Christie getting help from Trump, who he once called a carnival barker and an “entertainer-in-chief”

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) said on Wednesday that he is happy that Donald Trump won’t participate in the Thursday debate hosted by Fox News, but that the real estate mogul’s boycott is ultimately a ‘mistake.’ I think it just makes people call into question his judgment,’ Christie said on Boston Herald Radio’s ‘Morning Meeting.’ ‘I got knocked down from the main debate stage to the undercard debate by Fox Business News. I thought it was unfair, but I didn’t whine. I didn’t complain.’ ‘America wants a fighter who’s not going to walk away from a fight, but will walk into one,’ Christie added. […] The governor said that Trump’s move could make voters wonder, ‘How thin-skinned is he that he can’t take any criticism, and how will that affect his ability to be the president?’ ‘I think that Donald Trump is making a big mistake,’ Christie said. ‘I think any time you get a podium and a microphone and 15 to 20 million people watching in an election campaign, you should take it.’

The guy who’s leading in the polls here isn’t even gonna show up for your debate tomorrow night. […] What’s that tell you about what we can expect if things go sideways when you go into the Oval Office? What are you going to do? Just go upstairs to the residence and say I’m not playing? You know, Vladimir Putin isn’t being nice to me, I’m not going to return his phone call? The press isn’t being nice to me, I’m not going to hold any more press conferences? I mean basically this is like, this is like a 13-year old argument. I mean I can’t tell you how many times I would say to my mother growing up, ‘It’s not fair.’

SEAN HANNITY: “What do you think this shows, then? What are you saying it shows about him?” CHRIS CHRISTIE: “Well I think it shows that when he gets, when he gets criticized, he can’t take it and I think that’s a shame and I don’t think as president you’re gonna be able to deal with it that way. I mean there’s no other conclusion to come to, why elese would he do this? Why is he picking on Megyn Kelly? I mean, I don’t under–why’s he picking on Fox News? I don’t understand that. It makes no sense.”

CHRIS CHRISTIE: “And he phones in to every darn show. None of the rest of us do that. He sits in his jammies in Trump Tower and phones in. You guys don’t let any of the rest of us do that. […]The fact is that I’m not picking on him. It’s the truth.”

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) said Thursday that GOP presidential rival Donald Trump doesn’t have the right mindset to be president. ‘Donald’s a great guy and a good person. But I just don’t think that he’s suited to be president of the United States,’ he told Fox News host Greta Van Susteren as they walked along the Jersey Shore. He added: ‘I don’t think his temperament is suited for that and I don’t think his experience is.’

For Christie himself, the aggression in recent days has been directed at Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton and leading GOP candidate Donald Trump. ‘A crisis for Donald is when his favorite restaurant on the Upper East Side isn’t open,’ Christie said.

’I can’t imagine that man as president of the United States,’ responded Swanson, referring to Trump, ‘with all the outrageous things that he has come up with. It’s just unbelievable.’ ‘Yeah, you’re feeling my pain right now,’ Christie said. The crowd broke into laughter.

CHRISTIE: “Donald will take himself down over time, with some of the stuff that he says. And we all see that. You know. If he really does think he can shoot someone on Fifth Avenue and still keep voters, I think that’s a little bit too much for most voters in the United States.”

Gov. Chris Christie came out swinging Monday against Donald Trump, describing him as a one of the ‘carnival barkers of today’ and declaring ‘showtime is over.’ Christie, speaking at New Hampshire’s St. Anselm College, never mentioned Trump by name, but it was clear he was referencing the billionaire GOP front-runner. The tough-talking New Jersey governor told his audience that while the nation lives in ‘dangerous, perilous times,’ he hit Trump by suggesting the current crises ‘demand a grown-up.’

Gov. Chris Christie came out swinging Monday against Donald Trump, describing him as a one of the ‘carnival barkers of today’ and declaring ‘showtime is over.’ Christie, speaking at New Hampshire’s St. Anselm College, never mentioned Trump by name, but it was clear he was referencing the billionaire GOP front-runner. The tough-talking New Jersey governor told his audience that while the nation lives in ‘dangerous, perilous times,’ he hit Trump by suggesting the current crises ‘demand a grown-up.’ ‘Showtime is over. We are not electing an entertainer-in-chief. Showmanship is fun, but it is not the kind of leadership that will truly change America.’

And so, when Donald comes in and the way Donald speaks, and he says ‘Everyone in Washington’s a loser. I’m a winner, I’ll win in Washington, everyone else is a loser.’ People go, ‘Yeah, yeah, he’s got something there, everyone’s in Washington’s a loser. He’s rich, maybe that makes him a winner. OK!’ I don’t think everyone’s thought about it in great depth yet. […] That sentiment is a good sentiment, but anybody can burn a building down. Not everyone can rebuild it. And you have to have the experience to know how to do that. […] ‘I said ‘Donald, you don’t want this job. This does not play to your skillset.’ I said, ‘You know, if the Speaker of the House does not post one of your bills, you can’t fire him. It’s just not the way it works man. ‘I want this. No. You’re fired.’

Gallagher: ‘It’s great having you on the program, how are you sir?’ Chris Christie: ‘I’m doing great today, Mike. Thanks for taking the time to have me on the program.’ Gallagher: ‘Oh it’s my pleasure. My running joke with all of the candidates is “how much would you love it if we stop asking you about Donald Trump, huh?”‘ Christie: [Chuckles] ‘I don’t answer it anymore. That’s my position. I don’t comment on his comments. It’s just not worth the time.’

