GOVERNOR CHRIS CHRISTIE RECOUNTS TWO PERSONAL STORIES OF TRAGEDY IN HIS LIFE

GOVERNOR CHRIS CHRISTIE RECOUNTS TWO PERSONAL STORIES OF TRAGEDY IN HIS LIFE Christie uses the story of a close friend’s death to emphasize the need for getting drug and addiction treatment to those who most need it, without passing judgment. He also asserts that taking a pro-life position must mean supporting life in all phases, not just in the womb. And discusses his mothers fight with lung cancer from a lifetime of smoking.   Machine Transcript, expect errors. 0:00 my mother was a smoker she smoked the whole life she was addicted to nicotine 0:04 she started when she was 16 years old which was 1948 but by the time 9064 came 0:13 the Surgeon General's report came out and she was in her mid-thirty's she knew 0:18 that smoking was bad for you and I tell you I watched as a kid growing up she 0:22 tried everything she could to quit she had gum patches hypnosis she tried 0:29 everything she couldn't quit now when she turns 71 little after that she was 0:38 diagnosed with lung cancer 0:41 no one came to me and said don't treat her as she got what she deserved we know 0:48 the lung cancer is caused by the smoking we know it was but no one keeps 0:52 resetting listen your mother was done she started smoking when she was 16 then 0:55 after we told her was bad for she kept doing it so we're not gonna give her 0:59 chemotherapy we're not going to give a radiation that stuff you know why she's 1:02 getting what she deserves no one said that no one said that about someone had 1:07 cancer yet somehow if it's heroin or cocaine or alcohol we say they decided 1:17 they got what they deserved i'm pro-life and I think that if you're pro-life that 1:26 means you gotta be pro-life or the whole life not just for the nine months 1:29 through the woman it's easy it's easy to be pro-life for the nine months during 1:36 the war mammoth anything to disappoint us yet the perfect in there but when 1:44 they get out that's when it gets tough the 16 year old teenage girl on the 1:50 floor of the county lockup addicted to heroin a pro-life for her to her life is 1:56 just as much a precious gift from God as the one in the womb and we need to start 2:03 thinking that way as a party in as a people and the president needs to say 2:06 those things 2:08 the second example 2:10 I'm recovering lawyer thank you so I went to law school and many of you went 2:22 to law school has anybody here is a lawyer to you can admit privately if you 2:26 want later but the people that your closest to from moscow this people who 2:30 are in your first year study group first year when you're nervous as heck you 2:34 don't know you don't know what is up in what's down are you make your not make 2:38 it 2:39 you have the small group of people that everybody puts together there were eight 2:42 of us in my group and we studied together and you get to see everybody at 2:46 their absolute worst these are your best friends and law school one of the guys 2:51 it was in my study group 2:54 his profile you know he came we went to law school at Seton Hall University in 2:58 New Jersey he came from an Ivy League school to see he's the smartest of all 3:05 of us he became editor of The Wall review he was the first one of us who 3:11 got a job at a school got a big prominent law firm in our state is 3:16 making more money than the rest of us he married an incredibly beautiful woman 3:21 who's a doctor they have three gorgeous daughters one cuter and happier and more 3:28 talented than the next use the first one among us to become a partner at a law 3:33 firm he bought a house he a great car and worse yet she was really good 3:40 looking and in perfect shape but I used to run ten twelve miles a week every 3:46 week so the guy everything right he was running one day in his normal routine 3:55 hurt his back running shoes in his early forties and was not giving in to age and 4:03 he was running his normal time he hurt his back as he went to the doctor is 4:07 having trouble working really hurt and so he said this is going to be some 4:11 treatment whatever but in the meantime just help get you through we're gonna 4:14 give you purchase it helps numb the pain 4:21 about a year later I got a call from his wife and she said he's addicted to 4:28 painkillers and he won't listen and I kicked him out of the house and he's 4:36 living at his parents house and you guys need to go to have an intervention 4:38 within those friends from law school 4:40 need to go and get him to go to rehab so we all went over there and intervention 4:46 with him and it started a ten year odyssey of him being in and out of rehab 4:50 during that period of time she divorced him to see his girls 4:57 licensed to practice law he lost his driver's license he lost his home he 5:03 bought himself a condo and she kicked him out he lost that he lost all the 5:08 money spent all the money that he had saves in the spencer most of his 5:11 retirement when a year and a half ago on a Sunday morning meri Patni got the call 5:16 that we've been driving forever that they found him dead in a motel room with 5:21 an empty bottle of percocet in the quarter vodka 52 years old by every 5:29 measure that we define success in this country this guy had a great looking guy 5:35 well-educated great career plenty of money 5:41 beautiful loving wife beautiful children greathouse had everything he's a drug 5:50 out they couldn't get help and he's dead and when i SAT there as the governor of 5:55 new jersey at his funeral and looked across the pew at his three daughters 6:00 sobbing as their dad is gone there but for the grace of God go I it can happen 6:09 to anyone and so we need to start treating people in this country not 6:13 jailing them we need to give them the tools they need to recover because every 6:18 life is precious every life is an individual gift from God and we have to 6:24 stop judging and start giving them the tools they need to get better