Chris Christie in 2024 CNN Town Hall
On Technology:
If China won't let our social media in, TikTok should go
TikTok is here in this country. We let them in. Facebook and Twitter are not in China.
They're going to let Facebook, Twitter and our social media into China, I'll let TikTok stay. If they don't, TikTok goes, in a Christie administration.
Source: CNN Town Hall: interviews of 2024 presidential candidates
Jun 12, 2023
On Abortion:
If you're pro-life it's got to be for the whole life
You know, I'm pro-life, but I think if you're pro-life, you got to be pro-life for the whole life, not just the nine months in the womb. I believe every life is an individual gift from God, and it's precious.
And if you believe that in your heart, then that applies just as much to the 16-year-old young woman drug addicted on the floor of the county lockup or the 52-year-old lawyer who got addicted to opioids and has now driven his life off the road.
Source: CNN Town Hall: interviews of 2024 presidential candidates
Jun 12, 2023
On Budget & Economy:
We must imposing fiscal discipline again in this country
The reason we're struggling to make ends meet is because government spending under Joe Biden has gone completely out of control. The first thing we have to do, and one of the first things I would do as president, is to say,
we are imposing fiscal discipline again in this country. Job one is to get spending under control, because, the more we spend, the less you can spend. And that's what's horrible for families making ends meet.
Source: CNN Town Hall: interviews of 2024 presidential candidates
Jun 12, 2023
On Drugs:
End the war on drugs, it's a disease; focus on treatment
Q: What do you intend to do about the war on drugs?CHRISTIE: End it. I want to focus on treatment. It is a disease and can be treated. It's not easy, but neither is treatment for cancer or heart disease in many cases.
We need to make treatment broadly available to everyone who is addicted, because with Medicaid Assisted Treatment, with talk therapy, with those things combined, we can save not every life, but many of those lives.
Source: CNN Town Hall: interviews of 2024 presidential candidates
Jun 12, 2023
On Education:
What we need is to have competition with the public schools
I want great education for every child in this country. It is the great equalizer. And what we need is to have competition with the public schools. And we need to have parents be right in the middle of it because nobody cares more about our child's
education than us. That's why I opened more charter schools in New Jersey than any governor in New Jersey history, and why the test scores in Newark and Camden have tripled after having done that.
Source: CNN Town Hall: interviews of 2024 presidential candidates
Jun 12, 2023
On Free Trade:
We need to make the Chinese understand that the party's over
We need to make the Chinese understand that the party's over. For the last 50 years, we have been investing in China to try to bring them into the community of nations and to try to make them better, because we thought it would make us better, too.
But the Chinese have taken advantage of our good nature, stealing our intellectual property, spying on us, causing trouble around the world, unfair trade deals. And it's time for that to stop now. They're no longer a fledgling economy.
Source: CNN Town Hall: interviews of 2024 presidential candidates
Jun 12, 2023
On Gun Control:
Criminals don't follow the law; that's why they're criminals
I really think that we need to have law enforcement become much more sensitive to what they're seeing from a mental health perspective with people in the community. Because, in the end, those people almost always send off signs and signals.
Now, I wish I had a better answer than that. I really do. And I've really searched my soul and searched the law as a lawyer to say what could be done that would make it better. But criminals don't follow the law. That's why they're criminals.
Source: CNN Town Hall: interviews of 2024 presidential candidates
Jun 12, 2023
On Immigration:
Send the National Guard to secure the southern border
Send the National Guard to the southern border. No matter how hard our Customs and Border Patrol agents and our Immigration and Customs enforcements agents are working, they need back-up.
They're dealing with people who are armed, dangerous, many of them bringing drugs into the country. Some of them aren't. But we need to secure that border.
Source: CNN Town Hall: interviews of 2024 presidential candidates
Jun 12, 2023
On Jobs:
We have to show people that we value vocational training
You know, the aspiration of college is wonderful. I'm really glad that people in this country now feel like there's almost no barriers to them being able to get a four-year college education, but only if that's what they want and what's best for them.
We have to show people that we value vocational training. We value the building trades. We value people who don't need a four-year college education to do what their passion is in their life or what they believe can make them the best living.
Source: CNN Town Hall: interviews of 2024 presidential candidates
Jun 12, 2023
On Principles & Values:
You fight and fight, but then compromise and take the win
The bottom line is that if you're lucky enough to become the president of the United States, every day, you should wake up thinking about what you do for the people of this country, not what scores you need to settle for yourself. And [Trump] has
shown himself--and I think most particularly in his post-presidency--to be completely self- centered, completely self-consumed, and doesn't give a damn about the American people if what the American people want is in conflict with what is best for him.
Understand that when I say you have got to be willing to compromise, it means you're not going to get 100% of what you want all the time. But if you get 80% of a Republican principle, rather than 0% of anything, that's a win. I know people don't want
you to compromise. I don't go and lay down, OK? I fight. But the skill in this business is to fight and fight and fight, and then know when the moment is to take your win and go and move on to the next topic.
Source: CNN Town Hall: interviews of 2024 presidential candidates
Jun 12, 2023
On Principles & Values:
America is a leader; the world is great when America leads
I believe America is a leader around the world and that the world is great when America leads, and America can only be great when we lead. We can't be great by being small, small arguments, petty arguments, dividing each other.
Look, America is great when we don't fill the moat and pull up the drawbridge.
Source: CNN Town Hall: interviews of 2024 presidential candidates
Jun 12, 2023
On Social Security:
We do need to look at means-testing of Social Security
I think we do need to look at means-testing of Social Security. Now I'm not talking about if you've got a few hundred thousand dollars put away or less. Is Mark Zuckerberg not going to make ends meet without the Social Security check?
We have to start talking about it, because if we don't, in 2034, there's going to be an automatic 24% cut in everybody's benefits. And for a lot of people that will mean they can't pay their rent or they can't buy food and we can't have that.
Source: CNN Town Hall: interviews of 2024 presidential candidates
Jun 12, 2023
On War & Peace:
Support for Ukraine is really a proxy war with China
On Ukraine I will say this. I think the way we need to look at this is, this is a proxy war with China. The Chinese are supplying the Russians with money by buying their oil. The Chinese are providing drones to the Iranians, and the Iranians are using
those drones to kill soldiers in Ukraine. So, none of us like the idea that there's a war going on and that we're supporting it. But the alternative is for the Chinese to take over, the Russians, the Iranians, and the North Koreans, a bad foursome.
If I were President Zelenskyy, I'd want everything too. But there's going to come a point, if Ukraine is aggressive enough and we're giving them the arms and support that they need, that both Ukraine and Russia are going to understand that it's
time to end the killing and there may have to be some kind of compromise. That's what we should be in the middle of trying to foster, once we get in a position where Ukraine can protect the land that's been taken by Russia in this latest incursion.
Source: CNN Town Hall: interviews of 2024 presidential candidates
Jun 12, 2023
Page last updated: Oct 27, 2024