Tom Brokaw Praises ‘Non-Ideological’ Christie For Not Using ‘Tea Party Playbook’
Discussing the possibility of Chris Christie entering the presidential race on Wednesday's NBC “Today,” Tom Brokaw praised the New Jersey Govenor as a moderate: “He's not an ideologue…. he played outside the ideological lines that have been drawn in the Republican primary.” Co-host Matt Lauer said of Christie, “…a lot of conservative Republicans, while loving the fact that he's a fiscal conservative, perhaps aren't going to like his stand on some other issues…” Brokaw saw that as a positive: “The question is, who's going to run the Republican primaries? Right now, the dialogue is being dominated by the Tea Party but there are a lot of other Republicans who say, 'We've got to play outside of the Tea Party playbook and this is a guy who can do that.'” On Tuesday , fill-in co-host Lester Holt worried about Republicans being “forced to play to hardcore elements of their base.” Prior to Lauer's discussion with Brokaw on Wednesday, chief White House correspondent Chuck Todd reported on Christie giving a speech at the Reagan Library on Tuesday and declared that all the speculation about a potential Christie candidacy “couldn't come at a worse time for Republicans actually running trying to raise money because everything is now frozen.” Lauer picked up on that point with Brokaw: “…what would it be like to be one of the declared Republican candidates now, a Mitt Romney or a Rick Perry, or Ron Paul, or you pick it, and hear this constant deafening drum beat for someone else to run?” Here is a full transcript of the September 28 exchange between Lauer and Brokaw: 7:16AM ET MATT LAUER: NBC's Tom Brokaw is here with his take on the state of the presidential race. Tom, good to see you, good morning. Wow, he's good. I mean, when you listen to the way Chris Christie answers those questions, when you hear it coming from the heart, it sounds spontaneous, he's funny, he's charming. Is that why people like this guy so much? [ON-SCREEN HEADLINE: Courting Christie; How Does NJ Governor Change 2012 GOP Race?] TOM BROKAW: And he's not an ideologue. And he's not a blow-dried candidate, there he is, the heavy-set guy with a New Jersey accent. A lot of this started last summer – and I'm not, this is not
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on September 28, 2011. Filed under