“Don’t believe a word the man says.” That’s the warning a New Jersey newspaper editor gave just hours before Gov. Chris Christie officially launched his presidential campaign.
Tom Moran, editorial page editor of the New Jersey Star-Ledger, wrote in a scathing column that all politicians lie, but that the New Jersey Republican is in a league of his own.
“Don’t misunderstand me. They all lie, and I get that. But Christie does it with such audacity, and such frequency, that he stands out,” Moran wrote.
In his column, Moran lays out a “catalog of lies” from Christie. Moran says Christie has lied to voters as to why he cut state funding to Planned Parenthood, about his record on gun control and about the ongoing investigation into “Bridgegate.”
But Moran said his favorite lie from Christie is when he told union leaders on the campaign trail that their workers’ pensions were “sacred” but then cut them in his first month in office in 2010.
“This, we know now, was vintage Christie. Other lying politicians tend to waffle, to leave themselves some escape hatch. You can almost smell it,” Moran wrote. “But Christie lies with conviction. His hands don’t shake, and his eyes don’t wander. I can hardly blame the union leaders who met with him for believing him.”
Moran said Christie likes to talk with the national media because it’s “easier to get away with these lies.”
Moran’s final warning to voters was this: Don’t get be fooled by Christie’s charm and seemingly forceful and clear way of speaking.
“Be careful, though. It’s a kind of spell,” he concluded. “He is a remarkable talent with a silver tongue. But if you look closely, you can see that it is forked like a serpent’s.”
