Mika Brzezinski thinks her personal friend and texting buddy Chris Christie came through on Thursday where President Obama has previously come short.
Brzezinski chatted with the New Jersey governor over the phone after his marathon press conference, and reported back on “Morning Joe” that Christie is — as he said repeatedly at the presser — “really sad” about the scandal swirling around his office. But Christie was on such a mission, Brzezinski said Friday, that he didn’t even realize he faced the music for nearly two-hours.
“He said that when he got off the podium he did not know how much time had gone by ’cause he was gonna answer every question, nothing to hide, some things he can’t answer until he knows more but he wanted to put himself out there,” she said, adding that the “New York reporters” at the press conference did not “coddle” Christie.
Normally an Obama defender, Brzezinski said the presser trumped the President’s response to last year’s scandal surrounding the Internal Revenue Service.
“Obama said he didn’t know about it, but he didn’t do what Chris Christie did,” Brzezinski said. “Which was say, ‘But I’m responsible, and I don’t know what I did in my office, and I’ve got to do a lot of soul-searching to figure out why people felt they could do this. I thought that was extremely —”
“Have you ever heard Barack Obama say that?” host Joe Scarborough chimed in.
Scarborough and company haven’t downplayed the political implications for Christie in the bridge scandal, but they’ve continued to treat him like a friend.
Scarborough said Thursday that he’s willing to give Christie the benefit of the doubt. On Friday, he did his best to flip the story around on Obama.
“Is this as bad as the IRS scandal that Barack Obama basically just sort of brushed off?” Scarborough asked.
The comparison to the IRS ordeal makes little sense. Both liberal and conservative groups were improperly flagged by the agency and, as some have pointed out, the comparison would be more appropriate had Christie officials also ordered lane closures near cities led by mayors who supported him. Not to mention that one of Christie’s closest aides is at the center of the bridge scandal. There’s no evidence that Obama was that close to the IRS targeting.
