Thank you so much. Comingp, 2024 republican president ial candidate Chris Christie discusses his candidacy opposition to former predent trump and the conflict in israel during remarks at the first in the nation leadership summit in New Hampshire. And now please welcome governor Chris Christie. [applause] good afternoon, everybody. Thank you very much for having me. Thank you for being here. Thank you for caring about our country and our party enough for you to be here this weekend to put all of us through the paces. Look, what of what to do is just speak off the top about whats going on in the world right now, and then what i want to do is take questions from you rather than you hear a speech from me. I want everybody to understand that from my perspective, what was happening in israel right now is connected to Everything Else thats going on in the world. Its connected what we see going on in ukraine. Its connected to a pc happening in the South China Sea with the chinese and taiwan. Its connected to the other things we see happening in the middle east. We have four real bad actors in this world right now, china, russia, north korea and iran. And they are now working together to try to disrupt the world, to fill the vacuum that unfortunately has been left out in my opinion, by our country in the world leadership, and to try to move the world tour to dictatorship, authoritarian type of rule. And what they look to do is to create fear, because when fear is created, people worry about not having just a person in charge. And the fear that they are trying to create coffee start to create in a place like ukraine and then the iranians get their handmaidens of hamas and hezbollah to do their dirty work. But please understand that iran is behind whats happening in israel right now. They are paying for it. They are encouraging it. They arere arming them and they are giving them what they need to berm able to cause the levelf death that we have seen. And i also think we need to be very, very conscience as a country that will see in some parts of our own country but we see around the world in reaction to this, the antisemitism tht we see is something that this country, in my opinion, needs to stand up against. Dr. King was right. Should not judge anyone by the color of their skin or their religion but by the content of their character. And to have the type of things weve seen on College Campuses in this country that have been just clearly at the somatic rhetoric, every responsible person in this country who doesnt have prejudiced in their heart who sits by silently and says nothing to counter that in my view is complicit with it. The good people of this country need to stand up and say that that typed of language, the tye of conduct is unacceptable. And if you are jewish in this country around the world right now, you are living with the reality that this is the most jewish people have been killed in one moment since the holocaust. So when you watch what israel is now doing in gaza, need to remember that context. This is not theoretical. Only eight years ago they lived throughh a time when an authoritarian government rounded them up all over europe and exterminated 6 million. And we then had to go and solve the problem when he sacrificed half a million American Life in the process. We need to stop this stuff now before it gets to that stage. And thats why i have said these things are all connected. Because if you dont think the russians are happy this morning, then we are now distracted in israel, youre kidding yourself. Every minute we spent in our News Coverage and in our political discussion talking about israel, are moments that were not talking about ukraine. That makes it really easy for the russians to try to continue their aggression in ukraine. And you have some candidates in this race who say that we shouldnt be involved in ukraine and that, you know, putin is somewhat they can go and talk to and convince that he should move away from china and come with us. This is a bipartisan problem. Every president since george w. Bush has made the same mistake. Bush but he could talk to putin. He was wrong here obama thought he could talk to putin. He was wrong. Trump thought he could talk to putin. He was wrong. And biden in the beginning of his presidency thought he could talk to putin, and he was wro. Vladimir putin is a communist authoritarian dictator, former kgb agent. Hes not our type of people. And we need to give him the same treatment that he tries to get to the rest of the world. When you to make sure he understands that if the attacks one of our friends, we will act to help them and we will deter what hes trying to do. Because the last time we adored a shooting war in europe, hundreds of billions of dollars later and half a million american lives, we pushed back nazism. If you think that Vladimir Putin if we give them ukraine is going to stop there, he said the worst day in his life was when the soviet union was taken down. He wants to put the old band back together, everybody. And poland will be next. And if he goes into poland, they are a a native country, that s we are going, too. Lets let the ukrainians win this fight now so that we dont have to send american men and women to poland or to one of the baltic countries. And there should be no equivocation from anybody in this country might you do at where we stand with israel. The fact is they are the only democracy in the middle east. If we dont stand with israel, israel will not exist. And that will cause the multimers world that we dont want to begin to think about. So we have some people under own party who is whether kate about israel, some people in this race who equivocate about it, who criticize Prime Minister netanyahu, who carried off old grudges, in the context of the extermination thats going on over in the middle east. Thats not leadership. Its wrong. Its a sober time. There are dozens of other issues we could talk about and hope we do when i go to