Governor Chris Christie spoke on President Obama’s win during a press conference in Long Beach Island, NJ.
Christie was in LBI Tuesday morning where he greeted Hurricane Sandy first responders and volunteers. During most of his presser, Christie discussed the progress of post-Sandy recovery as well as how New Jersey is preparing for today’s Nor’easter.
The direction of the conference changed once the governor began taking questions from the media however regarding Obama’s win and whether his recent praise and work with the president had any effect on that.
I wouldn’t call what I did an “embrace” of Barack Obama. The fact of the matter is, I’m a guy who tells the truth all the time. If the President of the United States does something good I’m going to say he did something good and give him credit for it. But it doesn’t take away for a minute the fact that I was the first governor in America to endorse Mitt Romney and that I traveled literally, tens of thousands of miles for him, raised tens of millions of dollars for him, and worked harder I think, then any other surrogate in America, other than Paul Ryan, his running mate. I don’t know what effect it had. But I’m looking forward. As a party we have to look forward to what our challenges are in the future. This election is over so we have to look toward the next challenges.
For the Republican Party, the Republican governors are going to be the folks who lead our country. We’ve added to the ranks of Republican governors last night. I’m going to continue to work with folks like the Republican governors who I work with across the country, to try and make sure that our perspective and our philosophy, point of view and record of accomplishment is highlighted for the public. The rest of that stuff? I don’t know. You’ll have to go to political scientists to project on that stuff. My job is to do my job. I did my job every day and as a supporter of Governor Romney I did my job there to.
I’m extraordinarily disappointed. I put a lot of time and effort into the Mitt Romney campaign. I was surprised that it ended as quickly as it did. But that’s the way it goes. People decide elections. My job as an elected official is to move forward. I’m not going to spend my time looking in the rear view mirror. It doesn’t make any sense. It’s not productive for the people who’ve elected me. I’ve lost elections. I know how it feels and it hurts. And I’ve never run for president. So I can’t imagine how badly it hurts for Mitt Romney. I have great respect for him, I consider him a good, good friend. I hope that he continues to be a voice in public life in our country. Because I think he’s a good and decent man.
My work with President Obama was symbolic of the leadership I brought to Trenton over the last three years. Sometimes you need to be a little direct and blunt to get the attention of the other party. I plead guilty to that. But what the party also knows is that I’m a guy they can sit down with and make a compromise with in order to make progress. We’ve made great progress with this state in a bipartisan way. My activity with President Obama is just another chapter in the leadership I’ve tried to show in this state. People care more about getting things done than they care about partisanship. I’m going to continue to conduct myself that way. I can be as hard a partisan as the next guy when I think it’s necessary, and I’ve proven that. But when it’s necessary to get the job done and get the deal I can do that too. That’s what people expect you to do. They expect you to walk and chew gum at the same time.
