Chris Christie said Monday that his campaign isn't about "whiners and moaners," and he'll be fine appearing on the early debate stage Tuesday rather than in the main event.
"Give me a podium, stage, put the camera on, I'll be just fine,"the New Jersey governor and GOP presidential candidate
Fox News' "Fox & Friends" program.
"I have never had a problem making an impression. We'll see how it goes. We'll talk about the issues that people care about. That's why we've been moving up in the polls in New Hampshire and Iowa."
He told the program he did his thirty-third town hall meeting in New Hampshire this weekend, and voters are concerned about drug addiction, ISIS, national security, and student debt, more than most other topics that make the news.
And when it comes to ISIS, Christie pointed out that President Barack Obama "has not had a strategy" from the beginning and neither has Secretary of State John Kerry or his predecessor, Hillary Clinton.
Christie has drawn attention in recent days through a viral video, in which he speaks of the importance of fighting drug addiction, and said Monday that "more heat" needs to be put on insurance companies so addicts can get the treatment they need.
"We're the first state in the country that stands up for nonviolent, non-dealing drug offenders," he told the show. "You no longer go to jail. You go to inpatient mandatory drug treatment. I think that should be the pattern for the whole country . . . If I'm president, that's what we're going to do."
Meanwhile, the governor also appeared on
CNN's "New Day," saying that he does not like President Obama's order freeing thousands of drug offenders from the nation's prisons, because he does not think those people have been vetted.
"You're asking why I disagree with him, I'd do it in a different way," he said. "The fact is, we need to be able to make sure on the federal level, one thing he's not talking about, let's have drug courts in every district court in the country."
On
MSNBC's "Morning Joe" program, he said that in his state, officials are lowering the corrections budget and using the money toward treatment.
"We can do this in a way that doesn't make government grow larger and we're going to have to get tougher on insurance companies in terms of paying for this as well," he said.
"They pay for cancer treatment and should pay for this treatment as well."