oppressive. >> host: hear! hear!. i think that is an excellent note to end on. it has been such a pleasure to talk with you. i'm excited to continue the conversation. thank you all so much for joining us. and please, i urge you to buy this book. thank you. spoon met thank you so much i hope you've all enjoyed this conversation tonight is much as i have. if you would not have the honor of being able to read this book, economy healthy mystery of a free black brotherhood i absolutely urge you to.

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 ie 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 up and i go. 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 think but i think biden's gonna win. that's kind of look down at her shoes and sort of shaking her

head. now. i knew this woman was a really strong republican. she had worked for me twice both times for governor. and i said all i know. disappointed. i'm sorry because oh no i voted for biden. and i looked and i said you voted for by. why? i looked at her and said you voted for biden? why? she said governor, i couldn't listen to that voice for four more years. . so -- it with rejection. by group of voters been with him four years earlier and i can tell you somebody has been on the ballot and won and someone who has been on the ballot and lost. wins look better. and secondly losing his

intensely personal. politics is different than sports. sports you have a good day or bad day, sometimes you win, sometimes the other person has a better day. it doesn't mean you are rejected. it means that day the other guy was better or the other woman was better. in politics they looked at human talked to the other person and went i will take that one. i don't want you. i can tell you from having felted it is intensely personal. when people wonder why donald trump is having a hard time accepting this, in part it is because he knows what i just said is true, it was a personal rejection. we go through the other, arizona, georgia, the different places he argues about.

>> host: that goes into my last question. tell us your view, right now there is an effort in the legislature to federalize voting rights and voting systems. can you tell us your view on federal realizing that as what you would do? >> in congress, they want to federalize all the rules. you don't want to live in that system. each state is different. how we could ever think voting rules that are good for wyoming will be good for new jersey when wyoming is the least densely populated state in america in new jersey the most populated state the challenges

we face are significantly different. the constitution is clear that these decisions are supposed to be made but you tangible -- each individual state and i go back, the federal government is running it, what could possibly go wrong. imagine the federal government in charge of counting all the votes. instead of having all the really great people we have in the firehouse where we go there are volunteers, paid little bit but not what they should be helping us vote. imagine those people all get replaced and federal employees come in. i don't think so. what we need to do is look what happened in morris county. usually you have 10 or 12,000

paper ballots and every other time it is all on the machines. this time we had a huge multiple, almost 200,000 paper ballots, the same number of machines as paper ballots, a thousand. because they couldn't get ready that quickly, they didn't know -- covid comes in march 2020, you can't order those machines even if you wanted to so one of the things i think all of us in the state in particular given the number of voters we have, across the country too is not assume we will go back in 2022 or 2024 to a very small amount of mail in ballots. some people have gotten used to that, they like it, it's convenient for them and we will have a lot more mail in voting over time so we better get more machines to count these votes

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

this in the book, i'm not saying irregularities did not happen on election day. they happened in new jersey a few months ago and they happen in new jersey when i ran into thousand 9 and in 13. it happens all the time. question is are there enough irregularities to change the result of the election in any one state that alone the 5 states that would have been necessary to change the result of the election? and that we prove in the book is not possible. so that is an important thing to remember and if you think you don't trust a county clerk in morris county to count the votes, wait till some federal bureaucrat is counting the votes. forget it. conspiracy theories will be tripled and quadrupled under that scenario.

if we think and is messing around we kick her out, you won't be able to get rid of a federal bureaucrat in charge of the election process. >> if anyone has questions? >> guest: there is a microphone in the middle. you need to use the microphone not because i can't hear you without it but but the tv guys. >> if the biden administration has headwinds will mainstream media turn against them? >> not completely against them 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 on sunday, it is almost

never not 321 on the roundtable on abc. it is almost always 321. every once in a while they run up or republican in their but most of the time it is 3 to one and that is even on one of the networks. if you go to the news network is a reveling their slant. cnn and msnbc are reveling in the slant. fox revels in a rightward slant. i say to folks you should watch a little bit of both just so you realize there are two different worlds we are living in, two 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, our kids tease us endlessly that we

get actual newspapers, our kids are like are you kidding? what do you get a newspaper for? just go on your phone but we still get them. if you look at the bottom of the driveway there are 3 newspapers every day. the wall street journal to give us the conservative side of things, new york times so i know what the enemy is thinking and the new york post just to have fun. i think you should get a taste, same with mainstream media on tv as well. i painfully watch -- not every night, i go back and forth between -- i can't watch msnbc, i have to be honest, i can't, too much for me but cnn and fox, to see wherever the big stories of the day are how they cover them differently and what you will find and they emphasize which stories.

