After taking a moment to consider the question with an “um,” Christie said he thought Paul “would be a credible candidate for president,” before pivoting to say he thought Florida Sen. Marco Rubio would also “be a good candidate for president.”

Christie didn’t elaborate on his phraseology, but one was left with the impression that in the hierarchy of Christie compliments, “good candidate” trumps “credible candidate.”

But Kelly pressed the Paul point, asking Christie whether he would campaign for Paul if the Kentucky senator won the GOP nomination given their past unpleasantness.

“I intend to campaign for whoever the Republican nominee is because I’m a Republican,” Christie said. “Whatever differences I may have with any one of those people that I just named myself, because there are differences between me and those folks, it would be minor compared to the differences I would have with whoever the Democratic nominee is.”