on the debate stage in Miami last night five Republican Presidential hopefuls sparred for their spot in the 2024 election New Jersey's former Governor Chris Christie isn't leading in the polls but he continues to qualify for the debates alongside Florida Governor Ronda santis former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley South Carolina Senator Tim Scott and entrepreneur VC ramaswami the front runner former president Donald Trump he was not there he held a separate rally just a few miles down the road for his part christe stuck to his guns and made the case for why he should get the nomination Matt Arco is a politics reporter for NJ Advanced media and he was at the debate last night he joins me now Matt Arco thanks for joining me it's great to see you although I'm a little jealous that you're in Miami so then there were five on the stage any key takeaways for Christie because it's been a difficult for any of these candidates to resonate uh against Donald Trump yeah the The Narrative right now in and outside of of Miami is that it's a a two-person race between Nikki Haley and Ronda santz to see who could be the distance second from Donald Trump um I don't think this debate did anything to change that um funny enough I was on the same flight AS Christie coming into Miami so uh I checked into with him behind the security lines so I had a little bit of time to chat with him about what his plan was for the debate and according to Christie he he stuck with his plan his plan was to let uh Ronda santz and Nikki Haley fight it out um and he was going to talk about the larger issues affecting people didn't move the needle for him um certainly u in terms of of folks talking about debate coverage um chrisy was an afterthought but as far as he's concerned he's going to be staying in this for a while so things sort of went according to plan yeah I wonder if that tactic will play out for him because he's kind of taken the role of the adult in the room when those barbs are being traded and it doesn't get him headlines but does it make him more presidential for folks who are there and folks who are following this at least for this debate where think about the the first two where he you know he really wanted to have that moment fighting Donald Trump uh the first debate basically everything that he was asked he sort of brought it back to a knock against Trump he didn't do that this time this was just like you said a little bit more presidential yeah it doesn't get a many headlines afterwards but if you're Chris Christie and you and you and and he's convinced that he's going for the Long Hall here um this is sort of just what he needed to do I mean he wants Nikki Haley and Ronda santz to beat each other up on the stage and also spent a lot of money against each other in in a state like Iowa where he's paying zero attention to was he asked Matt about the tough night that Republicans had in New Jersey and you know Nationwide obviously on on Tuesday um or about abortion and how that's been playing how did he handle it yeah both things came up during the debate but I think more of his sing comments about um the election night on Tuesday was on the airwaves you know he did a slew of interviews where he he squarely pinned on Donald Trump he called Donald Trump to poison to the Republican Party um and just said that he would be you know what he's been he said what ch's been saying for for months now which is Donald Trump is a party of of losers he does nothing but tank the Republican party and on abortion uh you know he's been saying what he's been saying on the campaign Trail up in New Hampshire which is that this should be a state's rights issue uh this shouldn't be something that that should be dictated by the federal government um something every state should decide on interesting interestingly enough that that's very close to what Nikki Haley has to say and you know Nikki Haley and Ronda santz are fighting it out in Iowa but again Chris's not paying attention to that become new Hampshire Nicki Haley is his largest problem there so um they're quite similar in a lot of ways so that could be a problem for me Matt Arco is on the campaign trail with former Governor Chris Christie uh in Miami today and has a newsletter he puts out every week on why christe runs Matt thanks for joining me thanks