there will be a day like there is a big story on wall street and a big story in washington dc. cnn will cover the washington dc story and they will cover it with democratic members of the house and senate and democratic pundits commenting on it. fox news won't cover the washington story unless it is really big. they won't cover the wall street either, they will cover immigration and stories about immigration and the border and everybody is taking a different approach to things and i think it is educational to watch all of it. because it helps, for me at least, talking to people on the other side why they think some of the things they think and

they think it because that is what they are hearing. any hope playing down the middle is over. >> i happen to think one of the biggest failings in the country is the state of inner city public schools, it creates a generation of failure and i know why the democratic party can't get there but when you see lines of people desperate to get into charter schools, anything to not go to the public school they are at, why hasn't it taken hold in the populations who live there to get behind school choice, school voucher, charter school because the party they are voting for is entrenched in not supporting that at the cycle is perpetuated and never gets better. i can't understand why that population hasn't moved to the school choice, charter school

argument which can't be supported by the other party? >> there are two reasons, the first is abbott. folks in the inner cities have gotten into the habit of voting democrat and just have a hard time breaking that habit unless .2, republicans aggressively campaign and make the arguments. i tell you i think -- making that 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 to me in 2013 after four years of arguing hard that public education was failing the

children and arguing why and authorizing more charter schools and all of that, what happened? we got more votes in irvington, the city, we won union city, we got 62% of the vote. in 2013. what i try to argue to republicans across the country is you got to go places you are uncomfortable in and make the arguments you know that group of voters needs to hear. the education issue just showed this. the education issue will cut across parties. parents care most about children. they want their children to get good education. the biggest supporters i have in 2013 in the cities where the pastors of most of the major churches in places like newark

and trenton. of all denominations including imams and muslim mosques in places like patterson and camden because they said we are tired of seeing the children who sit in our pews every sunday constantly be failed by the public school system. the reason it doesn't take hold 2. 3, teachers unions across the country spend an exorbitant amount of money making sure that it doesn't so i here now in our state, our current governor the we have the best schools in america. for some kids. he is a democrat. supposed to be the one who

cares about the underprivileged yet he won't say one word about the failure in our urban schools, to do that would run counter to the teachers union. you all saw in 2009-10-11 they beat me senseless. the money they spent was extraordinary. to end on a more upbeat funny note, in 2010, first big fight with the teachers union, all four children were in one of the suvs going someplace, on the turnpike, we got off the exit to go through the tall and up to the left was one of the big billboards and it was a

picture of me and said chris christie hates children. it was an awful picture of me. at that time, our son patrick, who for those of you who know our family, was definitely 10 years old at the time, i didn't know, i saw it, thought they didn't see it. patrick goes hey, dad, your people have to get better pictures of you. i said did you read what the billboards said? those are not my people, he goes i don't know, it was a really bad picture. that's another reason as well. >> you brought up governor burns in hudson county. i'm compelled to tell a story

that goes back to 1985, when they were supporting the democratic candidate for senator. he happened to have a fundraiser, brendan byrne looks at bradley and says i don't understand why you happen to be running as a democrat because most of the democrats are no from hudson county follow the same pattern, they get elected, they get indicted and they get sentenced. >> i had a similar experience in my old job. on another note i wanted to ask about october 22, 2020, at an event that 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 who trump tested positive for covid and there were all sorts supporters of trump sitting in those chairs, your self included, how do you feel that at the time which he knew he had the coronavirus, how do you feel about trump now, a gentleman who you supported for president in terms of loyalty to his closest associates, putting them essentially in peril as a result of the subsequent test that he tested positive? >> guest: 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. it doesn't change the thesis of your question except what happened the day before.

