Part of the reason why outsiders like Donald Trump, Ben Carson, and Carly Fiorina (and, to a lesser extent, Ted Cruz, who is hated by the D.C. elite) have been resonating with voters is because they’re so disappointed with Republicans in Washington, D.C. They elected Republicans to majorities in Congress in 2010 and 2014, but not much has happened. Obamacare has not changed, spending has not really changed, nothing has really changed. Rather than the dozens of show votes to repeal Obamacare, Republican leaders should have been sending a bill to repeal Obamacare to President Obama’s desk every week and forcing him to defend his awful legislation. They haven’t done that.
Well, Chris Christie thinks they should take that approach with Obamacare and Planned Parenthood, and he’s spot on. You can watch or read what he said in his interview with Chris Wallace below (relevant portion starts at 8:25):
WALLACE: All right. Hillary Clinton went after Republicans again this week for what she calls so the-called “war on women”. Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CLINTON: Extreme views about women — we expect that from some of the terrorists groups. We expect that from people who don’t want to live in the modern world. But it’s a little hard to take coming from Republicans who want to be the president of the United States.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WALLACE: Now, she didn’t mention you by name, but you are one of the Republican candidates who want to defund — and in fact, in the state of New Jersey, you have defunded Planned Parenthood. What do you think of that comparison?
CHRISTIE: Well, there’s a uniter, isn’t it? Comparing Republicans to terrorist groups. There’s a real uniter. That’s the woman you want sitting in the Oval Office to bring our country back together. That’s a disgrace and she’s a disgrace. The fact is this —
WALLACE: Wait, Hillary Clinton is a disgrace?
CHRISTIE: She’s a disgrace for saying that, for comparing Republicans to terrorist groups — don’t let her go on that, Chris, that’s awful.
WALLACE: That was nowhere near —
(CROSSTALK)
CHRISTIE: That’s a disgrace. It is a disgrace. Can you imagine if we compared the Democratic Party to terrorist groups? Can you imagine the outrage in the mainstream media for that? Yet, she stood up and said that Republicans are like terrorist groups. Well, here’s what I don’t think mainstream America’s for, I don’t think mainstream America is for an organization getting federal funding, who kills children in the womb, in a particular way, so that it maximizes the value of their body parts on the open market for sale for profit. Now, if Mrs. Clinton thinks that’s what mainstream America likes, I’m happy to have the debate with her. But, of course, she won’t even answer those questions because she doesn’t even want to talk about what’s really going on at Planned Parenthood. She just wants to talk about these vague generalities about war on women. But I’m not going to be someone who’s going to stand up and allow her to call my party “terrorists”, because we’re not.
WALLACE: OK —
CHRISTIE: And I say one other thing — I can’t wait, I can’t wait until next September to get on stage with Hillary Clinton as the Republican nominee, and the people know, there will be no one better to prosecute the case for an optimistic, hopeful, better America, and against a kind of garbage than I would be against Hillary Clinton.
WALLACE: Well, let’s talk about a question for this September, and that is that there’s going to be a fight in that building behind me about the budget. And some people are saying, as part of the budget, we’re going to demand Republicans, we’re going to demand defunding Planned Parenthood. Would you be willing to shut down the government over the fight over whether or not to defund Planned Parenthood?
CHRISTIE: See, Chris, here’s the difference between Washington, D.C. and being a governor — I got done. I don’t have to argue about what whether they shut down the government or not. In New Jersey, six years ago, I defunded Planned Parenthood. And I made it stick. We viewed it eight different times in New Jersey, and we’ve made that veto stick each and every time, despite veto override attempts. That’s what an effective executive does and an effective leader does.
WALLACE: OK. But here, you’ve got a Democratic executive who would veto if Congress were somehow to pass a budget that defunded Planned Parenthood.
CHRISTIE: Well, you know what? Maybe we should test the president, because in the end, we haven’t done anything yet in Congress to test him. I think we should be putting it on his desk. I think we should be passing repeal and replacement of ObamaCare and putting it on his desk. Let the United States people see, let us see who the real obstructionist is in Washington, D.C. We elected a Republican Senate and a Republican House to get things done. Let them put those things on the president’s desk and let the president show the American people that he doesn’t want to run the government. See, I think Republicans to want run the government, and in New Jersey, we have not had one government shutdown in six years, despite having a completely Democratic legislature. That didn’t happen by accident, Chris. That’s real, strong leadership and that’s what we should do.
Thomas Valentine is a researcher for APIA and a junior at the Franciscan University of Steubenville.
