Christie: ‘I Am Not A Bully’

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie enters a news conference Thursday, Jan. 9, 2014, at the Statehouse in Trenton, N.J. Christie has fired a top aide who engineered political payback against a town mayor, saying she lied... New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie enters a news conference Thursday, Jan. 9, 2014, at the Statehouse in Trenton, N.J. Christie has fired a top aide who engineered political payback against a town mayor, saying she lied. Deputy Chief of Staff Bridget Anne Kelly is the latest casualty in a widening scandal that threatens to upend Christie's second term and likely run for president in 2016. Documents show she arranged traffic jams to punish the mayor, who didn't endorse Christie for re-election. (AP Photo/Mel Evans) MORE LESS
Start your day with TPM.
Sign up for the Morning Memo newsletter

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) emphatically denied Thursday that he was a political bully who used his position for intimidation.

Asked by a reporter if the revelations that his staff had been involved in lane closures on the George Washington Bridge confirmed perceptions that he was a bully, Christie said it did not.

“No, I’m not,” Christie said. “But politics ain’t beanbag. Everybody in the country who engages in politics knows that.”

“On the other hand, that’s very, very different from saying, you know, that someone is a bully. I have very heated discussions and arguments with people in my own party and on the other side of is the aisle. I feel passionately about issues. I don’t hide my emotions from people. I am not a focus-group-tested, blow-dried candidate or governor. Now, that has always made some people, as you know, uneasy. Some people like that style. Some people don’t.”

“I am who I am,” he said, “but I am not a bully.”

Latest Livewire
Comments
Masthead Masthead
Founder & Editor-in-Chief:
Executive Editor:
Managing Editor:
Associate Editor:
Editor at Large:
General Counsel:
Publisher:
Head of Product:
Director of Technology:
Associate Publisher:
Front End Developer:
Senior Designer: