“IT’S JUST WRONG”: Chris Christie SHREDS NJ Gov. Phil Murphy’s “Unthinkable” Claim of Harboring an Illegal Migrant

Chris Christie, former governor of NJ and 2024 presidential candidate, joined the Guy Benson Show today and discussed the latest embarrassing display by current NJ Governor Phil Murphy. Governor Murphy hinted that he would be harboring an illegal immigrant at his house from ICE, and former Governor Christie reacted to the move, calling it “just wrong.” Christie and Guy also discussed some sports, as Christie’s NY Mets recently acquired MLB superstar Juan Soto. Christie and Guy also discussed their Super Bowl predictions, and you can listen to the full interview below!

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Guy Benson: And back with us here on the show is Chris Christie, former Republican presidential candidate and the former governor of my home state, New Jersey, author of the book What Would Reagan Do? Governor, great to have you back on the show. Happy Friday.

Chris Christie Happy Friday to you Guy. It’s good to be back.

Guy Benson: Absolutely. Great to have you here. Why do a little politics, a little sports as well. Let’s start with the politics. Phil Murphy, the governor of New Jersey. Now, he he said something very interesting recently, and then his staff had to beat a very hasty retreat. We covered a little bit. There’s a few updates here. Let’s just play for the audience what he said. He was at some interview or symposium and he was bragging about basically harboring an illegal immigrant on his property.

Gov. Phil Murphy: Me and wife were talking about I don’t want to get into too much detail, but there’s someone in our broader universe whose immigration status is not yet at the point that they are trying to get it to. And we said, you know what? Let’s have her live at our house above our garage. And good luck to the feds coming in to try to get her.

Guy Benson: Good luck to the feds trying to come in to get her. So kind of like taunting ice there. Once that went public and people started noticing what he said. The backtrack began. You had a representative for the governor of New Jersey saying, well, his words had been, quote, misinterpreted. Apparently they told The New York Post that the governor was just referring to a legal resident in a circle of friends, but, quote, No one’s ever lived in the home under the circumstances described by the governor. So nothing to see here. This never happened. But I mean, he said what he said. What’s going on here? Is the staff lying to cover up the fact that the governor of New Jersey is actually doing what he said he’s doing or was the governor of New Jersey lying to try to kind of beat his chest a little bit and show what a great resister he is of these Ice raids or something?

Chris Christie I think you’ve got a place in the context where he was when he said it. To answer your question, he was in front of a very far left group called Blue Wave, which in New Jersey is a far left progressive group. And I think that Phil Murphy sat up there. This is my guess. You know, no one knows for sure, guy. But my guess, knowing Phil Murphy, is that he went up there and got himself very carried away trying to act like he was going to be this progressive protector of folks who are here illegally and a lot of get carried away and not tell the truth. And that’s where he got himself to. And I think that from the conversations I’ve had since then, that the staff was stunned to hear that and he got himself caught. Let’s say exaggerating would be the best, the nicest way to put it. Or the other word that you used. I think that the governor clearly made a huge mistake here and he inflamed the situation that doesn’t need to be inflamed. And he did it to try to curry favor with this progressive group.

Guy Benson: Yeah, score some points there. But in the meantime, he’s like broadcasting the world, hey, we’re harboring. And it was very specific. It wasn’t like, hey, we’re looking after a friend of ours. He said it was a she and that she was living above their garage. Right. That was a very specific action that he that he was bragging about. And then for the staff to turn around and say, she doesn’t exist and actually she’s legal and she’s never lived there, I mean, none of that makes any sense, right? I mean, if she’s legal, you wouldn’t have to harbor her. You wouldn’t have to defy the feds. Like, good luck coming to get her. Why would they be coming to get her if she’s legal and if she’s not living above your garage on your property? Why would you say that?

Chris Christie Again, I think that, you know, this is a guy who wanted to make news in this moment and make it look like some progressive hero. And instead, you know, I remember seeing the headline in The New York Post. I’m sure you probably saw it, too. It said full of crap about his comments. And, you know, the Post always comes up with some good headlines. And and I think because, you know, the governor is look you know guy that I had state police at my home for eight years and the idea that anybody would put the New Jersey State police governor in that situation, it’s unthinkable that you put them in this situation of, you know, I coming to the residence to get in. To find someone who you were illegally harboring was an impossible position to put the state police in. They’d have to defer to Ice to let them do their job. But at the same time, potentially putting the governor at risk. So the governor didn’t think this one through at all, in my view. And it’s just wrong. It’s wrong to have done to try to get into the middle of a story. And by the way, I think for my own opinion, being on the wrong side of the story, I mean, the fact is that I think an overwhelming majority of people in this country believe that, you know, if you’re here illegally, that it’s time for you to go home and enter our country through a legal process, not illegally.

