >> to show people here you don't run everything. >> i definitely don't. >> to short answers boomers

there's two guys there. i went to do these and i'll make them short, straightforward. looking forward like we've been talking about, especially midterms next year end even before, how do you think the republican party that unites itself a nationally you still he a section of the party that might be a new phase in 24 and sooner and anotherh section and give a short answer. >> first, never forget. the other side unites us in.

sot remember them a part of the process is one of the doing? we have to stop them and republicans are willing to put down their differences to stop that. the second piece is got to talk about the things voters care about. elections aren't about what the candidate thinks, it's about what the voters think so part of what we i need to do is get ourselves back we've been yelling and complaining about things that voters care about in a sense of fear message. we need to listen. the.

>> i'll try to make it fairly quick. h having been a public figure, i think the one was aware of president trump's personality quirks and whatnot the one thing i think making people loyal to him was came in saying i will do certain things and by and large, he did them and as someone who's generally loaded republican, have often been disappointed by my party in terms of failure to keep promises made during the campaign so too often we are talk to, we will do this and then nothing is done except if you look at trump, he built a skating rink in new york, he built a golf club in a short period of time and started

building the wall when no wall was ever built. he moved the embassy in israel to thebe capitol of israel and said this will happen and this will happen so we are looking if somebody is going to be a more acceptable alternative to the tpersonality problem in we dont want somebody who still going to do what he said. i don't know why our party is disappointed. >> democrats will say the same thing but i don't get unique.

>> to work for the president of united states matter more. he talks more like a realtor than the president. the whether you voted for him or not, youav want to believe whate said. it's like barack obama standing up in 2012 saying osama bin laden is dead and then he wasn't. what would we have thought at that moment is enormous gravity to the americann people lie to n

this country. they would say he's been killed, that would be something we would never except. saying election was stolen with no evidence to back it up and he's still saying the same thing -- to me, that's a huge credibility problem that diminishes what we talked about. i said this to the president, if you don't either present the evidence now or sees the election, you will diminish your legacy in a way that will damage you personally and your party for a long time so i agree there are many things hee. said he wod do and a number of things he didn't do that he said he would

you all getting knowing and sometimes you think itt i unfair. the results were there. he stands up like an adult and says don't think it's fair but people have spoken and that's where i think he's done something that was necessary and not welcoming biden to the white house, not going to the inauguration, using hillary clinton wanted to sit there

january at donald trump's inaugural? to think al gore wanted to sit there and george w. bush is an awful? no. george bush 41 wanted to sit there? i'm confident they wouldec rathr 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, a peaceful transfer of power whether vanquished congratulates the victor and it diminished him in our country in the process. youu could say you still don't think it's fair, al gore thought like crazy all the way to the supreme court when the supreme

court ruled he didn't say are not moving out, and stay, and still vice president. no, he conceded. they showed the country this is the way we operate. that's the way we have operated for the last 2150 years and one that the president should have done. >> a big supporter, delighted to be here, we'd love to see you are candidate in 2024 but going back to your points a while ago how your own constituents felt about trump not wanting to hear that voice, the word is in the midwest will have spent a lot of time out there, there are a lot of good people out there but

when it comes to new yorkers or anybody from the northeast they are like we want to -- we talk too fast, you don't give them a chance toho say and they took a chance on trump and they feel they got burnt. how could somebody like you overcomeme or bias against the northeast? >> i would say we did take a chance on trump. i could tell you when i was in iowal , you got to come up a little bit. it is tough but i think for any ofci us, our own authenticity is what we relyyo upon. there are two people, plenty of

peopler , ferrets their right bt even the people who don't like me don't call me a phony, they've gotten to know me. [laughter] but i think you can't back away from authenticity and i think one reason trump got elected was people said is not the way i would like to say it, i think that's who he is and as a result people were willing to take a chance. the single most important thing, you can tell when they are not.

you look at certain candidates and they are trying to think of what the answer should be, figure it out what you want to hear and the american people have proven themselves so the only way to overcome any, there is no doubt that exists. i think certain candidates overcomeir that. i know i said only three but -- i am not telling her to sit down. [laughter] no chance.

if i've got to get in trouble with this woman -- i'm okay with that. >> thank you for indulging me. i am a moderate, i did vote for biden, i will say that but i think people need to understand biden was a viable candidate, that was really at. it's not that people were in love with biden partly why he's struggling now, he's going way left and it's like what are you doing? >> i'm so glad c-span is here to get r this. >> i'm glad to say it because i feel the majority of biden voters feel that y way but my question to you, you represent i think a minority the and i'm

wondering donald trump starts going after you, what are you going to do? rather see you on the ballot. >> well thank you. i'll react -- i've been washington a long time. if the president attacks you, talk about my approval rating, last approval rating was bad enough, he made it worse and lied about it like why don't you just tell the truth? it was bad when i left. the real numbers would have been terrible in the response was, i don't know when you ran, you lost to joe biden.

