Republicans have ‘got to be scared’: Chris Christie on upcoming midterms

[0:00] joined now by the round table in Washington our chief White House correspondent Mary Bruce former DNC chair Donna Brazil and former New Jersey [0:09] Governor Chris Christie. Good morning to all of you. And Mary let's start with you. You pressed President Trump this week on what the [0:18] plan was what the strategy is on how to end this war. We now know that he threatened a massive strike. New York Times reporting that backing [0:28] off. So what is the strategy? Yeah it's a good question because Martha right now there really doesn't seem to be a clear [0:34] strategy. As you mentioned there's that New York Times report that he's backing off plans for a massive strike. [0:39] This morning asked about that. The White House tells me that the president continues to retain all options. [0:45] They stress he's always preferred a diplomatic solution but of course so far talks have gone nowhere and yet the White [0:50] House this morning is still threatening a possible escalation telling me that if Iran doesn't come back and [0:56] negotiate a deal that they will they know what will happen. Look as you keep saying Martha I mean we are months [1:02] into a war that was supposed to last weeks. There is no clear off ramp that the attacks are dragging on. [1:08] And when I press the president given the fact that Iran doesn't seem to be giving in you know is the strategy [1:13] just to keep attacking until they somehow get Iran to back down. Well the president didn't really like that. [1:18] He pushed back pretty strongly against me and insisted that Iran desperately wants to talk. But again there are no signs of [1:26] that. And so without an off ramp I think you know the status quo seems likely to continue. These strikes will [1:31] continue and they are now widening. And of course as oil prices spike it just presents a huge political [1:37] problem for the president and Republicans especially as we barrel towards the midterms [1:41] Martha. Chris you know Donald Trump very well. He likes to win even though he said they won [1:46] this war. There are no signs right now that he is winning. Martha look there are no signs he's winning in Iran. [1:53] And the Iranians have learned as many of us in this country have learned that the bluster [1:59] is the bluster. How many times does he threaten to bomb them into civil out of civilization bomb every [2:05] power plant bomb every bridge and then he inevitably backs off. He thinks that this is a real estate deal [2:11] that if he blusters about someone else is looking at this property and you have to offer right now that somehow [2:17] they're going to do it. That doesn't work in international diplomacy is certain doesn't work with the [2:22] Iranians. And I'll say this Martha the problem for the president and for my party right now is that the show is [2:29] over. He can no longer distract from bad decisions with his charisma and his speaking. The best example of that the two [2:38] speeches in the last week. The speech on election integrity and the speech on Friday night at the correspondence dinner. No one is paying [2:46] attention anymore. They are bored with the act at times on Friday night. It seemed like he was even bored with the act and the [2:53] Iranians notice all of this Martha and they're not going to take him seriously. And that has got to be incredibly frustrating to a [2:59] president who all he cares about is that people take him seriously. And I want to go to you on this. I have a feeling you agree with [3:08] some of that. But I want to talk about the budget request on Capitol Hill. Sixty seven billion dollars. The [3:13] Democrats push back and push back hard. But you heard what had said said. Look this just shows you don't support the [3:21] troops. That is some of the troops rather. That's something they're going to hear again and again. Well Martha as you all know the [3:29] Democrats do support our service members both who have been wounded and of course the 18 service members have been killed. We also need to hear [3:39] from the Department of Veteran Affairs so that we can support those troops once they're back home. The bottom line is without a [3:46] strategy without an off ramp and with the negotiators probably somewhere between Mar-a-Lago and Switzerland we need to [3:53] understand what is the next step. We haven't heard of any escalation over the last 48 hours. Somehow or another the strikes [4:00] have stopped. But will the team get back together to put together the memorandum of understanding so that there can be a real [4:07] ceasefire and negotiations can continue to end this war. Mary I want to talk about that Saudi deal you heard me [4:15] talking about that earlier. But how did that happen that that was signed and then oh wait a minute it's not [4:21] actually as we told you it was. Yeah it's pretty astounding. I mean Energy Secretary Chris Wright and his [4:27] Saudi counterparts signed this deal this civilian nuclear agreement. And then of course just 24 hours [4:33] later after the president announced this he puts in place this new condition that really puts the entire deal at [4:40] jeopardy now insisting that Saudi Arabia has to join the Abraham of cords accord. Of course that would require [4:47] them to normalize relations with Israel something that they've said won't happen unless Israel agrees to a [4:52] Palestinian state. So it is highly unlikely to see how this is going to go forward. Certainly the president can put the [4:59] brakes on