the day before, everyone who was sitting there. i don't believe that event was a super spreader but the people who got covid in the main, only three people who were at that party who got covid who were not involved in the debate. one of them was father jenkins of notre dame, there were two others. i am absolutely convinced we all got covid in debate prep. it is disturbing to me to have heard for the first time a day or 2 ago in mark meadows's book that the president tested positive for covid prior to him sitting closer than i am to you for four days and preparing for debates.

there is a story in the book, after i get put in the hospital he was in the hospital as well and he called me, the 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 and you sound better too, he goes -- can 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. i don't understand it. i don't know either. he then got to the deck of the call, 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 since 6 of the 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? and i said 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. so you're not going to tell the press that i gave it to you? i wouldn't say that because i don't know it is true. up until two days, thought process on that was that was just donald trump's paranoia, that he didn't want to be, 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. he went to the gate at the white house, got admitted, someone escorted you to the eisenhower building next door and that's where the medical unit is. you go into the medical unit

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

at a minimum, what we were owed. everybody in that room, kelly and conway, stephen miller, hope hicks, the other miller. i said stephen, the other miller, jason miller, the only one who didn't get it. he is owed nothing. the rest of us were all owed to be told that because i will tell you this, we all would have worn masks if we were, we didn't wear masks because we said we are getting tested every day. that is why i wasn't wearing a mask at that event. every person sitting at that amy barrett event were tested before they were allowed to come in and all tested negative but what i said "after words," whatever the president did he's got to live with his own conscience and i can't -- i'm not going to be able to impose

guilt onto him. he will feel or not about what he did. what i will tell you is for me, i said after i got out of the hospital it was a mistake not to wear the mask. i became convinced i was in a safe zone because dollars had been tested but i was wrong, now i probably know why i was wrong. i didn't know then but supporting them the whole time, would have been an extra layer of safety for me. when we saw that pop up on our phones earlier this week early in the morning we had an interesting reaction. >> thank you, governor, for the book. as you mentioned,

irregularities in the election, you agree that were irregularities, don't you believe the democratic party, double up the system and are implementing it for the town they control and then mail in ballot and using the system, somehow, definitely have to be concerned about, the same happened to donald trump, during the election here. certainly, highly controlled -- they use machines and do all the things to influence mail in voting. a lot of fraud going on. doing that and using the machine tool system to teach our kid, when they graduate they become 90% democrat. it is just a system of corruption and if we stand up against all republicans and say it doesn't exist as much as we

need to worry about i'm feeling that it has got to that point and eventually in california, never going to get republican elected and you got elected and did a great job into terms but you see the assembly and senate they know how to win it. they have that capacity. >> 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 really think joe biden masterminded a nationwide conspiracy to steal votes in 6 different states? joe biden couldn't mastermind a one car funeral but a loan mastermind that operation. yes, our -- liberals using the

educational system to try to indoctrinate our children? absolutely. it is happening. that is a different fight, that's a fight we should have. mail in ballots which i support the georgia section law and the texas election law. i will tell you a quick story. the whole idea of not having to show id when you go to vote, that 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 in new york city, walk up the street, the governor, so amazing to see you, i'm such a big fan. i said thank you. cannot come around and take a picture, sure, he turns around, gets his phone out and fix yourself a macs, prints out my visitor pass the can you sign

the visitor pass for me, can i have your autograph? than 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 i have to give you an autograph but you still want to see my id? 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, why shouldn't i have to show for people in the firehouse my drivers license when i come to vote? i'm 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 as governor is you should be less concerned about the voter role

in this state, i mandated, the attorney general mandates, the counties update voter rolls. we knocked a lot of dead people off the voter rolls. during my 8 years as governor. it has got to be a constant process. people move all the time but the voter rolls in new jersey are in better shape than they were before. on mail in ballots they are going to continue to be a factor and i don't want republicans complaining about it anymore. it's not that hard. they send out the ballots, then a piece of mail saying got the ballot. and they call for 5 ballots and say did you count your ballot yet? then they text you and email

you. it is not turnout anymore, they drag those votes out of those houses. no reason we couldn't do that. it is a little harder to go door to door because door to door is harder. it is much harder. our photos tend to be in more suburban rural areas but i was at an event a week before the election, and a woman asked the question. and let me tell you, and next

tuesday, don't know how to do mail in balloting. 6 days later i was exactly right. on the machine, jack was elected governor and casting a male in vote by 75,000. the bigger point, your point, you've got a bunch of things to do when i talk about it in the book to be a competitive viable party, moaning and complaining and looking in the rearview mirror never helps you win the next one, ever. voters don't want to hear about that stuff. that's not why they vote for you.

