Republican mega-donor Ken Langone, co-founder of Home Depot, said he is standing by embattled New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie in the race for the GOP's 2016 presidential nomination,
BuzzFeed reported.
However,
Langone would drop Christie if it transpired that he did have something to do with the scandal.
"If he's that stupid, he can't be president of the United States," because Langone wouldn't want someone with such poor judgment in charge of the nation's nuclear weapons.
Christie's Achilles Heel is the staff he surrounds himself with. This was most recently illustrated when, before a Republican Jewish audience, he referred to the West Bank as Israeli "occupied territories." The 78-year-old billionaire, and long-standing Christie backer, says the solution is for Christie to find better advisers, according to BuzzFeed.
The Wall Street investor thinks Christie would be able to better connect with the American people than former Florida governor Jeb Bush even though he feels Bush would make for "a superb president."
The Bush name, though, carries too much baggage, said Langone. Democrats would tie him to the economic downturn and war policies associated with president George W. Bush.
Langone, a Catholic, does not characterize himself as "wildly conservative" – he's not opposed to single-sex marriage, for example. And he does not want to be beholden to any politician, according to BuzzFeed.
Though primarily a GOP donor, he has also backed Democrats. He likes New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo's stance on charter schools. He appreciates New York Sen. Charles Schumer's work on behalf of NYU's Langone Medical Center. The hospital complex, near Manhattan's East River, had to be evacuated during Hurricane Sandy. Schumer, later helped secure federal aid for repairs.
Langone says that Christie has a lot of political enemies in both parties. Some of the governor's opponents have no particular ideology, only a strong desire to become president. Should Christie decide to run, he will work to raise money for the campaign because Christie "can be a great president," he told BuzzFeed.
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