Chris Christie: Drug addiction viral video 'tells you more than any poll'

By , Philip Klein

Published December 20, 2015

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SOMMERSWORTH, N.H. — New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie on Friday morning touted the success of a viral video showing him talking personally about the devastating effects of drug addiction.

"I'm completely shocked by the reaction to that video," he said. "We were driving here this morning from the hotel. It is now up to 6.4 million hits. When I went to bed last night, at 11:30, it was 6 million. So, between 11:30 eastern time last night and 8 o'clock eastern time this morning, another 400,000 people watched that video. The fact is that that tells you more than any poll. It tells you more than any focus group. The American people are concerned about their husbands, their wives, their brothers, their sisters, their sons and their daughters. And we've gotta do everything we can to stop the killing and the value of life in our country."

The Republican presidential candidate is polling too poorly nationally to qualify for the main stage in next week's Republican debate, but he's gained buzz in the nation's first primary state for talking emotionally about the need to treat drug addiction in a video that went viral after the Huffington Post put it up on Facebook. Drug addiction is a big issue in the state, and Christie has been ahead of the pack in talking about it.