“I think it was a very, very ill-advised thing for Ted to say,” Christie said. “You want to be President of the United States, you have to unite this country. And for him to somehow be implying that certain values are more appropriate, more American, depending upon what region of the country you’re from, is to me just asinine.”

Christie praised GOP front-runner Donald Trump’s response to Cruz. The New York businessman pointed to the city’s response to the attacks of September 11, 2001 as the true values of the city. “Is there anybody in the country who didn’t admire New Yorkers and New Jerseyans in the aftermath of 9/11 for rebuilding and recovering the way they did? Is there anybody in the country who didn’t admire New Jerseyans for the way they stood up after Hurricane Sandy and rebuilt our state over the last three years,” Christie said. “Like somehow are those bad values? Is that what he’s saying?”…

Christie called Cruz “the most inside guy in this race,” despited Cruz’s frequent claims to be an outsider seeking to reform the party. “I think Ted once again is trying to be Mr. Ivy League cute,” he charged. “He’s Harvard and Princeton, he’s federal court clerkships, he’s government jobs, and somehow he’s an outsider? If you took his name off and you put that résumé down, that would look like the consummate Washington insider.”…

“If those values are bad, I don’t know why you would want to take money from people whose values you don’t agree with—especially if you’re some upright guy like Ted Cruz.”