New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie dinged Sen. Marco Rubio for his relative absence in New Hampshire on Tuesday, calling him out for being hard to find on the trail in the early primary state.
Appearing on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” Christie panned his 2016 rival, saying that they have been unable to “find him” in the state, adding that Rubio is more concerned with doing TV hits in New York than going out on the campaign trail.
“No,” Christie said when asked if they’ve seen Rubio in the state recently. “We’ve been looking for Marco, but we can’t find him. We’ve had the bus all over New Hampshire, we haven’t been able to find him.
“We understand he did a very quick town hall here and then left to go back to Madison Avenue in New York,” Christie said, referring to Rubio’s appearance in the state Monday.
Christie was playing up his own continual presence in the state. Dating back to June 2014, Christie has made 35 separate visits to the Granite State, during which he’s made 131 stops, the most of any candidate still in the race. Sen. Lindsey Graham (176 stops) held that title until yesterday, when he suspended his campaign.
By contrast, Rubio has made about half as many visits, 18, to the state as Christie, while making only 42 stops overall. The Florida senator spent all of Monday in New Hampshire, holding town halls in Rochester and Conway.
“Iowa and New Hampshire really do set the tone for the rest of the country,” Christie said. “Now that doesn’t mean that you don’t have to go down to those places in the South and the industrial Midwest, out in the Rocky Mountains … we’re going to have to go out there and work.”
“You can’t wait to do well,” Christie said. “You have to do well as soon as you possibly can, and especially in a race with 13 people. You cannot wait to do well because momentum will run over people who wait to do well. So we’re hoping to create momentum in Iowa and New Hampshire, and then be able to work that momentum, and do what we do, which is do two-hour town hall meetings where people get to ask whatever questions they want, whenever they want and to be stunned that a politician actually answers their questions.”
The New Jersey governor’s comments come amid a surge in New Hampshire, where he sits fourth with 11.3 percent in the RealClearPolitics average. Christie sits slightly behind Rubio’s 12 percent. He also sits fourth in the Washington Examiner’s latest power rankings.
