Christie: I'll be "more ready" for a 2016 White House run
Gov. Chris Christie, R-N.J., further inflamed speculation that he plans to run for president in 2016, telling an interviewer Tuesday night, "I wasn't ready to run for president" in 2012, but by 2016, "I will be more ready for it than I would have been this year."
Christie also spoke to the Republican Party's soul-searching in the aftermath of electoral defeat.
"We lost two national elections in a row," he explained. "We're not connecting with Americans on the issues that matter most to them."
He implied that the problem is rooted more in personality than policy, saying, "We haven't had the best candidates. I believe that Mitt Romney is a good man. I was out supporting him before anyone else, but he simply didn't connect with Americans."
In the interview, Christie scorned the narrative that his embrace of President Obama's response to Superstorm Sandy, which devastated parts of coastal New Jersey just days before the election, tipped the scales in the president's favor.
"(Obama) executed very well in the storm and I said what I believed at that moment," said Christie. "Mitt Romney knew that I was doing what had to be done. Then the media and political operatives got involved and turned it into a story. It's just stupid for anyone to be upset with my reaction, even if it was a week before the election."
Christie also addressed last weekend's fatal shootings at a Newtown, Conn., elementary school, saying, "If someone is willing to give up his own life so he can take the lives of others, there is nothing we can do about it."
"And now we certainly have to have the discussion about how to deal with these weapons. But we need to open minds. We need to figure out the cocktail that needs to be mixed about mental health and these issues."