With his time as Governor of New Jersey officially coming to an end this month, Chris Christie gave an exit interview to NJ Advance Media. And among the many assertions and claims he made was this — he honestly believes he’d be president today of Donald Trump didn’t get into the 2016 race.

Christie, whose job approval rating in New Jersey dropped into the teens last summer, described his GOP presidential primary run as “incredibly exciting” but that it was “ultimately frustrating” because voters he and his wife met said they loved him but were voting for Trump.

Thus, the way Christie sees it, that means that he would’ve won if it wasn’t for Trump.

Via NJ Advance Media:

“It’s incredibly frustrating to think to yourself, ‘Wow, if this guy were not in the race, we’d win this thing,'” Christie said, reflecting on some internal polling from the campaign. “And I absolutely believe if Trump had not gotten into the race I think we would have won.”

He also said that when Trump took jabs at him on the campaign trail by bringing up Bridgegate, he called Trump up personally to tell him to cut it out.

During the GOP primary, he placed 10th in the Iowa caucus and 6th in the New Hampshire primary, suspending his campaign a day after the NH primary. He would then go on to endorse Trump.

[image via screengrab]

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