New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie’s endorsement last week of billionaire businessman Donald Trump isn’t going over well with media in the Garden State, and six newspapers have called on the Republican to resign.
“What an embarrassment. What an utter disgrace. We’re fed up with Gov. Chris Christie’s arrogance. We’re fed up with his opportunism. We’re fed up with his hypocrisy. We’re fed up with his sarcasm,” a half dozen Gannett-owned papers said in a joint statement published Tuesday.
“We’re fed up with his long neglect of the state to pursue his own selfish agenda. We’re disgusted with his endorsement of Donald Trump after he spent months on the campaign trail trashing him, calling him unqualified by temperament and experience to be president,” the statement added.
The statement also noted the papers’ displeasure with Christie’s refusal during a press conference Monday to respond to questions on the grounds he simply didn’t feel like answering.
“Christie was at his arrogant worst, refusing to take any questions from reporters that didn’t relate directly to his nomination of Superior Court Judge David Bauman as a state Supreme Court justice,” they wrote. “Some Statehouse veteran reporters said this the first time they could remember a governor restricting questions at a news conference in Trenton.
“Can you imagine any other governor saying that? Or President Barack Obama? Is that what Christie would have told the national press corps if he became president?” they asked.
The statement, whose signatories include the Asbury Park Press, the Cherry Hill Courier-Post and the Morristown Daily Record, which are all part of the USA Today network, accused Christie of ignoring his executive duties during his failed presidential bid.
“Last year, he spent 261 full or partial days out of New Jersey. Now that he is no longer running for president, what percentage of his time does he expect to spend in New Jersey on New Jersey business this year? How could he endorse someone for president who disagrees with him on virtually every important issue?” they asked.
“Was his trip to Texas to endorse Trump and his campaigning on his behalf the following day in Arkansas and Tennessee a harbinger of more out-of-state stumping for him in the future? (A question answered by his subsequent trips to Ohio and Kentucky on Trump’s behalf.) Will New Jersey continue to be billed for his security and other expenses on these trips? If so, how does he justify that?” they added.
Christie endorsed Trump Friday morning.
“I’ve been on that stage,” the failed 2016 presidential candidate said during a Trump press conference. “I’ve gotten to know all the people on that stage. And there is no one better prepared to provide America with the strong leadership that it needs both at home and around the world than Donald Trump,” Christie said at a joint press appearance in Texas alongside Trump.
The 2016 dropout also said Trump was the “clear standout” in a GOP debate held Thursday evening in Texas, adding that the businessman is “the person who will do exactly what needs to be done to make America a leader around the world again.”
Christie also said Trump is the best-suited to take on Hillary Clinton, should she win the Democratic Party nomination.
“I can guarantee you that the one person that Hillary and Bill Clinton don’t want to see on that stage come September is Donald Trump,” the governor said. “They know how to run the standard political playbook against junior senators and run them around the block. They do not know the playbook with Donald Trump because he is rewriting the playbook.”
Taken together, his treatment of the press, his absence in the state and his endorsement of Trump, one thing is clear: it’s finally time for Christie to go, the statement from the Gannett newspapers argued Tuesday.
“It has been obvious for at least two years that Christie has put personal ambition ahead of the interests of New Jersey citizens. Sadly, members of his own party have displayed no backbone in trying to rein him in. When he has said ‘jump,’ they have responded, in unison, ‘how high?’ ”
“And the Democratic Party’s weak leadership has failed to fill the power vacuum. Christie has taken his hands off the rudder, and no one has rushed forward to help steer the boat,” it added. “New Jersey needs someone whose full attention is devoted to making life better for New Jersey’s citizens. That won’t happen until Christie steps down or is forced out.”