that's what i'll do. donald trump has never been in place, it believe he fights wih people who can't fight back and you will notice is one of the only guys who didn't get a nickname. little marco, crazy john -- you know, i didn't get one. [laughter] clearly could have thought of -- and voted for biden, i said this to jump in 2017, we went for lunch valentine's day 2017, three weeks and called to come

down it was okay. and you believe i'm here? he would show me the oval office and it was like well, sure. we sat r down and talked about t and said remember, you didn't win this election, he lost and he said mr. president, it doesn't matter. her hand was on the bible january 20, you're sitting in this office, it is a matter. now the next four years is on you, you will be the one judged in the same thing happened to me. i'm not a big enough egomaniac to think whatever they want is

chris christie. they said i want to talk about work anymore, is this guy reasonable? hi, like biden, hooked like a reasonable person for somebody they've already rejected to understand what you mean and that is how trump got elected. hillary clinton, demonstrated by the polling, the single most unpopular presidential candidate on election day in american history. by the way, the second most unpopular was donald trump but a little better than her so he one. so i told him that, he got so angry. i one, i won a landslide, that's outrageous, she didn't lose, i beat her.

you can think that but it's not true and you shouldn't be upset about it, don't be upset. i felt the same way, i know i didn't win but i got up every day and went to my campaign manager day after day and we won 48 of those votes. ... he would still be in the white house today. he said, just play the bass. and when that happens in a close election, you don't bring the country together. you wind up going down, and you're right again, that's exactly what happened to joe

biden right now. joe biden promised to be a uniter, to bring the country together and return it to normalcy. and then he comes in and he goes way left to the base of his party, the exact same mistake that trump made, and doesn't try to bring the country together and bring more people in. remember in 2013 when i got reelected, i got 51% of the latino vote. i got 29% of got 29% of the african-american vote. four years earlier i had gotten 11% of the african-american vote and 33% of the latino vote. that didn't happen by a miracle. it's because we worked every day to reach out to those folks who didn't vote for us, ask them why and try to deal with issues never concerned about. i absolutely agree with you

independents have abandoned biden for the moment. but biden amand and then first. they didn't leave them. he left them. their standing in the middle of the country going where the hell do joe biden go? he's all the way over there with elizabeth warren and bernie sanders. the democratic party rejected elizabeth warren and bernie sanders and kamala harris because they were too liberal. they nominated a 78-year-old guy for two reasons. he was in the middle and they wanted to beat trump. they knew those other ones couldn't. i don't understand why this is so complicated. i really don't. maybe i'm just getting too old and i've seen too much, but it's pretty simple on how to try to govern and when this country. and we need is the hardest part, but once you get there, whether it's the power of governorship or the power of the presidency, you have the ability to be able

to bring people together. you just have to decide to do it. and i'm disappointed that trump didn't. i'm disappointed that biden didn't. and i think the american people sent a pretty clear signal in 2020 they will probably have to send it again in 2024, that we want someone who's come to bring the country together. they are tired of being divided, tired of not being able to go to a cocktail party and have a conversation about politics. we are tired of people yelling at us because we have a bumper sticker on our car. we are tired of people giving us a hard time because of what we believe. and when i grew up in politics that wasn't the way it was, and i think we can bring it back. this book is an effort, to start with my own party. it's always easy for me to lecture democrats, right? >> vital to run as independent? >> well, right.

>> you could probably win. let's decide to go to the sides. the middle candidate is going to win. >> that's right. what you need to do as a republican, start with your own party, and start with talking them about these truths. and look, either i'll convince people or i won't. but that's what this business is all about. i used to say when as governor, the polls say this. and i would say to them, well, my job is to change polls, not to follow polls. if you are a persuasive leader, your job is to change polls, not to follow them. you know, i hope that that's what this book starts to do. i know this much at least, at the start of the conversation, rupert murdoch gave a speech. three days later at news corp shareholders beating recent donald trump was wrong, election

was installed, we had to stop talking about it, we're going to fight for the future a to stop worrying about the past. if trump doesn't stop talk about that he can't be a part of the future. if the head of fox news as saying that, we may be certain to get someplace. so that's why i did the book and that's why we started the conversation, and i'm glad you were the last question because i think that's a great place for us to into. i want to say one thing besides thanking my wife, not only for tonight but for putting up with me for the last 35 years. is, that this place is really special to us. we've been here 30 years. we have been made to feel welcome here for all 30 years we have been here. when we were brand-new, you know, residents with no children and nobody knew who we were, to being a freeholder, and then being the governor that had the suvs idling outside of every place for eight years all around town with the guys with the

wires in their ears, at least for that time you lived in the safest town in new jersey. [laughing] guarantee you that. no problem there. you definitely lived in the safest place but to all of those ups and downs, there were times that were difficult. and when they have the difficult times in public life, and you come home, you want to not worry about going out at home. i can tell you that, when things are great everybody was great, too. but when things were not great everybody here was great, too. even when they disagreed with me. they did it in a way that was respectful of the fact that we are one of you. and so we thank you for that because you provided us a community to raise all four of her children in a way that we wanted to, and when they were in the public spotlight you made it better not worse. you didn't make them feel different.

and that, on the soccer field or on the little league fields or on the football fields, you guys made them feel like they were just four more kids in mendham and that made our lives a lot easier. so thank you for come tonight and thank you all. [applause] >> thank you, governor. thank you, governor, thank you, mary pat. another beautiful evening. >> if you are enjoying booktv then sign-up for our newsletter using the qr code on the screen to see the schedule of upcoming programs, author discussion, book festival and more. booktv every sunday on c-span2 or anytime online at booktv.org, television for serious readers. >> weekends on c-span2 are an