Chris Christie was back to his old bullying self today (Mar. 3), following a widely ridiculed appearance behind Donald Trump on Super Tuesday, where he gave his best impression of a captive with Stockholm Syndrome.
“No, I was’t being held hostage. No, I wasn’t sitting up there thinking, ‘Oh my god, what have I done?” Christie said at a press conference in New Jersey.
“Armchair psychiatrists should give it a break,” Christie said. “I don’t know what I was supposed to be doing. I was standing there listening to him.”
The New Jersey governor and one-time presidential candidate also spurned calls for his resignation from six New Jersey newspapers, which cited his endorsement of Trump and his absences from the state during his own presidential campaign.
“I’ve been out of the presidential race 22 days and I’ve been here 19 out of those days, and I’ve been working,” he said.
”They are trying to find some way to stay relevant as their circulation declines, as readership declines, and the only way to do that is to set themselves on fire,” he said of the newspapers.
Christie was terse with reporters throughout the conference, calling questions “ridiculous” and deploying his characteristic brand of brash sarcasm.
He dismissed suggestions that he may get a vice presidential nod if Trump wins the nomination, saying he will be moving to the private sector after his governorship. Asked about Trump’s hesitation to denounce the KKK, Christie said: ”I know Donald Trump and he’s not a bigot.
He concluded, ”If he hadn’t been in the race I would have been the nominee.”