New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie said Monday that President Barack Obama “has kept every promise he’s made” about helping the state recover from Superstorm Sandy.
Speaking on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” program on the 6-month anniversary of the deadly storm, the Republican governor said presidential politics were the last thing on his mind as he toured storm-devastated areas with Obama last fall.
“The president has kept every promise he’s made,” said Christie, widely considered a potential candidate for the republican presidential nomination in 2016. “I think he’s done a good job. He kept his word.”
Christie’s warm embrace of Obama after the storm angered some Republicans, who said it helped tip a close presidential election to the Democrat and away from Mitt Romney, who Christie endorsed and for whom he campaigned last fall.
Christie says he and Obama have fundamentally different views on governing. But he said the two men did what needed to be done for a devastated region.
“I’ve got a job to do,” he said. “You wake up and 7 million of your 8.8 million citizens are out of power, you’re not thinking about presidential politics. Put yourself in my shoes: If you’re a responsible political official, you’ll do nothing differently.
“I have a 95 percent level of disagreement with Barack Obama,” Christie said. “We saw suffering together. Everything the president promised me they’d do, they’ve done. I don’t have any complaint this morning on the issue of disaster relief.”
Sandy destroyed about 360,000 homes or apartment units in New Jersey, and some areas along the shore are still devastated.
Later Monday, U.S. Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan is to appear with Christie at a press conference, where it is expected the secretary will announce federal approval of New Jersey’s plans to spend more than $1.8 billion in federal grants on storm rebuilding and recovery.
“We’ll start to see that aid start flowing this week,” Christie said on the show. “We still have tens of thousands of families who aren’t back in their homes. Job One is to get the grant program going.”
Congress approved more than $60 billion in Sandy relief funds, most of it for New Jersey and New York, despite opposition from many Congressional Republicans who wanted to spend less.
(AP)
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3 Responses
we all know that Christie is not just doing his 2 terms in N.J and retiring. he wants to be president, but he also knows that hes a liberal and has no chance on winning as a republican, thats why its my opinion that he has struck up a deal with obama, that he will be obama’s lap dog, and in return in 2016 Christie will change his party to democrat and obama will endorse him
That makes no sense. While Christie may be too liberal to get the Republican nomination, he’s way too conservative to get the Democratic nomination.
He’ll get the Republican nomination unless a new contender steps into the ring. He could take NJ Red for the first time in a very long time, and he’s got a great track record as governor, and a lot of personality.
Remember, even “bad” personality is better than no personality – George W Bush came off as retarded (but friendly) when he first ran for president…. but his opponent came off as an emotionless corpse. Obama also has tons of personality and McCain couldn’t hope to match it.