Gov. Chris Christie on Monday said Donald Trump’s call for a ‘total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States’ in the wake of the San Bernardino terror attack is ‘ridiculous,’ deriding it as ‘the kind of thing that people say when they have no experience and don’t know what they’re talking about.’

MICHAEL MEDVED: “Meanwhile, Mr. Trump has just made a controversial call, at least it’s being reported, to halt all Muslim immigration. Your reaction, Governor Christie?” CHRIS CHRISTIE: “Again, this is the kind of thing that people say when they have no experience and don’t know what they’re talking about. We do not need to endorse that type of activity, nor should we. What we need to do is to increase our intelligence capabilities and activity both around the world and in the homeland. We need to back up our law enforcement officers, who are out there fighting this everyday, give them the tools they need. We need to cooperate with peaceful Muslim-Americans, who want to give us intelligence against those who are radicalized. We did this after 9/11. And it was a very impressive approach. I can tell you in New Jersey that we frequently had sources inside mosques in New Jersey that were giving us information that helped us to bring cases and intervene on things that we otherwise wouldn’t have know about. This is just to me someone speaking from no experience.”

MEDVED: “You’ve also had experience in the court system. Don’t you think it’s likely that would be overturned as a violation of the First Amendment – prohibitions on religious tests?” CHRIS CHRISTIE: “There’s no question in my mind, but there are folks in this race who don’t care about what the law says because they’re used to being able to just fire people indiscriminately on television. So, they don’t have to worry about laws say or not say. The fact is this, you can do this if you have a president who’s experienced, who’s prosecuted folks, operated under the law of the Constitution and has made the difficult decisions over the last thirteen years to keep New Jersey safe to help keep our country safe. And you do not need to be banning Muslims from the country. That’s, in my view, that’s a ridiculous position and one that won’t even be productive.”

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) on Monday gave a stronger rebuttal to Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump’s claims that Muslims Americans were cheering the attacks on 9/11, saying ‘that didn’t happen.’ Asked about Trump’s repeated claims that Muslim citizens in New Jersey celebrated the terror attacks, Christie told an ABC News reporter that ‘it didn’t happen.’ The clarification comes a week after the governor said he didn’t ‘recall’ Muslims cheering, in part because he was concerned about family and friends who were close to the attacks. ‘I said I didn’t remember it, that was the way I put it that day,’ Christie told the ABC News reporter. ‘It wasn’t me trying to hedge anything, it was me telling the truth. I don’t remember it happening…And if it had happened, I’m pretty sure I’d remember it.’ ‘That did not happen in New Jersey that day and hasn’t happened since,’ he concluded.

CAMEROTA: “Let’s just put up a couple of bullet points here. He’s going to make Mexico pay for the border wall, as you’ve heard. He’s going to deport all criminal aliens, as he’s said. Defund sanctuary cities, end birthright citizenship. You’ve spoken about that too. Do you like that plan — that part of the plan?” CHRISTIE: “You know, listen, I think it’s got to be something that’s discussed, but I don’t think that’s the first thing we should be worried about. We talked about four different ways you have to secure the border. Walling and fencing in certain places, not the entire border. Doesn’t make any sense.” CAMEROTA: “And how are you going to pay for that?” CHRISTIE: “Well, the United States will pay for it. This makes no sense. I’ve met President Pena Nieto a number of times. I don’t think if we present him with a bill, he’s going to pay for it. And this is not negotiation of a real estate deal, OK. This is international diplomacy and it’s different. And it’s different.”

During the town hall in Derry, Christie suggested that one of his potential tacks against Trump is the businessman’s lack of political experience. He questioned whether Trump could get things done in government, especially his major proposals like a wall along the U.S.-Mexican border. ‘I tell everybody who goes to a Donald Trump event, if you get to ask a question, just ask him ‘how?’ ‘ Christie said. ‘I don’t care which of the things he talks about just ask him, ‘How? How?’ ‘ The governor also said, ‘I can answer ‘how?’ because I’ve done it.’ He looped in other Republican opponents by saying ‘that’s the difference between a governor and Donald Trump. That’s the difference between a governor and (senator) Marco Rubio. That’s the difference between a governor and (senator) Ted Cruz.’

New Jersey governor Chris Christie, who often talks about his re-election margins with Latino voters, called Trump’s comments ‘wholly inappropriate’ during a news conference.

STEPHANOPOULOS: “So how do you push them out?” CHRISTIE: “Oh, listen, you should be – first, they should never be. But now that he’s there, America’s got to re-establish its presence in that area. We should be the ones leading the fight on ISIS. And by the way, we know Putin’s not fighting ISIS. Putin’s there to prop up Assad. After he told him –” STEPHANOPOULOS: “Would you put in a no-fly zone?” CHRISTIE: “Absolutely. And I’ll tell you this, there’s now 300,000 nearly dead in Syria because of Assad and now Putin is going in and teaming with the Iranians to prop up Assad. Only Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton could mess up this foreign policy that badly. And anybody who agrees with allowing the Russians into the Middle East is just painfully naive.”

GANGEL: “His latest controversy is that he is mocking a New York Times reporter with a physical disability. He now claims that he didn’t know that the reporter had a physical disability but if you watch the video. It’s pretty hard.” CHRISTIE: “I saw the video.” GANGEL: “Do you think he knew what he was doing?” CHRISTIE: “It appears that way but, you know, he’s got to answer for himself. Like — I mean, I think part of the folly of all this is that we’re answering for him. He said what he said. Now the people who vote will judge him. You shouldn’t be making fun of people’s disabilities, it’s just not worthy of someone running for president of the United States.”