your questions, but i dont think that anybody who wants to be president of the United States in this week can talk about anything else when you come out here. Because in the end this is what happens when america doesnt lead. When america takes a step back, when america fills in the moat and pulls up the drawbridge. Its not like no one else will lead. Then the bad actors will. And all that does this make us spend more money to dig out of that hole and spend more american blood to dig out of that hole later. Lets not doo that. And last i just say, for any of you got any of you out there who have been watching all of this coverage, lets make sure we take some time over this weekend after a week of this to pray for the people over there and to pray for those hostages both the israelis and the americans who are still being held captive, that to get return to the families and their homes safe. Because every life is an individual gift from god. Every life is precious and we have to fight to make sure we protect those lives. And if im president you cat on the fact that we will. Without any doubt, without any equivocation, and not just with bluster, but with strong talk backed up by strong action. Thats what the American People have always responded to and thats what weveve got to get back to doing now. So im going to stop there and there is microphones out here and you raise your hand. By the way the questions can be on anything, not just what t just talked about. Ill answer questions about that but anything you want to talk about i want to talk to you. So yes, sir right there. Hes going to come up with a microphone behind you. Chinese and maybe even iranian money in our elections in the United States, including in New Hampshire. Look, we saw this happen in 2016 where the russians in particular were doing things in social media to try to influence our elections. And the fact is what we need to do is to make sure that everybody in this country is followingg the law, every person is following the law and letting Law Enforcement do the job that they need to do to catch the people who arery trying to do those things. Thats our first line outfits. Ifif at first light the defense doesnt work, were in trouble. And so we need to make sure that our Law Enforcement officers and Intelligence Officers are empowered to accept whats going on and to capture the people who are doing it. And so candidates can help by making sure that they follow the law,s to, and to encourage that kind of stuff because winning at any cost is not we should be doing. When within the law in this country and the system of justice is absolutely way we have to do it. Yes, right back there. Hes come with the microphone so people can hear you. You said that silence in the face of evil is complicity. President trump for four months attempted to overthrow an election. Are you okay with what republicans, your fellow republicans are saying about that . And so far you have not, you have referred to the are people who, there are people who got everyone in this room knows who the person is. Follow trumpet so go hit in six. This is a first time ive been accused in this race of that being tough enough on donald trump. So, so like if you livelong enough you will see everything, right . Com ihi think ive been very clear aboutee the fact that what President Trump did in the aftermath of the 2020 election was beneath the office that he was privileged to hold. That we are now nearly three years since then and he has a presenter shred of evidence to prove that election was stolen. And the recent he hasnt is because it wasnt. Of course it was. And i lovei everybody who saysf course it was but then comes forward with no evidence to prove that it was. And heres the thing. If youre wondering, if youre wondering where i stand, all you need to do is to have watched the first debate when people were asked flat out if he were a convicted felon would you support him for president of the United States . And everybody but me and Asa Hutchinson raised their hands. Seems to me that if adams and jefferson and franklin and hamilton and washington had known that someone would have the audacity to be under 91 counts the federal indictments of them possibly convicted as to offer themselves for the presidency, there wouldve added one close to the constitution about 35 years of age and a natural born american citizen, and not a convicted felon. We cant nominate no elect a convicted felon to be president of the United States and ive been pretty clear about all of that. [applause] yes, sir, in front. Thank you, governor. Im john mott. Im in New Hampshire businessman, and the one thing that myself and most businesses in your venture struggle with is finding enough people to employ. Its an ongoing problem. Matter of fact statistics say that there are 10 million open jobs in the United States, and there are six my people unemployed. So the math is easy. So for every unemployed person in the United States got a job today, he would still have 4 million jobs unfilled. If you were president how would youat combat the problem . You have to fix the immigration system because, well, because what you have to do with the immigration sysa few things. First, you have to secure the southern border. Because if you dont is going to be no one who is incentivized to come here legally if they could come here illegally. If they have to wait to come here legally, but if they dont have to wait to commit publicly why the hell are the waiting . That what you get where they are in come here. So first you to secure the southern border. I first as president i would sign an executive order to send National Guard to the border to partner with our cousins of public officers who are overwhelmed and understaffed. I would increase customs and Border Control officers by 10,000. And you know that the average number of apprehensions in the last 11 months, a month, r 200,000 a month. Do you know how many beds we have to detainn those people . 