Chris Christie in Dover: "I want to be pinned down" (videos)

By Paul Briand

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie held a Town Meeting forum in Dover on Friday evening, covering a variety of topics from health care to Common Core, and addressing the Bridgegate issue that threatens his possible run for president in 2016.

Christie told the crowd he appreciates the Town Meetings that have become a fixture of the first-in-the-nation presidential primary in the Granite State. “I’m incredibly impressed with the quality of the engagement,” he said.

And he isn’t afraid to get specific about issues. “I want to be pinned down,” he said about the specific plan he has realized relative to Social Security and Medicare reform, and policy statements he said will come in future N.H. visits on taxes and health care.

The Bridgegate scandal resulted in the recent indictment of three individuals.

“I didn’t know,” said Christie about actions as political retribution to create a huge traffic jam in the Ft. Lee, N.J., approach to the George Washington Bridge into New York City in September 2013. “And the reason you should believe I didn’t know is because it was so monumentally stupid. People have called me a lot of different things over time – stupid has never been one of them.”

Here is what he said:

The details on his Social Security and Medicare overhaul are here. Here’s what he said about them in Dover:

He was asked what distinguishes him from the other 19 Republicans who have announced their intentions to run for president or are seriously thinking about it. Here is his answer:

Here were his thoughts on a couple of other issues:

On Common Core – “Anything that takes education away from local school districts is something to be really concerned about,” he said. He said a problem with Common Core is that no one is buys into it, not teachers, not students, not parents.

On climate change — “I think that global warming is real, and I think that humans contribute to it,” he said. But he doesn’t believe in cap and trade regulations to limit emissions. Rather he said he prefers the use of a diverse power sources such as nuclear, natural gas and solar. His experience as governor in the wake of Hurricane Sandy, he said, “taught me the respect that we have to have for Mother Nature.”

On the Affordable Care Act — He said it should be repealed and replaced with something that is more state based. “I trust the governors because I am one,” he said.

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