Chris Christie (Middle East)

Christie | Middle East | (section page)

• "She (Hillary Clinton) put American intelligence officers at risk for her convenience" (regarding Clinton's e-mail scandal) (RD7)

Mr. Christie said in April that American combat troops might be needed to fight the Islamic State. “We have to be willing as Americans to say, if need be, we’ll also put soldiers into the fight.” He said he had “grave concerns” about a potential deal with Iran to curb its nuclear program, saying that an agreement would lead other Middle East nations to develop nuclear abilities, and that Tehran, as a state sponsor of terrorism, has “no basis to have earned our trust.” He has been sharply critical of President Obama’s warming of ties with Cuba, and of Americans who travel there, saying Cubans “can’t vote, they can’t speak, they can’t own property.” Addressing Russia’s support of separatist rebels in Ukraine, he said that Russia’s president, Vladimir V. Putin, would be more fearful of him than of Mr. Obama. “I don’t believe, given who I am, that he would make the same judgment,” he said last summer. (NYT)

Iran Nuclear Deal

Christie opposes the pending nuclear deal with Iran, calling it “the single biggest disaster in the seven years of the Obama administration.” He claims that President Obama is pursuing the deal because he has “an absolutely quenchless thirst to have his name in the history books.” As for Iran:

“They’re the largest state sponsor of terrorism in the world. They say ‘Death to America’ on a regular basis. They want to blow Israel off the map. And this president wants to give them the ability to get nuclear weapons? It is outrageous. It is immoral what’s happening. He should walk away from that table, and by the way, if we don’t have enough guts to do it, our allies should walk away from the table.”

That doesn’t necessarily mean, however, that Christie would tear up any deal on his first day in the Oval Office, as most of his GOP rivals have pledged to do:

“I’m not one of those guys who’s going to say to you, ‘On Day One, I will abrogate the agreement.… On Day One, I will look into and try to decide what to do with the agreement, depending on where we are at that moment. Because, by the way, it’s not just us involved anymore. We have a number of our allies around the world who’re at that table as well, and sanctions are most effective when not only we do it, but the other allies do it.” (Newsweek)

Simplified Quotes

• Push Russia out of Middle East; establish US dominance. (Oct 2015)
• Arm Emiratis, Jordanians, & others before sending US troops. (Aug 2015)
• America should be clear to world about what we stand for. (Feb 2014)
• New isolationism, & reducing anti-terrorism, is dangerous. (Jul 2013)

(OTI:FP) Full quotes available on source.