Chris Christie's drug addiction video went viral. That 'tells you more than any poll,' he says.

(Image credit: Screenshot/Huffington Post)

published 6 November 2015

One week after New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie's talk about drug addiction went viral on Facebook, garnering more than 6.5 million views and nearly 90,000 shares as of Friday morning, the Republican presidential candidate says he's floored by the response to the video.

In the clip, Christie makes an emotional plea for drug addiction rehabilitation while speaking at a New Hampshire town hall, sharing moving personal stories about his mother's cigarette addiction and a former heroin addict whom he gave an internship to when he was U.S. attorney. "Somehow, if it's heroin or cocaine or alcohol, we say, 'They decided it, they're getting what they deserved,'" Christie said.

Now, one week later, Christie says that the clip's viral success makes an important point:

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"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." [Washington Examiner]

After months of polling poorly and struggling to gain center stage in a very full Republican race, could Christie finally be having his moment?

Watch his full speech below. Becca Stanek

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Chris Christie Makes Emotional Plea To Rethink Drug Addiction ..."Somehow, if it's heroin or cocaine or alcohol, we say, 'They decided it, they're getting what they deserved.'"(Read more here: http://huff.to/1LQg27g)Posted by HuffPost Politics on Friday, October 30, 2015

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