Guy Benson: Yeah. I mean, this is the most powerful, highest elected official in one of our 50 states who is at least thinking it was a good look for him to say that. Yeah, we’ve got a friend of ours who’s in the country illegally, and we’re so opposed to law enforcement and we’re so committed to that form of lawlessness that we’re helping prevent her from any repercussions. And in fact, good luck to the feds trying to come get her because she’s under my protection, even if it’s a giant made up thing in order to impress some left wing audience. I think that’s also a reflection of someone’s values and their commitment to the rule of law. When you’re when you’re an elected official at a very high level. And the other thing is and I want to broaden this out to New Jersey politics, because, look, I understand elections come and go. The winning side often feels really empowered and we’re in great shape. We’ll never lose again. And the other side gets really down in the dumps. And so, gosh, the sky is falling. And I don’t want to get caught up in this idea that Republicans are necessarily ascendant in the years to come. They might be. They might not be. But there are some indications that certainly in a place like Pennsylvania, but also in New Jersey, the electorate is not nearly as Democrat heavy as it used to be. Even when you ran and won and had your big reelection when you were governor. Since then, I mean, at the national level, growing up in Jersey, I mean, I the Democrats could count New Jersey’s electoral votes easily in their corner every time by a large margin. And that was always the case. But you go back to what year would it have been at this point, the 2023 or whenever? When Murphy was reelected 21 and was 21, he just barely won in a race that he was considered to be the easy favorite. He’s going to waltzed to reelection then. That got very scary for him on election night. He pulled it out by a couple points. Then a couple of years later, you know, Donald Trump, yes, he lost the state of New Jersey, but it was mid-single digits. And there were parts of that state I mean, Passaic going red was wild. Governor. What are you seeing in New Jersey politics right now?

Chris Christie I think that the woke ism that was represented both by the Biden administration and by the Murphy administration, that people in New Jersey are just tired of it. You know, New Jersey is in many ways a real microcosm of the country in this respect. We have very wealthy people here in New Jersey, but we are predominantly a working class state. And I think what you’re seeing by the changes in those election results are that a lot of the working class folks in our state who have, you know, typically reflexively voted Democrat are saying, wait a second, these guys don’t represent our values anymore. I think this is a values thing guy more than it is any particular policy, but it’s a tone and a values position that the Democratic Party across the country, but also in New Jersey have taken that are really turning off middle class, working class voters who say, you know what, They don’t represent my values right now and I’m not going to vote for them. And so, you know, I do think it presents opportunities for the Republican Party as we move into a gubernatorial election year now. It’s always a tough race to win here in New Jersey as a Republican statewide. But if the Democrats continue and if they frequently nominate a candidate who continues to espouse the values that have been, you know, espoused by Biden, Harris and and by Murphy, I think they could find themselves in real trouble in November.

Guy Benson: Yeah, I saw a statistic just a couple days ago. I have it right here. It was the latest voter registration month by month numbers. And the Republicans had gained more than 10,000 registered Republicans in New Jersey. The Democrats had shed 2400 of their registered Democrats. And in isolation, I would look at that and say, okay, good for the Republican. Goodness. You’d rather have that than not. But it’s fool’s gold. It’s Lucy in the football. It’s the Republicans in New Jersey. And look, there’s exceptions at the governor level, as you proved, twice. But it was it was the Murphy close call and then especially a mid single digit Kamala victory only by that margin. Just a few months ago. Then you look at stats like this that’s at least got to be ringing some alarm bells. You would think, right with the party has gotten very comfortable with its power. The Democrats in New Jersey, maybe they shouldn’t be quite so comfortable.

Chris Christie Well, look, you know, I think you’re right. And especially in the gubernatorial election, we’ve seen over the course of years that before Phil Murphy, you know, the only two term governors over the 50 years before Phil Murphy were were Christie Whitman, Tom Kean and me, three Republicans. And so, you know, there’s there’s there’s cause in history to think that this kind of thing can happen. And it’s being, I think, now really exacerbated by the values conversation that’s going on. And you see it all over the place. You’re right about the state county now, you know, I want to say county in 2013, but it was very unusual for that to happen and for Donald Trump to win it make it even more unusual. And so those are all kind of canary in the coal mine. And, you know, we’re going to see what the Democrats in New Jersey do. Who do they nominate? What’s that person talking about? And hopefully, you know, from the Republican side, we nominate someone who can clearly articulate that values message in addition to some good policy proposals on taxes and affordability in this state, which could give them a real chance to win.

