A speech by New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) detailing his loved ones’ struggles with addiction has gone viral on social media.
The six-minute video, part of a 2016 series by Huffington Post, has been viewed nearly 6 million times on the media outlet’s Facebook page.
Originally published on Oct. 30, the video began making waves online when Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg shared it with his 40 million followers on Wednesday.
{mosads}Christie, who’s running for the White House next year, related a pair of emotional anecdotes about his late mother’s addiction to smoking and his law school friend’s addiction to prescription painkillers.
He contrasted how Americans respond to those who develop lung cancer from smoking versus those who struggle with other debilitating addictions.
“But no one came to me and said, ‘Hey, listen, your mother was dumb, she started smoking when she was 16, then after we told her it was bad for her, she kept doing it, so we’re not going to give her chemotherapy, we’re not going to give her radiation, we’re not going to giver her any of that stuff,” Christie said.
“No one said that,” he added. “No one said that about someone who had cancer.”
“Yet somehow, if it’s heroin or cocaine or alcohol, we say, ‘Well, they decided, they’re getting what they deserved.”
Christie has championed drug addiction reform during his tenure as the governor of New Jersey, favoring treatment rather than incarceration for non-violent offenders.
His presidential campaign has failed to garner significant momentum in the Republican primary. He currently sits ninth in the field with 2 percent national support, according to a RealClearPolitics poll.