the election of 2013 right after sandy we rebuilt the boardwalk in asbury park, we rebuilt it in 5 months, walking down the boardwalk the guy comes to me, and why should i vote for you, look at this boardwalk, that is what i got last time, what do i get for voting for you next time? voters think about tomorrow, not yesterday. that shows hope for the country. we think tomorrow can be better and don't want to dwell, parties have to start doing that, stop the grievance politics and the moaning and complaining. fight to get voter id, fight to do better on mail in ballots, fight to make sure counties clean up the voter rolls, take those things out of play and

then our ideas which is their ideas we will do okay. by the way, in an election where we lost by 3 points we face 60 in the assembly and a seat in the saturn and except for the top of the ticket, election days very good for republicans across the stage and sends a clear message not to phil murphy but legislative democrats who you watch, are going to do what he wants them to do if they are all backup for election in 2023. that's the last thing, redistricting, very difficult. we got a map right now, think about this. when i got elected in 2013, i got 60% of the vote state wide and we didn't pick up one seat in the legislature.

that's not gerrymandered, i don't know what is, the top of the ticket, 60% of the vote, with one seat underneath, that will tell you what you need, hopefully negotiating a new map now, we could be in control of the legislature. >> one last question, i will say to you one last question. >> all right, we will see. just to show people you don't watch everything. >> i definitely don't. >> every once in a while. >> two short answers. >> two guys there. i will do these 3 guys but make them short answers. >> i will make 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 unites 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 is still very much likes donald trump, the glen youngcan model a good model for everywhere, does it vary, what are your thoughts on that? >> never forget the other side unites us like we could never unite ourselves. and same with the democrats, donald trump united the democrats the way they've never been united in my lifetime so remember, part of this process is all my god what are they doing? we have to stop them and republicans are willing to stop them. the second piece is we have to talk about things voters care about. either actions are not about

what candidates think. they are what voters think. part of what we need to do is get that into that mode of thinking. we have been yelling and complaining and screaming about things voters don't care about. it sent a clear message not once but twice. >> i will make it fairly quick. needless to say having been a public figure everyone is aware of donald trump's foibles, personality quirks and whatnot, but one thing that made people loyal to him is he said i will do certain things and by and large he did them and i would

say as someone who has typically voted republican i have often been disappointed in my party in terms of failure to keep promises made during the campaign. too often we are told we will do this and then nothing is done except for the fact if you look at trump, he fixed the skating rink in new york after 6 years of nonsense, he built a golf club on a dump in a short period of time. he started building a wall when no wall was ever built, he moved the embassy in israel to the capital of israel, we are looking if somebody's going to be a more acceptable alternative to the foibles and

personality problems, we want somebody who is still going to do what he says. don't know why our party has often disappointed. >> democrats will say the same thing. a bunch of democrats will say that as well. i don't think it is unique to our party. what i will say is in the main i agreed with the things donald trump tried to do. there are things where we differ but not hugely significant things. here is where i part company with him. you can't stand up behind the seal of the president of the united states at 2:30 a.m. on election night until the american people the election was stolen and not present any evidence to support it. the words of the president matter more than the words of new york real estate czar.

he locks -- talks like a new york real estate developer when he's president of the united states. the american people want to believe what the president tells them, any president whether they voted for him or not, want to believe what he says. it would be like barack obama standing up that night 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 enormous gravity to the american people like an election. the idea that someone would say that he was killed when he wasn't, would have been something we would never accept. saying election was stolen and not presenting any evidence to back that up, here we are 13 months later, he still saying the same thing. to me, that creates a huge

credibly problem that diminishes what you just talked about. i said this 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 wave that will damage you personally and damage the party for a long time and so i agree many things he said he would do that he got done, a number of things he said he would do that he didn't get done. you can see that about anybody but election night was to me a line that made it impossible for me to say that is okay because it is just not. we all get into this business knowing that we win or lose and sometimes you think it isn't fair. i last elections i thought weren't fair, but that's the deal.

