OKLAHOMA CITY — New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie chastised voters gathered at the Southern Republican Leadership Conference for failing to recognize in 2008 how the country would falter under a liberal Democrat leader such as President Obama.
“You should have looked at New Jersey, we could have warned the rest of the country about what was going to happen,” Christie said. “The presidential election is not the Miss America pageant.”
While on stage in Oklahoma City, Christie spoke at length about his relationship with his mother. He talked about his mother’s dying plea that he “go to work,” while trying to persuade the audience to give him the federal government’s top job.
The loudest sustained applause Christie received came when he criticized Obama’s unilateral actions, and said the next president should have a “team of lawyers during the transition looking at every executive order this president signed.”
Soon after criticizing Obama’s role in expanding the authority of the executive branch, he chastised members of his own party for wanting to limit the surveillance capabilities of the federal government.
Christie argued for “aggressive law enforcement and strong intelligence laws,” and highlighted his record as a U.S. Attorney in New Jersey. He took aim at other Republicans who opposed reauthorization of the Patriot Act, while noting that he is the only presidential contender to use the Patriot Act to bring down terrorists.
Christie outlined the issues he hoped the next president would prioritize first and foremost, and said the primary issue any president should tackle is entitlement reform. He also called for a simplification of the tax code that would allow people to do their taxes in only 15 minutes.
“We need a fairer, flatter, easier tax system,” Christie said. “On the first day in office, any president should freeze any new regulation from any office [of the federal government].”
Christie was the first presidential candidate to take the stage on Friday.
