The office of New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) released a prepared version of his second term inaugural address Tuesday and it contained no reference to the scandals facing his administration.
A week ago in his state of the state speech, Christie briefly addressed allegations that his allies ordered lane closures on the George Washington Bridge as retaliation against a mayor who declined to endorse him. Since then, the mayor of Hoboken, N.J. has accused the Christie administration of threatening to withhold Hurricane Sandy aid from her city if she did not approve a real estate project linked to one of his allies. The Legislature announced before his speech Tuesday that the Assembly and Senate are planning to form a joint committee to continue the investigation into the closures.
Rather than discussing the scandals, in the planned text of his remarks, Christie claimed a strong mandate by alluding to his landslide victory in last November’s election.
“The people have definitively set the course for the next four years. They have affirmed the decision to take on the big problems. They have validated the idea that our answers to our problems must be bold. They have rewarded the principle that we must tell the truth about the depths of our challenges and the difficulty of real solutions,” Christie said. “And it wasn’t just some of our people who affirmed this course. It was not a vocal plurality like four years ago. No, this time, it was the largest and loudest voice of affirmation that the people of our state have given to any direction in three decades. Suburbanites and city dwellers. African Americans and Latinos. Women and men. Doctors and teachers. Factory workers and tradesmen. Republicans and Democrats and Independents.”