New Jersey governor Chris Christie has had a remarkable comeback in the GOP presidential race. Back in November, he was relegated to the undercard debate, but he managed to bounce back in the polls in the wake of the attacks in Paris and San Bernardino. He is now right in the mix with Rubio, Bush, and Kasich in New Hampshire, where all four men are fighting for a ticket out of Granite State.
The core appeal of Christie’s candidacy is that he’s a tough, hard-headed executive who will do what it takes to keep us safe and tell it like it is. But during Thursday night’s debate, Christie undermined his reputation as a no-nonsense straight-talker when he claimed he never supported Sonia Sotomayor and never donated to Planned Parenthood.
During the debate, Florida senator Marco Rubio said that “Governor Christie has endorsed many of the ideas that Barack Obama supports, whether it is Common Core or gun control or the appointment of Sonia Sotomayor or the donation he made to Planned Parenthood. Our next president, and our Republican nominee can not be someone who supports those positions.”
Christie replied:
Christie’s claim that he didn’t support the nomination of Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court is simply false. In 2009, he said: “I support her appointment to the Supreme Court and urge the Senate to keep politics out of the process and confirm her nomination.”
Christie could have made a strong argument that there was nothing Republicans could have done to stop her appointment in 2009 (when Democrats had 60 senators). He could have argued that “elections have consequences,” and therefore Obama was eventually going to get a liberal Supreme Court justice on the bench, and all Republicans could hope for was that the nominee met the basic qualifications to be a judge. He could have pointed out he would not have nominated her. But instead he chose to claim that he did not support her confirmation. That’s not true.
Christie’s claim that he did not donate to Planned Parenthood is contradicted by a 1994 Newark Star-Ledger story in which Christie was quoted as saying: “I support Planned Parenthood privately with my personal contribution.” Christie now says he was misquoted. Michael Warren notes that “the Star-Ledger reporter who supposedly misquoted Christie, Brian Murray, now works for Christie in his capacity as a spokesman for the office of the governor in New Jersey.” Why is Christie only disputing the quote now? And wouldn’t the reporter, who quoted Christie at great length but will not comment on the story, have recorded the interview? It all seems highly unlikely that Christie that Christie was misquoted.
So why didn’t he simply talk about his pro-life conversion instead and chastise Rubio for condemning converts rather than welcoming them? In the pro-life movement, there are prominent doctors who once performed abortions and women who have had abortions. Christie’s conversion story would have been a lot more compelling than a dubious denial that he ever donated to Planned Parenthood.
New Jersey reporter Samantha Marcus also points out that Christie’s claim that Common Core was “eliminated” in the state is “not accurate,” and that a panel has merely proposed changes that keep 84 percent of existing standards in place. As for Christie’s record on guns, he failed to mention that he had proposed a ban on .50 caliber weapons before he vetoed it.
In a GOP primary, Christie was always going to have to explain the heterodox positions he took as governor of New Jersey. His decision to defend that record in a less-than-honest way seems to be a big mistake.
