Politics

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie responds to O’Keefe video

Matthew Boyle Investigative Reporter
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New Jersey Republican Governor Chris Christie’s spokesperson responded to videos conservative activist James O’Keefe released Monday apparently showing unionized educators at a New Jersey Education Association conference attacking the governor and his policies in crude language.

In one of O’Keefe’s two videos, the unionized teachers and others at the NJEA meeting are heard chanting, “let’s have a whiskey and get a little misty. Join me now and slander Chris Christie!,” as well as “Read, write and arithmetic. Here comes Christie with a whipping stick!”

Christie’s spokesperson Michael Drewniak on Monday told The Asbury Park Press the videos were “distressing – and revealing – to say the least.”

In the video, the unionized teachers also appear to boast about how it’s almost impossible to fire tenured teachers, even those who make racist remarks to students.

As part of his release, O’Keefe organized an event in Trenton at the New Jersey Statehouse to call for the identification and dismissal of a teacher who purportedly called a student the “N-word” and, though demoted, is still teaching. O’Keefe was not present at the event.