At Governor Christie’s press conference on Monday on the rooftop of the ‘American Dream’ mega-mall, there were two stories. One about the progress of the Meadowlands project, and one about what Christie thinks of Donald Trump’s statement that both sides were to blame in the Charlottesville, Virginia unrest two weekends ago.

“All leaders must speak out clearly on this against white nationalists, against white-supremacists against neo-nazis. This is unacceptable and I think in my view that the president’s comments about both sides were a mistake. They shouldn’t have been said and I certainly wouldn’t have said them and I wouldn’t say them today I wouldn’t agree with them and I don’t adopt them. The people who wanted to cause violence in Charlottesville were the neo-nazis and the white-supremacists who came there to cause violence and the very underpinnings of their philosophy if you can call it that is the use of violence based upon prejudice.” said Christie.

Christie said Trump’s statement was dead wrong. We asked if Trump should be forgiven for that.

“I think that anybody in public life who asks for forgiveness should be forgiven. I think if you ask for forgiveness and you do so sincerely you should be because I know the president. I’ve known him for 15 years and I know that the president is not a racist and I absolutely believe that. But, it does not excuse the statement, the statement is just wrong.” he said.

A reporter asked if, given Trump’s moral judgement, he is up to the job.

“Yeah, I think he’s up to the job, I do. I think he’s up to the job but again that doesn’t mean that you can’t get better and learn on the job. I said this all along and I said it when I was running against him. This is a pretty tough place to start your elected career in the oval office in the presidency and I think that the presidents learning that.” he said.

The event at ‘American Dream’ was designed to inspire confidence in the long-stalled project and showcase the 600 people working on it. Once known as Xanadu, it’s been on the books since 2003. It sits in the Meadowlands next to MetLife Stadium and the old Izod Center.

The Ghermezian family of Minnesota took it over six years ago, renamed it ‘American Dream’, and promised a world-class facility.

Its company, Triple Five Group, built the Mall of America in Minnesota, and the West Edmonton Mall.

Chief Operating Officer of Triple Five, Paul Ghermezian, was on hand Monday and defended the idea of building a new mall when malls generally are contracting.

“People always ask me what are you guys doing, what makes you guys so different why do you think this can survive and I think that if you’ve ever experienced one of our projects and know what we do, the project really speaks for itself and we did that. We went through the walk through with the governor and John and the team to explain to them what we do different and what makes us special. I think that in the new age of online and when everybody talks about experiential and how people are talking about bringing entertainment to their centers, I believe that we have truly define what that means and what that is to a level that no one else in the world really has.” said Ghermezian.

There are plans in the complex for a theme park and a water park. Ghermezian promises a beautiful glass façade on what Christie once called the ugliest building in New Jersey. The governor’s top advisor on this subject hailed the company.

“There was only one group to get this project built that was the Triple Five. We visited their project in the mall of America, its an outstanding project.” said Jon Hanson the Chair of the Advisory Commission on New Jersey Sports, Gaming and Entertainment.

Christie said eventually 3,000 construction workers will be on-site, and once the mall is complete 16,000 will work there.

“It’s going to be so vital to our continued economy here in the northern part of the state. A project that will have a real economic benefit to New Jersey over the next two decades including it’s impact in our tourism industry.” said Christie.

Construction at the ‘American Dream’ project is said to be 35 percent completed. The scheduled opening date is now March 2019.