38,000. Like look, im a lawyer because he couldnt do math or science, like even i can do that math. Right . Thats not going to work so we need to double the beds of detention beds we have and we need to triple the number of Immigration Judges we have here because now if you capture somebody, it is four years before they get an asylum hearing. If you let someone out in this country for four years and expect to come back for hearing for years later i dont think thats going to have most of the time. When the run the risk of being taken out of the country. You need to do all those things, anded they needed to set up a meritbased system for people to come here legally. He talked about the 4 million net open jobs. When you to look at where are those jobs geographically and what expertise do people need to do that job. We have to go and say these of the people type of people with these type of skills and we want to come into the country. Because we are not going to grow this economy for a 5 which is what were going to need to do to try to growth and reduce our debt problem if we dont fill those jobs. And no president of the last four have been willing to step up and try to fix the immigration system along with talking tough on the border. And lets make Something Else clear, okay . We are less than the United States army over the border in mexico to kill people. Like, its not good happen. This of one of those things that get sent in the campaign that makes people feel good but will never happen. The same way i stood in the state ages agohe and heard that were going to build a big beautiful wall across the entire border of mexico and the United States, and the mexicans were going to pay for it. Well, 52 miles of new wall in four years of the trump administration, and not the first peso from the mexican government. So lets make sure people give you answers that can actually be done, and have the experience to show they know how to get it done rather than these wild things that people say that may make us feel good for a moment, but they are not going to happen. And we saw that eight years ago and thats why we still have an immigration problem today. In fact, joe biden has made it even worse than it was before, and so we need now to make sure that we do practical things that will solve that problem and provide businessmen and women in this country the workforce they need to be able to grow their businesses and make them bigger and stronger and more profitable. Think i could take two more. In the back young man. Hold on. Get the microphone. You know the drill. Iho do. So you just got booed for saying the 2020 election wasnt stolen. What does thats tell you about your party . Thank you. Well, it tells me that theres differences of opinion, and thats fine. We can have differences of opinion and im going to argue my side of the argument. Thats what this democracy was set up to do. So i dont any grudge against anybody who hasfe a different opinion than me even though they hold a grudge against me for having a different opinion. I find with you having a a different opinion about the 2020 election of what id like to do is not argue about it emotionally but arguing about it based on facts. Because everyone is entitled to his own opinion but theyre not entitled to their own set of facts. And i will tell you this, ive known donald trump for 22 years. Believe you me, if he had the evidence to prove the election was stolen, we wouldve seen it years ago. And he hasnt presentedas it because he doesnt have it. Now, in the end, in the end i doing is entitled to their own opinion and our party is always going to havepa differences, and we should. We should argue with each other but we should argue with each other towards a result, not just to keep arguing. Because a country is stalled and it in washington right now with our party in charge of the house, they cant even pick a speaker. Now that makes us look like the gang that cant shoot straight, everybody. And its going to make people wonder though whether they should continue to put us in charge. So we need to stop the petty arguing, and what we need to get to is a result. And thats what i did for eight years inha new jersey with a Democratic Legislature for every date of eight years. All right, sir, i can take your last question right there. The microphone is makinge its way. Y. Thank you for being here, governor. Is a godsend if you are in extreme pain but the components of fentanyl floating over the p southern border, who are the 350 people . Its killing every day . It is the people who would join our military in four or five people, in for five years. Make no mistake, china is preemptively killing our troops. The kinetic war with china has already started. Totally agree with you. Look, and this is another one of the naive type of positions are being put forward by, you know, of the folks in this race, whether it is ron desantis or donald trump. This proxy waris with china has only begun in at least two ways. One, the war in russia which they are funding. And in supporting both with ws and with money and exactly what you just said. The precursor chemicals for fentanyl come from china, sent to the drug cartels in mexico and vincent in this country to kill our people. And until we confront china about that in in a way that actually is effective and makes them understand theres a penalty to pay for committing an act of war on our country, then they wont stop. And all the talking in the world wont do it. We had our last three president s who all theyve, done is talk about it. I i tell you how good they are t it, accept the results showed that every year the deaths are going up, 110,000 americans die of overdoses in the past year. Its the number one killer for young men 1834. And you feel right here in New Hampshire and you know it. And what we need to do is to only put those National Guard at try to stop some of it and take actions against china to get them to stop sending it, w