The audio:

11-19hhs-christie

The transcript:

HH: Governor Christie, welcome, it’s good to have you.

CC: Hugh, good to be back.

HH: You know, I got you in hot water because I did a gotcha question. I didn’t mean to do a gotcha question, but the President went to town on it. And I’m sorry about that.

CC: Well, you’re on probation now, Hugh.

HH: (laughing)

CC: (laughing)

HH: Let me play for you…

CC: I’m a big boy. I’m a big boy, I’m running for president, don’t you worry. Ask me whatever you like.

HH: Okay. Let me play for you the President teeing off on everyone, not just you, but everyone. Here’s the President in the Philippines yesterday.

BO: These are the same folks often times who suggest that they’re so tough that just talking to Putin or staring down ISIL or using some additional rhetoric somehow is going to solve the problems out there. But apparently, they’re scared of widows and orphans coming into the United States of America as part of our tradition of compassion. Now first, they were worried about the press being too tough on them during debates. Now, they’re worried about three year old orphans. That doesn’t sound very tough to me. They’ve been playing on fear in order to try to score political points, or to advance their campaigns. And it’s irresponsible. And it’s contrary to who we are. And it needs to stop, because the world is watching.

HH: Governor Christie, your colleague, John Kasich, was genuinely ticked off when I played that for him. What’s your reaction?

CC: Well, listen, the widows and orphans that I’m concerned about are the ones that were created after September 11th by a terrorist attack. And as president of the United States, I want to make sure there’s not another generation of those. The President seems less concerned about those folks by letting Syrian refugees in who his own FBI director said cannot be safely vetted. His own FBI director said this. Now once again, Hugh, this is a president who lives in the world he wished existed. I live in the world that does exist. And what the American people are truly tired of is a weak and feckless president. What they’re truly tired of, really tired of is America being walked on around the world. And America knows the world is watching, and we are embarrassed. We’re embarrassed by the conduct of this president, and we’re embarrassed by the way he’s positioned American foreign policy. And we’re embarrassed by his second mate in foreign policy, Hillary Clinton, who gave a ridiculous, you know, absolutely a speech today that had absolutely no substance to it at all.

HH: In fact, I want to turn to that. CNN is reporting about the details of her speech in which she calls for more air strikes and more flexibility for U.S. Special Operators. I quote now from CNN. “But Clinton did not detail her plans if regional powers fail to supply more troops and arms for the fight, and left herself leeway on how many American troops she would support sending.” It was a nothing thing, Chris Christie.

CC: It was, Hugh, and let’s remember something, this is the woman who supported and effectuated the withdrawal of all the troops out of Iraq. She was the woman who supported the President on the red line. She’s the woman who pushed the reset button with Russia. She’s the woman who, you know, supported the NSA nonsense that we did this past year by tying our hands behind our back on that. She’s the person that supported the Iran deal. So this is a person we’re going to give a promotion to? I mean, it’s outrageous. She said nothing new today. She gave it a different tone, but she sounds no different in substance than her socialist opponent.

HH: I’ve got to ask you, Governor, whenever Russia reset comes up, she says well, we were working with Medvedev, then, and then Putin came in and he ruined it. That’s absolute nonsense. It relies upon the historical illiteracy. And if she really believed that Medvedev was running the country, then she’s a fool.

CC: Total nonsense. And by the way, now she’s for some type of like surge in Iraq, and she’s claiming that that created stability in Iraq, when she opposed the surge in 2007-2008, and mocked President George W. Bush for doing it. Now she’s trying to say that was a good thing? This woman changes positions so frequently that you know, she makes you dizzy. And the fact is that that’s not the way you can operate American foreign policy. But that’s the way it has been operated by this administration with her leadership. And so you know, whatever she said today, you can be guaranteed if it becomes inconvenient two months from now, she’ll change again.

HH: Governor Christie, there is a divide developing in the Republican field about whether or not we ought to heed President Hollande’s urging that we ally ourselves with Russia. What do you think of that?

CC: I can’t, I cannot see us allying ourselves with Russia, Hugh. They have different priorities than we do. They want to set up a client state in Syria, along with Iran, under the tutelage of Assad. How can we align ourselves with them? They’re not interested in fighting ISIS. If they were interested in fighting ISIS, where is their response to ISIS’ attack on their jetliner? I’m still waiting. Their priority in Syria, Hugh, is to set up a client state that gives them a foothold in the Middle East again, which they haven’t had for 40 years under Republican and Democratic presidents until this weakling in the Oval Office and his incompetent Secretaries of State.

HH: One last quick question, rules of engagement. We gave the French a target list, which suggests we’ve been holding back. What will Chris Christie’s rules of engagement be vis-à-vis air strikes on ISIS?

CC: You know, the rules of engagement will be to follow the generals’ advice on how we destroy the opponents. That’s what the rules of engagement will be. And I won’t be sitting and picking out the targets in the Situation Room. I’ll let my generals do that, and tell, but their mission will be clear – to destroy ISIS. And what they need is what they will get.

HH: Governor Chris Christie, always good, thank you for coming back this week, and I appreciate the probation. I’ll get off of it soon.

End of interview.