New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) said Monday that despite the criticism he’s taken from some on the right for his embrace of President Barack Obama following Superstorm Sandy, the popular Republican wouldn’t have done anything differently.
Appearing on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” on the six-month anniversary of Sandy, Christie was asked by host Joe Scarborough if he regrets his bipartisan response to the storm, which battered the Northeast a week before last year’s election.
“No. No,” the normally outspoken Christie said.
Christie then elaborated, saying he wasn’t concerned about the presidential election in the immediate aftermath of Sandy.
“I say the same thing to all my critics, no matter where they are on the spectrum, that is I’ve got a job to do. And the fact is there was nothing else that ever crossed my mind in the days after,” Christie said. “You wake up on Tuesday, October 30th, 7 million of your 8.8 million citizens out of power, there’s not a school opened, not a water treatment or waste water treatment plant is operational. Fifty-one gas stations in the whole state are open. You’re not sitting there worrying about presidential politics, Joe.”
Christie said that while he was a supporter of 2012 Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney — and disagrees with Obama virtually across the board — he has to tip his hat to the President’s response to Sandy.
“Listen, the President has kept every promise he’s made,” Christie said. “What I was saying at the time was, I was asked how the President was doing, I said, he’s doing a good job, he’s kept his word. And so everybody knows that I have about 95 percent level disagreement with Barack Obama on issues of principle and philosophy. But the fact is we have a job to do. And what people expect from people they elect is to do their job.”
