The event was a bill signing aimed at preventing the abuse of opioids and prescription drugs. But the big story was that, for the first time in months, Gov. Chris Christie took questions from the New Jersey press corps, all of them fighting noise from passing trains and noisy protesters. NJTV News Correspondent David Cruz was there.
He said it was kind of a funky day for the governor. He started out in Jersey City where he helped to cut the ribbon on the Goya headquarters there. Goya got something like $80 million in state funding and so they laid out the red carpet for Christie today, including the Weehawken Marching Band. Then he came to New Brunswick this afternoon for a bill signing. He was confronted by protesters. He answered questions from the media. As far as topics, you can call it the three Bs — the bridge, the budget and Baltimore.
On the bridge, Bloomberg is reporting today that David Wildstein will plead guilty tomorrow to some charges pertaining to the bridge scandal. We’re not sure what those charges will be. That news broke right before the governor came out this afternoon and NJTV News asked him about that.
“I don’t know exactly what’s going to be done. I just was told about the report you’re referring to on my way down the stairs. And so I couldn’t tell you and I’ll react when I have an opportunity to react. But again, I don’t think that has anything much to do with me,” Christie said.
On the budget, Senate President Steve Sweeney blasted the governor, saying that he’s not an active participant in any of these negotiations as far as the state’s economic crisis goes. He said he wanted the governor to come back and actually start to work with them. When asked about that, Christie said today that’s just not true.
“I’ve been very involved in the budget process. Listen, here’s the bottom line. Steve had his press conference yesterday to prescribe the only prescription that Democrats ever have for any problem in the state and that’s to raise taxes. So I’m glad Steve’s back on the record for raising taxes again, and that’s really the message out of yesterday. So the Democrats are once again firmly in the place of raising taxes on people in New Jersey,” Christie said. “And as for the rest of it, I’m involved. I have a number of times in the past 10 days and so I heard his press conference and that’s fine. He can say those kinds of things but I’m here and I’m available to talk any time they want to talk.”
As far as the protesters, they were local residents who say they were here on their own accord. They were giving the governor the business about a number of things including his decision to send New Jersey state troopers to Baltimore to help with law enforcement there. Christie responded to the criticism.
“Baltimore was in a state of emergency. The governor declared a state of emergency and asked not just us, but all neighboring states for assistance. We responded to that call for assistance the same way those neighboring state responded to calls for emergency from us during Hurricane Sandy. It’s that simple,” the governor said.