Christie heading home to evaluate campaign’s future

Chris Christie said he is taking a pause from the campaign trail to “take a deep breath” and evaluate his presidential campaign’s future after a poor showing in New Hampshire.

“We are going to go home to New Jersey tomorrow, and we are going to take a deep breath, see what the final results are tonight, because that matters,” Christie said at a speech Tuesday night as the New Hampshire primary results poured in. 

{mosads}”We will make our next step forward based on the complete results in New Hampshire.”

Christie had banked his presidential hopes on New Hampshire. With about half of the votes counted, he is in sixth place. 

If he fails to finish in the top five, he’ll likely miss the cut for Saturday’s GOP debate. 

He also congratulated Donald Trump, who posted an emphatic victory over the rest of the GOP field in New Hampshire. When a supporter tried to boo, Christie cut him off to defend Trump. 

“No, listen,” he told the crowd. “Winning is never easy and no one is ever given a victory. The people of New Hampshire’s Republican Party tonight have spoken very clearly that Mr. Trump is their preference.”

Christie jokingly compared his decision to head home to New Jersey to wait for the final primary results to Ben Carson’s decision to head to his home after last week’s Iowa caucuses. 

Despite rumors Carson would be dropping out, his campaign issued a strong statement denying that and stating that he’d only be getting a fresh set of clothes.

“Theres no reason to sit in a hotel room in South Carolina” to hear the results, Christie said.

“So we’ll actually get a change of clothes, which is a nice thing,” he added with a smirk.

– Updated at 10:49 p.m.