In an interview with 'FOX & Friends' on Tuesday, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) encouraged former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz to run for president as an independent.



"God Bless Howard Schultz. Run, Howard, run. Run, Howard, run," Christie said.



"Listen, you look at this group - let’s face it. Here’s the thing, you can’t look at that group and pick out who the winner’s going to be," he said of the Democratic presidential field. "You just can’t. And I remember being with our group in 2016 with 17, 17 people. At this time three years ago people were saying - Jeb Bush was the frontrunner. So nobody can really tell what’s going to happen when these guys."











"I always say all the time with presidential campaigns, when the lights go on, they’re so bright you either shine or you melt and we’re going to see a whole bunch of these people who think they’re going to be president, melt really quickly," he said.



Christie also said he is not challenging President Trump in 2020.



"I said never say never to running for president someday," he said. "I'm not challenging the president in 2020. I'm a friend of the president. I'm a supporter of the president. I fully expect the president is going to be our nominee and with Howard Schultz in the race he will have an absolutely smashing victory over whoever the Democrat is."



Watch the full interview:



