New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) said in a new interview he would have definitely won the 2016 presidential election if Donald Trump
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"I absolutely believe if Trump had not gotten into the race I think we would have won," Christie told NJ.com's Matt Arco in an interview published Sunday.
"It's incredibly frustrating to think to yourself, 'Wow, if this guy were not in the race, we'd win this thing,'" he said, while reportedly reflecting on internal polling at the time of last year's campaign.
"You know that's not true, so stop, OK? You want to say other stuff about me? Fine. But that's out of bounds. Stop it," Christie recalled telling the business mogul, according to the report, while noting that Trump didn't bring it up again.
Christie added that greatest fallout from the scandal was that it deprived him "of the benefit of the doubt," which he described as a "big thing."
Christie, whose second term ends this month, also defended his time as governor despite low approval ratings during his last year in office.
"They're gonna miss me when I'm gone," the Republican governor said, according to the report.
"I think when people look back at it and when they compare what other governors have done before me, let's say in the last 40 years. I don't think that there's anybody who's done more of consequence over the last 40 years," Christie continued, echoing his remarks in another recent interview in which Christie claimed he has performed as well as any of his predecessors.