Republican New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie is too hot for the New York Times.
In keeping with a steady stream of negative stories about Christie, the Times on Thursday covered the potential presidential candidate’s intentionally raunchy speech at the annual New Jersey Legislative Correspondents Club Show.
The event, highly attended by politicos and journalists, is traditionally meant to have an edge, but the Times said that Christie’s speech “even by the standards of veteran attendees … was unexpectedly unplugged, unfiltered and uncensored.”
“It seemed to crystallize his mounting and, until now, politely expressed resentments toward the local news media that has most closely and aggressively covered his governorship and his political decline over the last year,” the Times said in a news story, noting Christie’s “long odds in the 2016 presidential race.”
In his speech, Christie cursed and made pointed jokes at reporters, in keeping with the event’s tradition.
“We don’t give a s–t about this or about any of you,” Christie said at one point about the event, drawing laughs and jeers. He also joked about his potential presidential bid, saying that if it got him out of attending next year’s Correspondents Club Show, he would do commit to it.
“Anything that gets me off this f—ing stage next year, I’m willing to do anything,” he said.
The Times wrote that Christie “swore, gratuitously and enthusiastically, at least nine times in his speech, rendering many one-liners unprintable in this publication.”
Bloomberg Politics and International Business Times also wrote stories on Christie’s speech. “Even attendees used to Christie’s brusque demeanor thought the speech was unusually biting,” wrote I.B. Times.
Bloomberg called it “an expletive-laced speech.”
In an email to the Washington Examiner, a spokesman for Christie said that “Most of the ‘veteran attendees’ who have weighed in on this say just the opposite [of media reports].”
Patrick Murray, director of Monmouth University’s Polling Institute, attended the event and tweeted a link to the Bloomberg story, asking if it “cross[ed] a line.”
“Christie is the star attraction and has never failed to entertain,” Murray tweeted. “Talk about biting the hand.”
Author Bob Ingle wrote on Twitter, “Christie was playing the angry governor guy as he has at other roasts. Taking this out of context is shoddy reporting.”
“Really doesn’t seem too far beyond what normally goes on at the Correspondent’s Club dinner,” tweeted Dan Cassino, a political science professor a Fairleigh Dickinson University.