Guy Benson: Yeah, I mean, one of those winning messages for the Republican, whoever ends up being in the race could be something really, really kooky. Like, I will never harbor an illegal immigrant at my house. Right? That that could be one thing that might appeal to a broad swath of New Jerseyans to draw something of a contrast there. All right, Governor Christie, I want to talk about sports. I want to get this out of the way. We haven’t talked about it publicly yet, so I just want to say it once. Soto is in New York. Matt, your Yankee fan. I look and I said this when the deal happened, I said it was pretty clear he was looking for something that the Yankees weren’t going to give him. I always saw him as a one year hired gun for the Yankees If they could keep him, great. But I didn’t want them to break the bank forever to keep him. But he is an unbelievable talent. As you know, you’re a Mets fan. Like scale of 1 to 10. How excited are you about Soto?

Chris Christie 1111 Well, I’m also guy and you may not know this. I’m also a member of the board of directors of the Mets.

Guy Benson: I did know that. Yes. You have that sweet of yours. You have a lot of talent. You’ll be watching as you loom in your suite with the with the abundance of riches on the field.

Chris Christie Yes, exactly right. And we’re looking to bloom and go for you Yankee fan. I’ll just say that that will treat this like a divorce and we’ll give you visitation. You know, the Yankees are going to be at Citi Field on 4th of July weekend this year. And Guy, I’m making this public invitation to you right now as one of the divorced parents of Juan Soto, You can come to watch the game with me and visit. Why? I’m not going to let you, you know, take him overnight, but we’ll let you come and visit while we get the fair thing for us to do.

Guy Benson: We wouldn’t even give his family a suite, which is part of the reason why I think he walked. So, I mean, obviously it’s it’s slightly rancorous here, but but mostly okay.

Chris Christie I suspect that his family tree will be next to mine because on the other side of me is Francisco Lindor. Sweet. So I hope they’re going to put Soto on the other side so I can enjoy both of our MVP candidates families as I watch the games. And again, if you come this 4th of July weekend, I’m making that invitation to you right now. No, it’s very coming. We’ll be we will we will be more than happy to introduce you to both the indoor and the Soto Fair.

Guy Benson: I mean, look, I’m up to meet anyone. I’m typically out of the tri state area around the fourth. But if that is not the case, I will be there with bells on in my Yankees hat. And it’s a very, very nice invitation for you to extend to a Yankee fan of all people for the Subway Series.

Chris Christie Because we care about you.

Guy Benson: Big, big, your well being. That’s that’s always been what’s motivated you. I know that more than anything else. It’s that and also the ability to gloat if you guys win in my presence. One more thing here. Super Bowl weekend coming up. Do you have a pick in the game? Do you have a rooting interest? I suspect you do. I think I think it’s the same as mine for similar reasons, but not quite. Are you are you picking the same team that you’re rooting for? Give us your analysis.

Chris Christie Ah, I am. And I’m picking the Chiefs. And I think she’s 27, Eagles 24, because I think if you want to lose money, bet against Patrick Mahomes. I guess you don’t see the guy lose all that much. Yeah, And I think the chiefs, you know, the Eagles are a very good team. You know, I’m a Cowboys fan, so the Eagles are not, you know, in the forefront of my love.

Guy Benson: That’s right.

Chris Christie But on the other hand, there are very good team. And I certainly recognize as a football fan that they’re good. But Mahomes, the special and he’s different. He’s this generation’s Tom Brady. He usually finds a way to win.

Guy Benson: I think that’s completely fair. So I have picked the Eagles to win. But I’m rooting for the Chiefs because same deal, NFC East. And just in general, if you’re against Philadelphia Sports, if you’re against the criminal cartel, that is Philadelphia sports fans, you have to root for chiefs in this game, right? That’s to me, it’s just a very clear moral issue. So I’ll be watching along with the rest of the country, including Governor Chris Christie, former governor of New Jersey, board of directors member, as he will hasten to mention for the New York Mets as well. Governor, great to talk to you. Thanks so much for joining us on a Friday night.

Chris Christie Always happy to be with you. Have a great weekend.