Chris Christie: Marco Rubio is like "boy in the bubble"
Chris Christie's tenth place finish in Monday's Iowa caucuses was about par for the effort he expended, he admits. It's New Hampshire that'll determine the future of his candidacy, though, and he was in a "peppy mood" in this final week before the Granite State votes next Tuesday.
At his Bedford headquarters, Christie engaged in a little political punditry and gave reporters his sense of his opponents.
First, Marco Rubio, who had a surprisingly strong third place finish in the caucuses, Christie dismissed as "the boy in the bubble...who's constantly scripted and controlled because he can't answer your questions."
"He wants to say this race is over--seems to me he should have to stand across from you and answer the questions you ask him....It's time for him to man up, step up and stop letting handlers write his speeches," Christie said. "If he'd like to challenge -- I'd be happy every day. I'll have as many gaggles as Marco Rubio has if he wants to sit here and answer your tough questions about his flip-flops on immigration, [if] he wants to answer your tough questions about his lack of experience."
At an earlier campaign event, a breakfast in Nashua, Christie thought Donald Trump was probably having "a bad morning," and said he wasn't surprised at Donald Trump's finish in Iowa, adding that he'd been predicting for weeks that Trump wouldn't win Iowa. In Bedford, he said of Trump that "all we've ever heard is that he's first in the polls, he's first in everything. Now he's not. He lost last night, he almost came in third last night."
And then there was Jeb Bush, one of the establishment candidates who competes with Christie for the more mainstream voters.
"Jeb Bush spent $15 million and got three percent. So I spent $500,000" and "got two [percent], and he spent $15 million and got three, so I think you'd rather have me manage your money," Christie opined. "I think it went fine."
In Nashua, he also talked about the outcome of the Democratic contest.
"I think it was a good night for Hillary Clinton. You know, if Bernie Sanders can't win in Iowa -- and I think he could win here given his neighborly relationship with New Hampshire -- but if he can't win in Iowa, where else is he going to win?" Christie said. "I know it was very close and practically a tie and all the rest of that but the way it will be reported is, ...I think it was a pretty good night for Hillary and I think it will give her a little bit of a momentum coming into here, and I think because she won there, she doesn't have to win here."
He added, "Nobody really, like realistically ever believed she was going to lose to Bernie Sanders, right? I mean, we can't be that lucky."