Christie gains endorsements in NH: ‘It’s game time’

After gathering the endorsement of the New Hampshire Union-Leader, the Granite State’s paper of record, Christie picked up the endorsements of noteworthy local activist Renee Plummer and several members of the New Hampshire law enforcement community.

Standing before the law enforcement officers this afternoon, Christie said the endorsements by the Union-Leader and others were “validation” that his campaign had gained traction in the Granite State.

“Everyone was competing for these endorsements and we got them,” Christie said on Monday afternoon. “But in the end, the candidate’s got to close the sale with the voters.”

Christie said the hardest thing about his 2016 presidential campaign was remaining patient. He said he has learned how to bide his time on the campaign trail, and he demonstrated the skill earlier in the day when asked to respond to a tweet from Donald Trump attacking Christie’s candidacy.

“I’m really glad that Donald noticed me,” Christie said, reportedly choosing not to take the bait. “I’m happy to take any observations he has, even if he can only do them at 140 characters or less, which seems to be the best way he can communicate.”

When picking up Plummer’s endorsement on Monday, the governor appeared less guarded in his answering how the federal government should tackle the mounting national debt. In response to a question about solving the debt crisis, the governor promised that “the Christie administration is not going to solve that issue, it’s going to make progress toward solving that issue.”

With little more than 70 days until the New Hampshire primary, Christie’s “Telling It Like It Is” campaign sounds ready for action.

“It’s game time,” Christie said, according to the Union-Leader. “And what the voters of the country are counting on the voters of New Hampshire to do is do what you’ve always done: Be the folks who listen the hardest, ask the toughest questions and are the most discerning.”