“Morning Joe” hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski, self-described fans of New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R), attacked the mayor of Hoboken, N.J. Monday for alleging Christie’s administration shook her down for Hurricane Sandy relief funds.
Hoboken Mayor Dawn Zimmer alleged Saturday on MSNBC that Christie’s lieutenant governor, Kim Guadagno, and one of Christie’s cabinet members tried to pressure her into fast-tracking a proposed redevelopment project in her city in order to receive Sandy aid.
Scarborough and Brzezinski questioned Zimmer’s credibility because she waited to come out with the allegation until months after the alleged shakedown. After an alleged encounter with Guadagno in May, Zimmer wrote in her personal diary that she was dismayed to find Christie “cut from the same corrupt cloth that I have been fighting for the last four years.”
“If she’s willing to go public and vouch for something that is corrupt, an administration that is corrupt, what does that say about her character?” Scarborough asked, referring to tweets Zimmer sent in praise of Christie. “She can’t have it both ways.”
“Way Too Early” host Thomas Roberts, calling Zimmer a “whistleblower,” accused Scarborough and Brzezinski of “eviscerating” the mayor. Scarborough shot back, accusing Roberts of “putting a halo” over her.
“I’m not saying she’s not telling the truth, I’m saying something much worse,” Scarborough said. “Because I’ve heard all of this about what a saint she is and how horrible Chris Christie is … I’d never in a million years go to constituents who voted for me and say that a governor is a good man, that I support and I’m asking them to vote for him, if I thought ‘he was so corrupt that it literally brought tears to my eyes.’ That is a question of character.”
Brzezinski, who describes herself as a friend of the governor, told the New York Times this weekend that she was taken aback when Christie criticized MSNBC for what he called “gleeful” and “partisan” coverage of the bridge scandal plaguing his administration.
“I don’t think it’s legitimate to say this is a partisan attack,” she said. “I think this is a very real story, with legs.”
Watch below, courtesy of MSNBC:
This post has been updated.