stand up like an adult and say i don't think that was fair but votes were counted, people have spoken and i will live to fight another day. that is where i think the divide is now and that was something that was not necessary to do, not welcoming the bidens to the white house on inaugural morning, not going to the inauguration, you think hillary clinton wanted to be sitting there on january 2017 as donald trump was inaugurated? you think al gore wanted to be sitting there in 2001 as george w. bush was inaugurated? george bush 40 one wanted to be sitting there at bill clinton's inaugural? i am confident they would have rather had a root canal 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 with grace and dignity. he didn't do any of that at it diminished him and to finish 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 even though he walked by before he didn't say i'm not listening to the supreme court and not moving out of the naval observatory, i'm staying, i'm still vice president. he conceded, went out and welcomed bush to the naval observatory and showed the country that is the way we operate. that is the way we have

operated for the last 250 years and that is what he should have done. >> be exported, my wife and i drove up from the shore to be here and glad we did. would love to see you as our candidate in 2024 but going back to your point how your own constituents felt about trump and not wanting to hear that voice, i worked for a company based in the midwest and spent a lot of time out there, there's a lot of good right-thinking people out there but when it comes to new yorkers or anybody from the northeast they are like we don't really get him. we don't want to -- we talked too fast, don't give them a chance to hear what we are saying to them and took a chance on trump and they feel they got burned. how would somebody like you overcome what has become a bias against the northeast thanks to donald? >> they took a chance on trump,

some parts of the midwest and other places didn't. i can tell you when i was in iowa, i spent time there in 2016, you got to come uphill a little bit to the northeast. if you have a vowel at the end of your name. it is tough. i think for any of us, our own authenticity has to be what we rely on. there are plenty of people who don't like me. that is okay. that is their right. but even people who don't like me, most of them, don't call me a phony. they have gotten to know me and don't like me. that's fine. that is there call.

but i think we can't back away from authenticity. one of the reasons trump got elected was people said he may not say things on the way i would like him to say but i think he means it and that is who he is, and as a result, people were willing to take a chance based on that-2 city but the most important thing is authenticity. you can tell when they are not. you look at certain candidates. iran against a bunch of them in 2017. they are trying to think of what the answer should be and what you want to hear. the american people have proven to be smarter than that. the only way to overcome any

bias, northeastern bias against southern counties, that exists. talk about a weird accent, they think we have one. there is always that bias, certain candidates overcome that. that is something to rely on. the only woman who stood up -- i am not telling her to sit down. no chance. i'm going to get in trouble with this one, not that one. >> thank you for indulging me. i was happy to be here tonight. i am a moderate, and independent, i did vote for biden. biden was a placeholder.

a viable candidate to trump and that is it. not the people were in love with biden. that is what biden is struggling with. he swung to the left, what are you doing? that is how a lot of us are feeling. i am glad to say it because i feel like the majority of biden supporters are feeling that way but my question to you, you represent a minority and summers suspect of your party, someone standing up to the election conspiracies and wonder if donald trump, they start going after you, what are you going to do, would rather see you on the ballot. >> morris county, longer than

the country, a week or so ago, look. my approval rating was bad enough. he made it worse, lied about it to make it worse. why not just told the truth, bad when i left. the real number would have been terrible. my response was i don't know. when iran for reelection i got 60% of the votes, when you ran you lost to president biden. donald trump has never gotten a fight with me. i believe he knows that i fight back. in the 16 race, they didn't get a nickname.

