Chris Christie, the New Jersey governor running for president as a Republican, told CBS’s John Dickerson Sunday that he “never donated to Planned Parenthood.” Christie was responding to a charge by one of his GOP rivals, Florida senator Marco Rubio, who said late last week that the two-term governor “personally contributed” to the nation’s largest abortion provider.
Rubio’s charge came after a super PAC supporting him released an ad leveling that same allegation toward Christie. Christie told the Washington Post last week that Rubio was trying to “slime” his way to the White House. Christie maintained on Face the Nation Sunday that the charge from Rubio and Rubio’s super PAC was not true.
“I never donated to Planned Parenthood, so that’s wrong,” Christie told Dickerson. “For him to be trying to characterize my conservative record in that way is contrary to what Marco himself said. Marco himself has said that I was a conservative reformer in New Jersey.” Watch the video below:
So what’s the truth? In his 2012 biography of the governor, Bob Ingle writes that Christie claimed during his 1994 run for Morris County freeholder that he had personally contributed to Planned Parenthood. Morris County had, in 1989, stopped providing an annual $35,000 taxpayer-funded subsidy to Planned Parenthood, and in 1994 the question of restoring that funding was up for debate. Christie opposed funding Planned Parenthood that way and is quoted as offering his own example as a case against taxes supporting the organization.
“I support Planned Parenthood privately with my personal contribution and that should be the goal of any agency, to find private donations,” said Christie, according to Ingle’s book. “It’s also no secret that I am pro-choice….But you have to examine all the agencies needing county donations and prioritize them. I would consider all groups looking for funding, but there is a limit and we have to pick and choose. ”
So which is it? Did Christie personally contribute to Planned Parenthood sometime in or before 1994, or did he not? The Christie campaign tells THE WEEKLY STANDARD “he never donated per his comments this morning.” As a 501c(3) non-profit organization, Planned Parenthood’s donor information is not public.
When asked multiple times about the discrepancy between what he was quoted as saying in 1994 and what he said 22 years later while running for president, the Christie campaign refused to answer.
This apparent contradiction could hurt Christie, who has revived his presidential campaign by polling well in New Hampshire in recent weeks and even receiving some buzz in Iowa. More than one rival campaign has sent out the CBS interview Sunday to reporters, suggesting his opponents see this flip-flop as a problem for the northeastern governor sometimes viewed as more moderate.
More critically, Christie missed an opportunity in the interview to turn what could be a net negative—the dishonesty or contradiction—into a net plus by focusing on his own conversion on the abortion issue.
As he has acknowledged, Christie began his political career as a pro-choice Republican. But in 1995, when his wife Mary Pat was pregnant with their second child, Christie has said he heard his unborn daughter’s heartbeat during the ultrasound. “And I was driving back to work, I said to myself, you know, as to my position on abortion, I would say that a week ago that wasn’t a life,” said Christie in a 2011 interview with CNN. “And I heard that heartbeat. That’s a life. And it—it led to me having a real reflection on my position. And when I took time to reflect on it, I just said, you know what, I’m not comfortable with that anymore. That was back in 1995, and I’ve been pro-life ever since.”
Christie ran for governor in 2009 as a pro-life Republican, and since elected he has vetoed state funding for Planned Parenthood every year. Last year, after an undercover investigation revealed gruesome details about Planned Parenthood clinics selling fetal body parts, Christie went hard after Hillary Clinton for defending the organization.
Christie has plenty in his record to bolster his pro-life bona fides and a great conversion story to boot. Much of the pro-life movement is made up for converts, including women who have had abortions themselves. Given all of that, a donation more than two decades ago might not do much damage for Christie in the Republican primary. So why not be forthright about it, tell his own story, and criticize Rubio for trying to crucify a convert to the cause?
