Chris Christie kick-started his back-to-business campaign by spending nearly two hours fielding reporters’ questions. He was both combative and reflective, assuring citizens that despite his plunging poll numbers, criticism of his Trump endorsement and calls for his resignation, he’s back and committed to getting things done. NJTV News Correspondent David Cruz was one of the reporters doing the questioning. He spoke about the event with Anchor Mary Alice Williams.
Cruz: That’s right Mary Alice. Any time this governor needs to right his political ship, he will hold one of these marathon press conferences where he answers every single question and today was one of those days. We have highlights, including the official reason for this press conference:
“It’s a monumental day for New Jersey’s economic recovery. The New Jersey unemployment rate is now down to 4.8 percent. To remind you, when I came into office in January of 2010, the February 2010 unemployment rate, the first one given during my time as governor, was 9.8 percent, a full five points higher. We’ve now cut the unemployment rate more than in half.”
“Now, I’ve been out of the presidential race for about 22 days I think, by my calculation and I’ve been here 19 of those 22 days. And I’ve been working — presenting a budget, meeting with legislators on education priorities. We’re going to continue to push for expansion of charter schools in our cities where parents need greater choices than what they’re getting now. And yes, in those 22 days, I also endorsed Donald Trump for president of the United States. And I did it for one very simple reason — that Mr. Trump, who I’ve known, as you all know, for 14 years and I made no secret of it during the presidential race, that Donald Trump and I have been friends for 14 years, that I believe that he’s the best person to beat Hillary Clinton. And that as a Republican, I feel strongly about making sure that Hillary Clinton does not become president of the United States and I believe Donald Trump is the best person of those remaining to do that. I obviously thought I was better. The voters disagreed.”
“Now let me be really clear. I am not a full-time surrogate for Donald Trump. I don’t have a title or a position in the Trump campaign. I am an endorser of Donald Trump.”
Cruz: Governor, given the Internet freak-out about your facial and body language on Super Tuesday, do you plan to change the way you present yourself? Maybe stand off camera a little more?
“No, not a bit. No, listen. I stood where they asked me to stand.”
Cruz: But you’re aware of the Internet freak-out right?
“What do I care? Do you think I really care, David? I really don’t. And you know what? Next week there will be an Internet freak-out about something else. And the next week there will be an Internet freak-out about something else.”
“The only plans I have to go away is to finally take a few days off. March 8, next Tuesday, is my 30th wedding anniversary. It might be a good moment for me to take my wife away and remind her why she might want to stay with me for a few more years after having put in 30 already.”
“I am not shocked that the Star-Ledger editorial page or the Gannett editorial page, none of which have ever supported me, my policies or my existence, would call on me now to resign. They’re trying to find some way to be relevant as their circulations decline, as their readership declines, they’re trying to be relevant and the only way to do that is to set themselves on fire.”
“Guys, I just got done with a nearly year-long campaign for president of the United States and I’ve been back 22 days and you want me to lay out my entire plan for how I’m going to do the next 22 months. I didn’t lay out a 22-month plan for you when I got here, let alone now, so relax. We got plenty to do and we’re going to do plenty.”
Cruz: So there was some classic Christie there. So how long was this thing? As you said, M.A., about two hours. Long enough to actually have some camera crews break down and leave the press conference before it was even over. I’ve been covering the governor for several years now, and I have never seen that happen before. M.A.?
Williams: David, one of the things that struck me was his handle he had on the legislative process — how revenue gets raised, how bills get passed, how nominees get confirmed. Something we have not heard on the presidential campaign trail.
Cruz: For sure. I mean, this is a guy who made a point today of saying that he is back, he is fully engaged and demonstrated his knowledge of all of that stuff and really demonstrated to Democrats particularly in the Legislature that he is standing with two feet firmly on the ground and that if they want to come at him, they’re going to have to come at him. And he made a point of telling Steve Sweeney that there are going to be ramifications to Sweeney for not even considering the governor’s Supreme Court nominee.
Williams: David, we’re joined now by Michael Hill.
Hill: David, any doubt that he is responding to some of the criticism? I mean, this is the day after he was on the campaign trail. He’s back now in New Jersey, holds this expansive news conference and he’s talking about all sorts of issues. Any doubt that he’s responding to criticism?
Cruz: I don’t think there’s any doubt about that, Michael. This is a guy who knows his stuff, he knows his political history and he went right back to that playbook that hearkens back to the ’80s when Geraldine Ferraro was running for vice president, was the vice presidential nominee with Walter Mondale and there was this controversy about her and she calmed it down by taking every single question at a marathon press conference. And so I think the governor knew that the Internet was having a freak-out and that all these questions were rising about the Star-Ledger and other newspapers, Gannett papers telling him that he should resign and some Republicans who suggested that if he wasn’t here full-time that he should consider resigning. So all of those together, I think he said maybe it’s time to call a press conference and the positive numbers on unemployment today were a perfect reason to do that.
Williams: Also, David, he was in the room surrounded by local press only, something that hasn’t happened in a long time. Did you get the impression that he’s back to the old Christie, not on the campaign, but back to his old relationship with you?
Cruz: I think that he is going to strike a pretty good level there, a balance between being a surrogate for Donald Trump and all the positive things that could result for him politically as a result of that, but also recognizing that if he doesn’t at least demonstrate that he’s here and doing his job, that it’s not going to help him at home and consequently not going to help him out on the road when he’s with Donald Trump. I get the feeling that he’s demonstrating that he can both walk and chew gum at the same time, and this time he’s really going to do it.
Hill: David, a few seconds left. He’s not out of the woods though for his support for Donald Trump though?
Cruz: Totally not. I mean, some Republicans in the state are really upset with him about that, but he kind of waved that off, even Mitt Romney’s critical comments. He said, “You know, we disagree, but we’re still friends.” So that’s what he’s using going forward.
Williams: OK. David Cruz, Michael Hill, thanks.