New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie said during the GOP debate Thursday that he was appointed U.S. attorney the day before Sept. 11, 2001, but in actuality he was not appointed by former President George W. Bush until three months later in December 2001.
One of the Thursday debate’s most dramatic moments came when Christie got into a shouting match with on fellow candidate Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., on the NSA’s mass surveillance and data collection programs.
“I’m the only person on this stage who’s actually filed applications under the Patriot Act, who have gone before the Foreign Intelligence Service Court [sic], who has prosecuted and investigated and jailed terrorists in the country after Sept. 11,” Christie said. “I was appointed U.S. attorney by President Bush on Sept. 10, 2001. The world changed enormously the next day and it happened in my state. This is not theoretical to me.”
Christie accused Paul of “sitting in a subcommittee just blowing hot air” about the issue while he was “responsible for protecting the lives of the American people … [and using] the system the way it’s supposed to work.”
But a White House notice announcing Christie’s nomination can be found online — and it is dated Dec. 7, 2001.
Christie’s campaign spokeswoman Samantha Smith insisted Friday that Christie didn’t lie, he just misspoke.
She pointed out that at a town hall meeting earlier this year, Christie had said he “was informed by the White House that the president was going to nominate me to be U.S. attorney for New Jersey on Sept. 10, 2001,” according to U.S. News and World Report.
But during the debate Thursday night, Christie was very clear when he stated that he was “appointed United States attorney on Sept. 10, 2001. And I spent the next seven years of my career fighting terrorism and putting terrorists in jail.”
