Christie: Report of working with Jeb to take down Rubio 'complete baloney'

Christie: Report of Rubio conspiracy with Jeb 'baloney'

GOP presidential candidate Chris Christie goes 'On the Record' to debunk a NY Times report alleging that he was working with Jeb Bush to take down Marco Rubio, explains why he thinks Rubio is a 'boy in a bubble'

This is a rush transcript from "On the Record," February 4, 2016. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

GRETA VAN SUSTEREN, FOX NEWS HOST: The battle for New Hampshire, it's sizzling. And the "New York Times" is reporting today that Governor Chris Christie's and Governor Jeb Bush's campaigns are secretly talking and teaming up behind-the-scenes against Senator Marco Rubio.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GOV. CHRIS CHRISTIE, GOP PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: This New Hampshire primary is now down to a choice between me and Marco Rubio and everybody knows it.

SEN. MARCO RUBIO, GOP PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: There are candidates that aren't doing well, they're going to start to lash out. They think it might help them.

FORMER GOV. JEB BUSH, GOP PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: He gave a victory speech in Iowa. He came in third.

CHRISTIE: His own supporter couldn't come up with one accomplishment.

BUSH: Oh my gosh, Marco Rubio is the guy. He's going to have to earn it. And he's going to have to do what Chris Christie and John Kasich and I do and other candidates do.

RUBIO: There are multiple people, millions of dollars spent attacking us in Iowa and in New Hampshire.

BUSH: Momentum has a strange way of dying here.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VAN SUSTEREN: And just a short time ago, New Jersey Governor and 2016 GOP presidential candidate Governor Chris Christie went ON THE RECORD from New Hampshire.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

VAN SUSTEREN: Governor Christie, nice to see you, sir.

CHRISTIE: Hey, Greta. How are you?

VAN SUSTEREN: I'm good. So Governor Christie, I have heard you refer to or at least reported that you have called Senator Rubio bubble boy. And I have two questions on that. Does that include Senator Ted Cruz and what is a bubble boy?

CHRISTIE: Well, actually, it was called the boy in the bubble and it implies to Senator Rubio. And the reason it applies to him is because he is not ready to be president of the United States. And he is not ready because of the way he, not only his lack of accomplishment in his Senate career, but also because he lives a very protected life as a candidate.

He doesn't answer questions in gaggles. He doesn't do excessive town hall meetings. He does drive by town hall meetings of 40 or 45 minutes with a lot of prepared, pre-canned answers.

And so the real question here, Greta, is who is ready to be president of the United States. Someone who has faced crisis with the second worst natural disaster in American history. Someone who stood up to the teacher's union, to the Democratic legislature or somebody who has basically skated through a five year Senate career without leaving any footprints at all except for his Amnesty Bill with Chuck Schumer, which when it got hot, he cut and ran.

VAN SUSTEREN: All right. Does that include -- does the boy in the bubble include Senator Ted Cruz or just Senator Rubio?

CHRISTIE: Senator Marco Rubio, that's who I was talking about.

VAN SUSTEREN: OK. Good. All right. I mean, I got that.

All right, yesterday, President Barack Obama made his first visit to a Baltimore mosque and two of your competitors have a very different view on it. Senator Rubio says it's divisive and Governor Bush says he doesn't think it's divisive to speak at a mosque, but he is surprised it took President Obama his eighth year in office to do it. So where are you?

Are you team Governor Bush on this or team Marco Rubio on this?

CHRISTIE: I'm team Chris Christie on this, Greta. And I have a long history of this. I remember I was U.S. attorney in New Jersey in the immediate aftermath of September 11th. And I went and visited mosques all across New Jersey to build back relationships between peaceful American- loving Muslim Americans and law enforcement. And I have done the same thing as governor. And so you represent all your citizens when you are governor. And you don't play games with this.

I know the difference between radical Islamic Jihadists and people who attend mosques throughout the United States of America as Muslim Americans. And the fact is that I did that as U.S. attorney. I did it as governor. And I would do it as president of the United States.

VAN SUSTEREN: "New York Times" reports that your campaign and Governor Bush's campaign are having sort of back channel communication with sort of a target on the back of Senator Marco Rubio.

Are they having some communications back and forth, the campaigns?

CHRISTIE: Complete baloney, Greta. More "New York Times" baloney. I guess they are getting bore with the race with five days to go until New Hampshire, but there are no back channel conversations between me and Jeb Bush. The fact is that we're both out there working hard, trying to bring our message to folks. And we are competing for votes. That's what we're doing. And anything that I have to say in this campaign is, in my voice, not in anybody else's.

VAN SUSTEREN: The international news today includes this. Is that world leaders have pledged more than $10 billion to help fund schools, shelter, and jobs for refugees from Syria's Civil War.

And Prime Minister David Cameron says it will save lives and will give hope and will give people the chance of a future. At the same time, everyone is also saying and people at this conference that prospects for ending the conflict have rarely been worse, peace talks are suspended. Fighting is intensifying and the U.N. secretary general says the situation in Syria is as close to hell as we are likely to find on this earth. So what's the $10 billion going to do for us?

CHRISTIE: Well, listen, to the extent that it helps any of those refugees to be safe and sound and to help the countries that are housing them. I think that's a good thing. But, this is a product of Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama's disastrous foreign policy. Libya is on fire. Syria is on fire. Egypt is under Martial Law. There's a civil war in Yemen.

This is the result of a Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama foreign policy. And, by the way, there are fewer democracies in the world today than when they got into office. This is a disastrous policy and one that I would hold Secretary Clinton at task for when I'm debating her next September on the stage for the presidency of the United States.

VAN SUSTEREN: Governor, thank you for joining us. Good luck next week, sir.

CHRISTIE: Thank you very much, Greta. Thanks for having me on.