Chris Christie says Trump moved "further and further into crazy land"

Welcome back to CBS Morning Republican presidential candidate Chris Christie

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the various investigations and allegations against former President Trump show he cannot be the party's nominee. Chrissy, as you know, is a former federal prosecutor and former governor of New Jersey and previously supported Donald Trump, but now. She

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one of the only reasons the former president is running is to cite major crimes against the country. Chris Christie joins us now at the table to discuss, you know, welcome back, it's always good to have you here, you know when we'll hear it. He said something similar to that and they booed him so what's his game plan here?

How to reach people who believe? Listen, this is all just a smokescreen that Donald Trump is saying just to keep him from getting elected. He said why didn't they try it. This is two years ago, well, look, you know, kale, you and I have known each other for a long time, if I changed my opinions because I got booed, I wouldn't have any opinions left, I mean, I was a Republican in New Jersey and you, you. you have to know what you believe in your heart and you have to go and make the argument that the leaders don't follow, but people say this is not a winning argument, this is not a winning look.

I say that this new survey from the Manhattan Institute came out in New York. Hampshire this weekend has Donald Trump down to 34 percent Ron DeSantis at 13 me at 11. um you know we're moving in different directions Donald Trump and I in two months went from zero to eleven in one month and a half he went to New Hampshire 48 to 34. and that means that two-thirds of the Republican voters in New Hampshire surveyed right now don't want him, that's a state, no matter how big it is, an important state and I know they want to focus on New Hampshire.

It's a big state, but national polling suggests it's still doing pretty well even with the allegations; In fact, they seem to be helping him in some ways, particularly with fundraising; you're fundraising a fraction of what he is and that has an impact on what you can do in terms of campaigning with door-knocking ads to get votes, yeah, except he's spending all of his money on legal fees. I'm not going to spend my money on campaigns, we know that from the The reports that just came out say that he spent $40 million last quarter on legal fees and that was before two more indictments came out.

Look, he can't hold it and he's ripping people off. I mean, this is a hundred and eight scam. a thousand dollars for Melania's stylist um in the campaign money she spent it's called a political strategy Consulting everyone, people are going to stop giving her that money and as far as national polls go, if we had a national primary, it would be really worried, but don't we have one state at a time and we are going to compete hard in those states and do well in two months? We announced it two months ago today and we are now in a clear third place statistically and second in New Hampshire in two months, Ron DeSantis has been running since 2021.

Yes, but governor, even if you beat Donald Trump or beat Donald Trump, you have to Ron DeSantis, he's running a culture war campaign in a lot of ways, right? an anti-woke that takes on this idea that Democrats have taken over the media and businesses etc., you don't seem to be in that fight in the same way, why isn't he doing very well? Don't you know that campaign? It's really taking off, really gaining altitude, the guy is descending rapidly and I think it's because the American people look at this and it's not that they don't mind some of these things.

I want parents to be in control of their children's education. I don't want schools to keep parents out of discussions if their kids have gender issues, if their kids have those kinds of issues, they shouldn't hide it from parents, they shouldn't make those decisions, parents should, but it's TRUE. Is it a more important question than whether people can afford the food and things they need to heat their homes and run their cars? Is it a more important issue than what is happening in Ukraine right now? I mean what will that mean for the entire world, is it a more important issue than our children's education getting reading scores?

One-third of children in this country are not reading at grade level nationwide. Fair enough, but I really don't see how you can win over the Republicans. primaries without going

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to the right on some of these cultural issues, well, look at it, I'll show you, okay, okay, so, as you know, the bottom line is that you have to be who you are, the truth matters, it matters and now we are. In a country where the truth is negotiable and that is not where we should start talking about that truth, our polls show that nearly 70 percent of Republicans do not believe Biden legitimately won in 2020.

So how do you run a campaign when your potential voters don't trust well in the system you're running on. I think that's moving too, Nate, because people will still hold that opinion, but I don't think it's going to affect what they do well this time and what I mean is that you even looked at Rod DeSantis yesterday for the first time he admitted that Joe Biden is the legitimate president. It took Donald Trump a while to get him there, well, but that's my point, in response to his statement, you know he's moving in a different direction now why because it's the truth and because when he comes out and tries to sell the fact that that Ron DeSantis is too little too late, although no, because hell, Nate, it's August, it's like saying you know any of the NFL teams that are in training camp right now, whatever they do, it's too little, too late and damn, too late until December or January, so I'm picking up what, by the way, by the way, for the Mets, of whom I'm a board. member of this is also very small now I was going to say it's official so we can go there and celebrate a little late, you know, Governor, I'm so fascinated that you have someone who is a clear favorite, he has three indictments, it's essentially sort of out on bail, if he doesn't, he's basically out on bail under restrictions in three jurisdictions and it'll be four before we get to the debate stage in two weeks and he's the front-runner, so if you know What his lawyer says is a matter of freedom of expression is political speech.

I wish you could define political speech, but I mean, even if you take away all the illegal versus illegal versus legal, what about the behavior? I always think about you, you know Donald Trump, because some people say that they behave in a way that you don't want your children to behave with everything that you teach your children, but he is still the favorite, well, that is the point. I think we can't ignore it. I think you're making a great point and right. I do it because it's what I say every day and I agree that other than that, you know I did this for seven years.

I was a federal prosecutor in the fifth largest office in this country, but you supported him for a long time. I looked and said it was a mistake, okay, so you know we all make mistakes in life and if you have to admit when you make mistakes, um and I made one, but this is what he left me, Gail. I didn't leave him, he left me, he kept moving

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and further towards Crazy Land. um, and you're right about the legality, the illegality. I think the New York prosecution is legally flawed, but do we really want to support someone who pays a porn star to stay? she kept quiet while he is running for president because he had sex with her while he was married to her wife.

Do we really want someone bringing secrets of classified documents to the United States that put people's lives at risk and keeping them at Mar-A-Lago to make it that way? he can continue to pretend that he is president um and continue to show it to people to act like a big shot the behavior the underlying behavior is the problem I understand that people think that there are two levels of justice, but I will say that they were wrong to say In my opinion, I don't give Hillary Clinton the right and I said it at the time and now this excuse has been created for Donald Trump, but I'm not going to let him get away with it, yes what he did is wrong whether it's illegal or not .

It is morally wrong what he has done, especially on January 6, yes, that is fine and, ultimately, you will never be to the right of Donald Trump or Ronda Santos, as you see it, not on the issues you are talking about, but let me tell you this. I'm going to be tougher on them on a lot of other issues and I'm tougher on Ukraine and China than either of them will ever be and having gone to Ukraine, yes, you just said the atrocities are shocking. 20,000 children kidnapped and sent to Russia. to be rescheduled, those parents don't know if their kids are alive or dead, people might say look at it, it's a photo shoot for Chris Christie, why did you go listen to 60 hours of travel for 11 hours on the ground?

That's pretty expensive, yes. I went because if you're going to be the American president who decides how to conduct our relations with Ukraine from there, you have to look Vladimir Zielinski in the eye, which I did, and you have to go to places like busha, where there are 160 people in a shallow grave that were executed by barbaric Russian soldiers Nate, this is the guy Vladimir Putin who is doing this thing that Donald Trump calls a great and brilliant leader, yes, we are very different people and I will be a very different president, okay, Governor Christie , thank you.

Thank you so much for being here, I love being with you, thank you for acknowledging that something is over, yes, unfortunately, or maybe 20 25 is our year, yes, I got it, we'll be ready to come back soon.