Chris Christie Previews 2016 Campaign: ‘It’s Time to Start Offending People’
“I don’t care if I’m loved. I want to be respected.”
BY TIM ALBERTA
October 21, 2014 New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie launched a preemptive strike Tuesday against some potential Republican rivals for the White House, saying the “experiment” of promoting a lawmaker to president has failed—and arguing that Republicans must nominate a governor in 2016.
Christie, chairman of the Republican Governors Association, began his speech to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in Washington by lauding his counterparts across the country. Then he turned on a dime, pivoting in apparently premeditated fashion from 2014 to 2016. He urged attendees to support GOP governors this fall—not only to help them win reelection, he said, but to build a roster of credible presidential contenders.
“To have any chance of electing a Republican president, there’s a bunch of things we need to do. But the first is to have a good bench of Republican candidates,” Christie said. “And I am convinced that the next president of the United States is going to be a governor—and needs to be.”
Christie continued: “We have had an experiment of a legislator who has never run anything getting on-the-job training in the White House. It has not been pretty. And so we need to have a big and broad bench of good, experienced Republican governors to select from in 2016.”
The remarks may well represent Christie’s most forceful intra-party offensive to date, a preemptive and unprompted attack against unnamed “legislators”—including Sens. Rand Paul, Marco Rubio, and Ted Cruz—who almost certainly will be competing with him in 2016.
In a brief interview with National Journal after his speech, Christie was unapologetic about his remarks — and acknowledged they wouldn’t be well-received by certain presidential aspirants.
“Listen, I just say what I believe, and whoever is offended is offended,” Christie said.
https://www.nationaljournal.com/politics/chris-christie-previews-2016-campaign-it-s-time-to-start-offending-people-20141021
