Republican presidential candidate Chris Christie said Sunday that the New Hampshire primary -- and perhaps the whole election season -- changed after Saturday night's GOP debate because of what has been widely viewed as a weak performance from Marco Rubio.
"I think the whole race changed last night," Christie said Sunday on CNN when host Jake Tapper asked him whether he needed to finish in the top three in Tuesday's New Hampshire primary to continue in the race for the White House, according to CNN. "There was a march among some of the chattering class to anoint Senator Rubio," Christie continued. "I think after last night that's over."
Christie, who sits near the bottom of recent New Hampshire polling, didn't suggest that he would beat Rubio, given his status in second place in the early voting state. "I think there could be four or five tickets now out of New Hampshire, because the race is so unsettled," he said.
During Saturday night's debate, Christie accused Rubio of recycling a canned speech about President Barack Obama's preparedness for the job. When Rubio repeated the line, Christie interrupted, "There it is. The memorized, 25-second speech," according to The Hill. Rubio seemed shaken and appeared unable to recover from it.
Christie used the moment as evidence that Republicans couldn't rely on Rubio to take on Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton. "She is a skilled debater, she is an experienced Washington insider" Christie said, according to Politico. "You better have somebody on there who can take her on. Senator Rubio proved last night he can't do that."
When asked why he didn't attack Trump, given his large lead in New Hampshire, Christie said he was more concerned with making sure the nominee wasn't "a first-term senator unprepared for the world, unprepared for the race." He added: "There could be a time when I go after Mr. Trump as well."
