SOMMERSWORTH, N.H. — New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie on Friday morning touted the success of a viral video showing him talking personally about the devastating effects of drug addiction.
“I’m completely shocked by the reaction to that video,” he said. “We were driving here this morning from the hotel. It is now up to 6.4 million hits. When I went to bed last night, at 11:30, it was 6 million. So, between 11:30 eastern time last night and 8 o’clock eastern time this morning, another 400,000 people watched that video. The fact is that that tells you more than any poll. It tells you more than any focus group. The American people are concerned about their husbands, their wives, their brothers, their sisters, their sons and their daughters. And we’ve gotta do everything we can to stop the killing and the value of life in our country.”
The Republican presidential candidate is polling too poorly nationally to qualify for the main stage in next week’s Republican debate, but he’s gained buzz in the nation’s first primary state for talking emotionally about the need to treat drug addiction in a video that went viral after the Huffington Post put it up on Facebook. Drug addiction is a big issue in the state, and Christie has been ahead of the pack in talking about it.
Before a townhall event at Kelly’s Row restaurant and pub, a person introducing Christie asked the audience how many people had seen the video, and nearly every hand went up.
Christie devoted nearly his entire opening remarks to the addiction issue, telling a story of a former heroine addict who got treatment who he gave an internship to as U.S. attorney. He said the man grew up to be a successful criminal defense lawyer in New York City. The former prosecutor argued that recovery treatment should be mandatory for addicts.
Christie has been perusing an all-in strategy here, doing more events in the state than nearly any other candidate, in hopes that the townhalls in New Hampshire will play into his strengths as somebody who speaks his mind. He boasted as he opened, “Today is day 45 for me in New Hampshire.”
