New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie said that it was “just so gratifying that the American people were heard” on Election Day after years of marginalization from media and the political elite during an interview Wednesday on “The Laura Ingraham Show.”

Christie, a former challenger to Donald Trump during the Republican primaries who proved to be one of his earliest and staunchest surrogates, told LifeZette Editor-in-Chief Laura Ingraham that he attended Trump’s victory celebration with his oldest son. Being there with his son was an “amazing” experience, Christie said, because they both experienced simultaneously the realization that “this is still a country that they can believe in” and that can effect change “if they want to try.”

“[Trump] now has the opportunity to do exactly what he wants to do, which is to restore and renew this country.”

“It’s just so gratifying that the American people were heard, and that’s what I was thinking about last night,” Christie told Ingraham. “For everybody who gets cynical about our country, last night should be an example of why you can never be cynical about America. Because in America — even though we have ups and downs, and sometimes we live up to expectations and sometimes we fall short — the American people are still in charge of their country. And that’s what last night showed to me.”

Christie suffered widespread criticism when he became the first major primary challenger of Trump’s to endorse his candidacy back in February, shortly after he himself dropped out of the race. But Christie insisted that at the time he endorsed his longtime friend for the presidency, he “really believed that this was the direction the American people wanted to go in, and that the voters of our party were speaking and that we needed to listen.”

“He now has the opportunity to do exactly what he wants to do, which is to restore and renew this country,” Christie told Ingraham.

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As Trump watched last night’s results come in and the gravity of the impending outcome dawned on him, Christie said that Trump was just “taking it all in.”

“He was very serious. He knows the task ahead is an amazing one … but this is a guy that I know never underestimates his ability to be able to help lead people and to be able to make great things happen,” Christie said. “And I think now, as the president-elect, he is going to help lead our country in that direction. And last night was just the beginning of that.”

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Christie told Ingraham that Trump recognizes the duty he owes to Americans — both his own supporters and Hillary Clinton’s — to “be welcoming” and do “everything he can to bind the wounds that have been created by a really raucous political season,” while clearly articulating that the government “is not working for the people and he is going to make sure that the government does work for the people.”

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Christie said Trump’s astounding performance in traditionally blue states justified the narrative of his candidacy.

“And we see now from the results last night that this is a different kind of candidate, who was daring enough to pursue an unconventional strategy from an electoral perspective,” Christie said. “And I think that made a huge difference, because those people felt like they were being paid attention to.”