Chris Christie Turns to Media-Bashing at CPAC Gathering
— -- New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie continued to bash the media today at the Conservative Political Action Conference, playing into a popular topic among the activists in the crowd, saying "elite folks from the media" cover him "every day."
"Understand where I come from every day," Christie told radio talk-show host Laura Ingraham in a question-and-answer session in National Harbor, Maryland, after she asked him about the "onslaught" of negative news stories about him recently.
As the governor of New Jersey, Christie told her he has reporters from The New York Times covering him every day and accused journalists of taking sides on issues he has stood up against.
"When you do things like I've done in New Jersey, take on a lot of these special interests that they support they just want to kill you and that's what they tried to do to me every day and here's the bad news for them, here I am and I'm still standing," Christie, 52, said.
The governor added he will "continue to do what matters more," which is "knowing how to fight for the people for my state and I don't care what they write about me in the New York Times. I don't subscribe, by the way," getting cheers from the audience.
Christie even mentioned the newspaper in a somewhat veiled attack against a possible GOP rival, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker. Christie said the "reason why the New York Times writes awful things about me is because every time I read something they disagree with I don't change my mind, I stick with where I've been."
"So when you are pro-life in 2009, you don't cut a commercial four years later because the New York Times doesn't like it and say you are less than that," Christie said, referring to Walker's anti-abortion rights position, which he softened publicly last year in a gubernatorial re-election ad saying he would leave "the final decision to a woman and her doctor."
This is the second day in a row Christie has taken on the media, specifically The New York Times, possibly laying out a theme that tends to be popular with the conservative primary voting base and something he can return to in a 2016 stump speech. On his monthly radio call-in show, "Ask the Governor," he was asked Wednesday night about his rough trip to the United Kingdom earlier this month and he blamed the bad headlines on "the national media following you around trying to justify their air fare going over there."
As for his famously tough-talking style, Ingraham asked him today about negative words used to describe him, including "explosive" and a "hot head" and whether that temperament works for the president of the United States. Christie answered "the word they missed is passionate."
Ingraham countered by asking whether "sit down and shut up" is really necessary, referring to Christie's famous line he used after being heckled by an activist in October.
Christie didn't hesitate: "Sometimes people need to be told to sit down and shut up."
He then said the same sentiment should be directed at the Obama Administration.
