On Wednesday night, ABC and CBS continued to ignore the latest development in the Hillary Clinton e-mail scandal while NBC moved on to instead ask Republican Governor Chris Christie (N.J.) if “your moment” had “passed” as the Republican front-runner for the 2016 presidential nomination due to the Bridgegate scandal.
After Wednesday’s Today mentioned that Clinton was asked by congressional investigators about her private e-mail server two years ago, NBC Nightly News decided to instead air a series of clips from Today co-host Matt Lauer’s exclusive interview with Christie.
Prior to the interview, interim anchor Lester Holt stated that Christie had made “some provocative comments” recently by declaring that he would beat Hillary Clinton if he ran for president in addition to proposing changes to the country’s entitlement system.
The interview opened with Christie discussing with Lauer his rationale for making the changes, which include cutting Social Security for wealthier seniors and raising the retirement age to 69. Lauer eventually pushed back by asking if it’s worth pursuing “[e]ven if it doesn’t make you a whole lot of friends.”
To that, Christie simply responded: “Well, listen, you know, I hope that, if it doesn't bring new friends, it brings people who respect me.”
Turning to 2016, Lauer reminded Christie how “[t]here was a time where, when people talked about 2016, all of the buzz on the Republican side was about you.” With Christie nodding in agreement, Lauer brought up the Bridgegate scandal: “Is it possible that while you were dealing – and I don't want to call them distractions because that makes them sound trivial – with these serious issues of Bridgegate back in New Jersey that your moment passed?”
Not surprisingly, Christie shot back [emphasis mine]:
I don't know and neither do you. We'll see, but I'll tell you this much -- I've been the front-runner before. It's a place where the bull's eye's on your back and everybody's shooting at you. So, that's okay. I'm fine with exactly where I am now because I haven't changed and when we start to talk, if we run, about really serious issues that face this country, I have an opportunity to be able to convince people the same way I would have had to convince the otherwise, Matt, cause all that other stuff I artificial until the game really begins and the game hasn't come close to beginning.
The fact that the liberal Today co-host would bring up Bridgegate considering the fact that the “big three” of ABC, CBS, and NBC combined to spend a whopping 88 minutes on the story in its first 48 hours after the story first broke.
The relevant portion of the transcript that aired on April 15's NBC Nightly News is transcribed below.
NBC Nightly News
April 15, 2015
7:08 p.m. Eastern[ON-SCREEN HEADLINE CAPTION: In the Running?]
LESTER HOLT: We turn to politics tonight and some provocative comments by New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, who hasn't said if he's planning to run for president but says, if he does, he will beat Hillary Clinton. At a town hall meeting in New Hampshire, Christie defended his new proposals to cut Social Security for upper income seniors, to raise the retirement age to 69, and to increase premiums for Medicare. In an exclusive interview this afternoon, Matt Lauer sat down with Christie and asked him about cutting entitlements, what some are calling good policy but bad politics.
NEW JERSEY REPUBLICAN GOVERNOR CHRIS CHRISTIE: This country needs more good policy and less good politics and the fact is that, if you want to start a national conversation, you should talk about the thing that consumes 71 percent of the federal budget and if you don't, then you have no right to talk about the other 29 percent because you won't have any money to pay for it and so for me, if you want to start a national conversation, I start it with entitlements intentionally because it is the single-most important issue when it consumes 71 percent of all the money we spend in the federal government –
MATT LAUER: Even if it doesn’t make you a whole lot of friends?
CHRISTIE: Well, listen, you know, I hope that, if it doesn't bring new friends, it brings people who respect me.
LAUER: There was a time where, when people talked about 2016, all of the buzz on the Republican side was about you.
CHRISTIE: Yeah.
LAUER: Is it possible that while you were dealing – and I don't want to call them distractions because that makes them sound trivial – with these serious issues of Bridgegate back in New Jersey that your moment passed?
CHRISTIE: I don't know and neither do you. We'll see, but I'll tell you this much -- I've been the front-runner before. It's a place where the bull's eye's on your back and everybody's shooting at you. So, that's okay. I'm fine with exactly where I am now because I haven't changed and when we start to talk, if we run, about really serious issues that face this country, I have an opportunity to be able to convince people the same way I would have had to convince the otherwise, Matt, cause all that other stuff I artificial until the game really begins and the game hasn't come close to beginning.
