Margaret Brennan, Chris Christie spar over Haley ‘surging’ in New Hampshire polls

CBS’s Margaret Brennan and GOP presidential candidate Chris Christie got into a heated debate Sunday over a recent poll showing former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley “surging” in New Hampshire.

Brennan pressed Christie on a new CBS/YouGov poll published Sunday that found Haley gaining steam on former President Trump in New Hampshire with 29 percent of support among GOP voters in the early nominating contest. Christie fired back, labeling the survey conducted earlier this month as “foolish” and dismissing its results.

Brennan asked Christie whether the New Hampshire primary would be a “defining” moment for his campaign as the recent poll shows him trailing in fourth place in the state with 10 percent support.

“New Hampshire will be an important moment, Margaret, there’s no doubt,” he said. “But what won’t be a defining moment is your poll of 450 people, six weeks before the primary.”

The survey was conducted Dec. 8-15 on a representative sample of 855 registered voters in New Hampshire, according to CBS. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 5.5 points.

Brennan pushed back, saying the poll has not been the only one showing Christie trailing behind.

“So you’ve said though, for Nikki Haley, who we have — not just CBS — other polls have said she is surging in the state of New Hampshire. You’ve said she’s not a fundamentally serious candidate,” Brennan said as Christie began to talk over her.

“That’s not true. No. I’m gonna stop you. Hold on. I’m gonna stop you right there because in the last two polls that have come out, Nikki Haley was at 13 or 14 percent,” Christie said. “And I was at 10 or 11. So I don’t understand where you talked about surging, Margaret. I know that that’s the talking points up on the teleprompter, but it’s not surging.”

The two continued to talk over each other as Christie argued he was countering Brennan’s point, with Brennan ending the exchange with a pointed “OK.”

The poll showed 29 percent of voters saying they would vote for the former South Carolina governor, who is 15 points behind Trump. It showed Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis with 11 percent support and Christie with 10 percent.