New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie defended his endorsement of Donald Trump in a press conference Thursday, but emphasized that he is focusing on his job in Trenton and plans to remain governor until his second term is up.
“I am not a full-time surrogate for Trump,” he said. “I do not have a title or position in the Trump campaign.” Christie said the next time he plans to take time off is during his wedding anniversary on March 8.
Christie opened by talking about New Jersey’s declining unemployment rate. “I’ve been out of the presidential race for 22 days and I’ve here for 19 days and I’ve been working.” He later defended his decision to refuse to answer questions about Trump when rolling out a state supreme court nominee.
“Donald Trump and I have been friends for 14 years,” Christie said, not backing down from his endorsement. “I believe he is the best person to beat Hillary Clinton.”
“I obviously thought I was better,” Christie added. “The voters disagreed.”
Christie bickered with reporters over their counting his business trips to New York City as days when he was out of state. He mocked newspapers who called on him to resign as attention-seeking outlets with declining circulation. He also pushed back against the ridicule he received after
“I wasn’t standing up there thinking, ‘Oh my God, what have I done,'” Christie said. “I wasn’t being held hostage. I wasn’t upset … I wasn’t despondent.”
While Christie left the door open a crack to serving in a Trump or other Republican administration, he said his “current intention” was to finish his governorship and return to the private sector.
Christie spoke just moments after 2012 GOP nominee Mitt Romney delivered a blistering speech against Trump’s nomination, in which he called Trump a con man, a fraud and a phony.
Romney laid into Trump as a candidate who would doom the Republican Party, and as a result, give the White House to Democrats again. He also blasted Trump as a non-Republican.
“There is plenty of evidence that Mr. Trump is a con man, a fake,” he said. “Mr. Trump has changed his positions not just over the years, but over the course of the campaign.”
Romney’s scathing critique comes just four years after Trump endorsed Romney, a fact that had Trump asking over Twitter, “Why did Mitt Romney BEG me for my endorsement four years ago?”
“Mitt Romney is a very good friend of mine,” Christie said. “We have a political disagreement.” He added it won’t “change the extraordinary respect I have for Governor Romney.” He did, however, implicitly criticize the 2012 Republican front-runner for failing to “get out there” and endorse a specific candidate.
“Donald Trump is not a bigot,” Christie later said, adding that Romney was wrong to say that Trump hadn’t disavowed David Duke.
Christie pointed out that George H.W. Bush called Ronald Reagan’s economic plan “vodoo economics” during the 1980 primaries but went on to be a loyal member of his administration who ran for president in 1988 on the Reagan legacy.
The New Jersey governor also criticized Florida Sen. Marco Rubio for making fun of Trump’s hand size.
