The former New Jersey Governor visited Keene State College following the fourth Republican Presidential Debate in Alabama.
Christie spent his time in the flag room of the student center on Thursday, Dec. 7 reflecting on the previous night’s debate, Donald Trump’s indictments and answering questions from students and the Keene community who attended.
“If he’s [Trump] the nominee for the Republican party, he won’t be able to vote for himself,” Christie said on Trump after saying how he will be convicted in the spring.
He explained that after making comments about Trump’s case in Alabama, he was booed.
“When people boo when you say that they are like a human form of the ostrich, they just want to bury their head in the sand and pretend it’s not true, pretend it’s not real, but it is,” Christie said.
He added how the other candidates treat him like “Voldemort” and are scared to mention his name.
One student asked about how Christie plans to “tackle” the border. Christie replied by criticizing Ron Deantis’ answer from the Alabama debate. Christie said it was a “stupid solution to a complicated problem.”
Additionally, Christie mentioned he had a five-step plan. First, he would send the National Guard to the border to help control it and hire 10,000 new customs and border patrol officers. Next, he said he would double the number of beds in the detainment centers, as the number of beds was not sufficient for the number of people coming across the border. Christie said he wants to reduce the amount of time it takes to get a hearing to a year for those claiming asylum by tripling the amount of immigration justices. Lastly, he mentioned how they need to change the immigration laws as they are “illogical.” Another student asked a question about student loans, as they were concerned with the rising debt.
While not in support of broad student loan forgiveness, Christie said he was more interested in selective forgiveness. He would attempt to cancel loans for professions like doctors, teachers and psychologists after a certain period to incentivize people to go into fields that need workers.
“If you’re willing to go into an area where we have a real need as a country, the country should reward you for that,” Christie said.
After another question was asked about the cost of medical care and insurance, Christie responded with the root cause of the problem being the cost of prescription drug prices. He said most illnesses are now treated with prescription drugs. His plan to solve the problem would be to get rid of what he called “the middle man” The middlemen are the pharmacy benefit managers who manage the situations and take two thirds of the money from the rebates the pharmaceutical companies provide. He said the practice makes billions a year and it was a lucrative business because the insurance companies bought them out.
To make insurance more affordable, he said he would get rid of state-bystate mandates on health insurance to let the companies compete with each other more. Additionally, he would require insurance companies to cover the cost of mental health and addiction services. “We are not going to fix the drug problem in this country by throwing addicts in jail,” Christie said.
Outside the flag room windows were protesters from the Monadnock Autonomous Student Union (MASU) holding signs that read “Free Palestine” and “My uterus is private property.” Christie acknowledged the signs at the beginning of his visit, going down the line agreeing with some and disagreeing with others.
One member of the MASU, who declined to share their name and preferred to go by “Jeff,” said they are protesting Christie because, as a “standard Republican,” he supports “horrendous policies and pretty terrible views.”
“A platform for harmful actions and harmful beliefs that target specific communities on campus,” Jeff said. Junior Jacob Favolise, who is an alternate delegate to the Republican National Convention for Christie, in part, helped organize the event at Keene State. He said he supported Christie because he tells the truth.
“He’s the candidate that both the Republican party needs to turn its own future and fortunes around, but also the country needs to bring people together to start doing what the governor [Christie] talks about doing big things again,” Favolise said.
He said Christie’s message of unity and truth really matters and is refreshing and he further supports Christie because he is the only candidate on the right that talks about the “dangers” of Trump.
Additionally, he said Christie got a lot done in New Jersey, a historically blue state. He said it was proven he can work across party lines to pass his agenda. The N.H. Primary is set for Jan. 23, 2024.
Tim Bruns can be contacted at
tbruns@kscequinox.com
