I’ve said it before and I will continue to say it. The Republican primary candidate bench is deep and talented. CNN has been hosting town halls with individual declared candidates with rotating hosts and locations. Monday night, Chris Christie held a CNN town hall with host Anderson Cooper. The audience was comprised of Republican voters who are committed to voting in primary elections. The audience was silent – no clapping allowed – and some audience members asked were chosen to ask questions of Christie.

Christie does well in the town hall format. He remembers the voter’s name and repeats it in his answer. That comes from Public Speaking 101 class. And, he is detailed in his answers. His legal training comes through. One thing is very clear and that is he entered the race to stop Donald Trump from getting the nomination. He admitted as much, so it’s a solid theory.

I have some thoughts on what I heard.

As a former prosecutor, Christie has strong opinions about Trump’s indictment. He does not think the DOJ has been weaponized against Trump, making him one of the few Republicans with that opinion. His take is that Trump could have just turned over the documents that he was being asked to return and none of this would have happened. He said that Trump is “voluntarily putting our country through this.” “This is all (Trump) saying … ‘I’m more important than the country.” It’s all about Trump’s ego and Christie makes Trump’s ego a frequent reference point when he speaks. Christie did not disparage any candidates except for Trump and Biden. He left the other GOP candidates alone.

Christie was asked by a young mother why the United States was financing the war in Ukraine when regular Americans are having a hard time making ends meet in Biden’s economy. Christie rightly explained that inflation was making it hard for people to make ends meet and it was brought on by Biden’s out-of-control federal spending. He spoke of his record of being a fiscal conservative and his desire to shut down the spending spree that Biden has had in Washington. Then he went on to explain that the United States can do both – stop the federal spending and give money back to the American taxpayer and support Ukraine because it is a proxy war with China. He went on to tell her that he didn’t want China coming to take over the United States and he certainly didn’t want her kids or his grandkids living under Chinese rule. Notably, Christie said that if the United States ended its involvement in Ukraine, then China would take over, along with the Russians, the Iranians, and the North Koreans. Christie said that’s a bad foursome. No arguments there.

When asked about securing the southern border, he said he would send in the National Guard. When Anderson Cooper asked if he supports a border wall, Christie said we may as well complete it because Trump only got about a quarter of the wall built. He also said that when he is elected president and brings in other Republicans into office, thus creating a Republican majority in both the House and Senate, that he and Congress would spend the first two years on immigration law reforms. He said it was the sign of a “bad executive” that Trump governed by executive orders when it came to the border and that made it easy for Biden to immediately change the orders when he came into office. “He took temporary steps, but the minute he left office, someone else could change. You know what that is? A bad executive,” he said. It’s hard to argue with that.

Christie is a pro-life Catholic man who supports states setting their own abortion laws. He supports the overturning of Roe v Wade.

He is set on asking people to stop and think before supporting Trump’s second term in office. He lodged some personal attacks on Trump because he said, having known him for 22 years, that the only thing Trump understands is force. So, he said he has to get in Trump’s face to defeat him.

Christie warned that if Trump wins another term, he would spend those four years focused on “settling scores” with his political enemies.

“He has shown himself, particularly in his post-presidency,” Christie said, “to be completely self-centered, completely self-consumed and doesn’t give a damn about the American people, in my point of view.”

He called Trump a “loser” and a “child,” comparing the former president’s refusal to accept his defeat for reelection in 2020 to a blame-deflecting tantrum from a child who had failed a test at school.

Again, no arguments with any of that. I found myself agreeing with Christie on most things. There wasn’t a time when I rolled my eyes and thought, “Oh, brother” about anything he said. I’m curious to see how far he gets in the primary and if he makes it to the debate stage. The town hall was a lot tamer than I thought it would be. Christie was calm and didn’t get agitated. He’s known for his combative personality but there wasn’t a need for that since these were all Republican voters and everyone was polite. If I’m correct, I think the candidate that most of the questioners are currently supporting is DeSantis. There were voters from New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, New Hampshire, and the early states of Nevada, Iowa, and South Carolina.

I’m not sure exactly what I was expecting but it was a more calm event than I thought, even with his personal criticisms of Trump. The audience didn’t seem to mind what he was saying about Trump.

Donald Trump does not give a damn about the American people.

If he goes back to the White House, the next four years will be all about himself.

We need a President who will wake up every day and think about what’s best for the American people. pic.twitter.com/O8jjD5YSHN

— Chris Christie (@GovChristie) June 13, 2023