New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie on Tuesday said undecided voters are coming to him in the wake of Saturday’s GOP presidential debate, and that he can hold his own with Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida when it comes to foreign policy.
“Undecided voters come up to me and say, ’The debate made up my mind,’ ” Mr. Christie said on NBC’s “Today” program. “And so I think it makes a big difference — 13 and a half million people watched. I think it makes a big difference.”
“I enjoyed making sure people understood that I’m ready to be president and Senator Rubio is not,” he said. “I’m ready to beat Hillary Clinton and he’s not.”
During the debate, Mr. Christie hit Mr. Rubio for appearing overly scripted, and Mr. Rubio repeated similar lines about how President Obama knows what he’s doing in the president’s quest to reshape America.
Mr. Rubio, who sits on the Senate Foreign Relations and Intelligence committees, said on ABC’s “Good Morning America” that he has more foreign policy experience than any Republican candidate.
“Totally unfair characterization,” Mr. Christie said. “He’s never had to make a decision about anything.”
“I’ve read just as many briefings as Marco Rubio, and that’s his only experience,” he said. “His experience is reading briefings prepared for him by Senate staffers. I’m a governor who’s making decisions on the ground every day, and I’ve spent a lot of time in the last two years learning the foreign policy business and talking to some of the smartest people in the world who advise me.”
“So no, I don’t think there’s any difference between us,” he said. “There’s no difference until you get in the chair. And then you get some real difference.”
• David Sherfinski can be reached at dsherfinski@washingtontimes.com.
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