GOP sleepover: Chris Christie, Marco Rubio to crash at Mitt Romney's place
A few past and present Republican presidential candidates will get to spend some quality time together this weekend.
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, both seeking the 2016 nomination, are marching in the Wolfeboro Fourth of July parade on Saturday in the key primary state of New Hampshire.
The tiny town typically has some political star power at its Independence Day parade, since 2012 GOP candidate Mitt Romney has a lake house in Wolfeboro. Ahead of this Saturday's parade, Romney has invited the Christie and Rubio families to spend the night at the lake house.
Christie said Friday that he plans to talk to Romney about "whatever he wants to talk about."
"It was great of him to reach out and contact me and say, 'You're gonna be up here, stay with us,'" he said. "I'm confident there will be some politics discussed tonight, but there'll be lots of other things talked about, too. Mitt and Ann, as I've said many, many times are friends of ours, and we've been friends for a lot of years."
He noted that Romney went to New Jersey and endorsed his gubernatorial race in 2009 amid a competitive primary. Christie was also a prominent surrogate for Romney during his presidential campaign in 2012 and delivered the keynote address at Romney's nomination that year.
This time around, although Romney weighed a third presidential bid, he ultimately decided against it, ceding the race to "one of our next generation of Republican leaders -- one who may not be as well-known as I am today," which was interpreted as a nod toward Rubio.
Since that decision, Romney, reported the Washington Post, has spoken with Rubio at least twice on the phone and "encouraged and mentored the 43-year-old Florida senator about the political landscape, according to a Romney associate."
CBS News' Erica Brown contributed to this report.