it now as he goes back and forth with the Saudis about this condition. But the White [5:05] House after the deal was announced and signed made it very clear that unless they join the Abraham [5:10] Accords there will be no deal Martha. Chris I want to turn back to the midterms. A lot can happen in 100 [5:18] days. But this escalation has meant a hit on the economy again. The White House Republicans truly have to be [5:28] worried about what happens. That is all the people care about. They don't like the way this war is being [5:34] handled and they don't like what's happening to the economy. So what do Republicans do. Well Martha look [5:40] Republicans my party has got to be scared and especially some very good members of Congress who otherwise might [5:47] deserve reelection are weighed down by the following. Look at the numbers in the Fox News poll last week. The [5:53] president's job approval is at 38 61. But worse he's 34 points underwater on the economy 32 points underwater on [6:02] Iran. And the bigger problem in these swing districts for the House and the swing states in the Senate is [6:08] what's going on with independence. The president's job approval is 41 points underwater with [6:14] independence and he's 66 points underwater on inflation with independence. Those are deadly numbers. And [6:23] so you know for Republicans they're going to have to start making a decision. Do they try to distance [6:28] themselves from this president. And this is going to be the first time he's going to have to confront [6:32] that potentially. Either they're going to go down with him as he's going down. And these are Fox News [6:37] poll numbers. So you know we we got some real problems as a party and it's going to affect us with [6:43] Republican governors this past week. And there's a lot of Republican gubernatorial races that we are very [6:49] very worried about in states that we have always won. And that's a real problem. [6:54] And Donna let's talk about the Senate particularly Maine. We've also got Michigan. Graham Plattner [7:01] replaced. He was a prominent Troy Jackson was a prominent Plattner supporter. But he also came in [7:06] third place in Maine's gubernatorial primary. So how confident are you that Troy Jackson could beat [7:14] Susan Collins. I'm very confident. Look he's a logger. He's he's somebody who has been around the [7:20] state of Maine for a long time. I believe he can put together the electoral coalition that will win in [7:25] the state of Maine. He knows that state very well. He knows how to connect with working people. And I think [7:31] Mr. Jackson is going to approve to be a very competitive candidate. I know he has 100 days but the people of Maine [7:38] are very motivated. And you saw that in the convention. In terms of Michigan their primary is coming up next week. [7:44] I mean on August 4th. That is also a very competitive state. You have a mainstream Democrat running against [7:51] an insurgent or what we like to call a very energetic candidate from the left. That's going to also [7:58] be a state that we need to win. But Democrats also have another path. We've got Alaska that's still in [8:04] place. Iowa that's still in place. And if we keep Georgia and we can improve in North Carolina Democrats are still [8:10] competitive in the United States Senate as well as the House. The Democrats have a great deal of momentum [8:16] right now. We've won 90 percent of the races since Trump been in office. I'm confident that we can take [8:22] back to Congress. Martha let me just say and remind and remind my friend Donna that the road is [8:29] littered with the people who are going to beat Susan Collins. And so I would I would feel very nervous about [8:35] Maine with 100 days and an unproven statewide candidate against one of the most able political actors this town has seen over [8:44] the last 30 years. And Mary I want to go to you about Mikey Cheryl. Chris is state's governor. She announced that about [8:53] 6600 non-citizens were mistakenly registered to vote because of a technical error a few years ago. They didn't try to pretend they were [9:03] citizens but she said less than 400 actually voted and there's no evidence of them swaying elections. But this [9:10] becomes a PR nightmare and a really strong narrative going forward about election security. [9:16] Yeah. And the president no surprise was very quick to pounce on this saying that it just underscores his [9:21] desire to pass the Save America Act that voting legislation that he's been pushing that would require voter [9:28] ID and proof of citizenship. And Governor Cheryl you know tried to come out and be as transparent as she could about this. [9:33] She said when they find problems they fix them. But you know she said it was this computer error that when over 6000 [9:40] people went to sign up to get a driver's license that they were erroneously also signed up and registered to vote. Now she said [9:50] and stressed that while about 400 of them did go on to actually vote that there's no evidence that any of those votes were [9:57] able to sway elections. But certainly the president believes that this adds fuel to his fire as he's been [10:04] amping up those unproven claims of widespread voter fraud. Martha let me give you one thing. The governor has [10:09] appointed my former attorney general very independent Jeff Chiesa to do a bipartisan investigation. Look for [10:16] that because he will not hide anything from the public. You can count on it. Good. Okay. Thanks to all of you. [10:23] Appreciate your time.