Chris Christie is pitching his accomplishments as a Republican governor working with a Democratic legislature as what makes him “combat-ready for Washington.”
Christie, the outspoken New Jersey governor, hasn’t announced whether he’ll enter the GOP’s presidential race. But he claims his time leading a blue state separates him from the rest of the field, including former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush.
“One of the things that makes me different is I think I’m combat-ready for Washington,” he said in an interview Sunday on ABC’s “This Week.”
“And you need to be in order to know how to work with people, how to bring people together. I’ve done that in New Jersey in a way that lets me get 61% of the vote for re-election,” he said.
“The fact is that people know I know how to bring folks together and how to fight when I need to,” Christie said. “And I think sometimes with folks who are in red states, they don’t have as much experience with that.”
In the interview, Christie took a shot at Hillary Clinton, the Democratic frontrunner, saying she sounded like firebrand liberal Sen. Elizabeth Warren during her campaign’s first rally on Saturday.
And he defended his proposals to overhaul entitlement programs, saying that the alternatives are “insolvency or a massive tax increase on the American people.”
Christie also said he’ll make a decision on whether to run for president during the month of June, and announce it quickly afterward.
“I’m no wallflower,” he said. “I’ll let folks know what I’m going to be.”
