MSNBC’s Matthews: Unlike the Republican Party He’s In, Chris Christie Is Not a Tribalist

Chris Matthews: Christie Won Despite Having 'Physical Contact' with Black President (RealClearPolitics)

CHRIS MATTHEWS: Christie is known for physical — it seems so high school — physical contact with the president. We think of them not hugging or anything. They’re not bromance material or anything here, but they were actually walking together, been seen together. And then you have these terrible cases of people saying or somebody from South Carolina, I was ten feet from him the other day from the president and it made me sick. Or I told him to his face I can’t stand looking at you, or you lie — this almost physical rejection of him as an African-American, let’s be honest about it, whereas Christie hugs a guy, politically. You remember Charlie Christie gets knocked out of the Republican Party for physical contact with this president. It sounds so primitive, but it is tribal. The American system was to bring people together, not to break out into tribes and I think the Republican Party is doing that. Christie is not doing that. He is not tribal-ist. He doesn't play that game.