little marco, lying ted, crazy john, i didn't get one. and and and he had been in office for three weeks. he wasn't exactly my idea of valentine's day. got to bring yours so it is okay. look around. you believe i'm here? he was showing me the overall office. remember something, you didn't

win this election, she lost it. it doesn't matter, your hand was on the bible january 20th, you're sleeping upstairs, you need to make the next four years about you. you are judged four years from now. it could happen to me and what i want to know, i didn't win. john corzine lost. i don't think what i really want is chris christie, they went oh my god, i don't want him anymore, is this guy reasonable? i, like biden, looked like the reasonable alternative to someone they had already projected. i understand what you mean and that is how trump got elected. hillary clinton, this is

demonstrated by polling data. on election day in history. the second most unpopular presidential candidate, donald trump, a little better than her, he won. he got so pistol, i won, i won in a landslide, that is outrageous, she didn't lose, i beat her. you can think that but it is just not true. don't get upset. i felt the same way. what i did was every day i went to my campaign manager the day after the election, we for quick with 48% of the vote and

i looked and said every day from here on out your job is to figure out how we build that coalition, what i need to do to convince as many of the people who didn't vote for me to vote for me. donald trump done that he would still be in the white house today. when that happened post election, you don't bring the country together and you go down. that happened to president biden. president biden promised to be a uniter and bring the country together. bring us to normal. he comes in and goes way left, the base of his party, the same mistake trump made. doesn't try to bring the country together.

never in 2,013 when i got reelected, got 52%, got 29% of the african-american vote. four years earlier i had gotten 11% and 33% of the latino vote. that didn't happen by a miracle. we work every day to reach out to folks who didn't vote for me. and asked him why, the issues they were concerned about. i agree with you independents went for biden, biden abandoned them first. they didn't leave him, he left them. standing in the middle of the country going where did joe biden go? our they 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 the 78-year-old guy for two reasons. he was in the middle and they wanted to beat trump and venu the other ones couldn't. i don't understand why this is so complicated. may be i am getting too old and seen too much. it is difficult on how to govern and when the country and winning is the hardest part, but once you get there, the power of the governorship, the power of the presidency, you have the ability to bring people together. i am disappointed trump didn't, i'm disappointed that biden didn't. the american people sent clear signal in 2020, probably send it again in 2024 that we want someone who will bring the

country together. tired of being divided, tired of not being able to go to a cocktail party and have a conversation about politics. tired of people yelling at us because we have a bumper sticker on our car, tired of people giving us a hard time because of what we believe. when i grew up in politics that is the way it was and i think we can bring it back. the book is an effort to start with my own party. it is easy to lecture democrats. >> why don't you run as an independent? you could probably win. the sides go to the sides, the middle candidate is going to win. >> what you need to do as a republican, start with your own party. talk to them about these truths. either i will convince people or i won't. when i was governor all the

time, the press tell me the polls say this. i say to them my job is to change polls. you are a persuasive leader. the job is to change polls, not to follow them. i hope that is what they start to do. i know we started a conversation. rupert murdoch gave a speech at the newscorp shareholders meeting where he said donald trump is gone, we have to stop talking about him, fight for the future and stop worrying about the past. he can't be part of the future. the head of fox news said that, we may be starting to get someplace. that is why we started the conversation and i am glad you got the last question because that is a great place for us to end.

i want to say one thing, thanking my wife not only for tonight but putting up with me the last 35 years. this place is really special to us. we've been here 30 years, all 30 years we have been here, when we were brand-new, no residents, no children, being a freeholder and the governors had those suvs idling outside replace for twee 8 years, wires in their ears. for that time you live in the safest town in new jersey, guaranty that. no problem there. you live in the safest place but through all those ups and downs there were times that were difficult. when they had public life and you come home you want to not

worry about going out and i can tell you everybody was great. everybody here was great. even previously. they did it in a way that was respectful of the fact that we were one of you. we thank you for that. you provided us a community to raise all four of our children the way we wanted to and when they were in the public spotlight you made it better, not worse. you didn't make them feel different. on the soccer field or on the football field, made them feel -- it made our lives a lot easier. thanks for coming tonight. [applause]

>> thank you, governor, thank you, america. another beautiful evening. >> if you are enjoying booktv sign a proud newsletter using the qr code on screen to receive the schedule of upcoming programs, after discussions, book festivals and more. booktv every sunday on c-span2 or any time online, booktv.org. television for serious readers. >> weekends on c-span2 are an intellectual feast. every saturday, american history tvocuments america's story and on sunday booktv brings the latest in nonfiction books and authors. funding for c-span2 comes from these television companies. and more. ..