Just one day after telling an Indiana audience that it would be arrogant to believe Mitt Romney would ask him to be his running mate, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie told a home-state audience that it would be arrogant to dismiss the idea.
Suggesting that he might be asked to join the Romney ticket would be the “height of arrogance,” Christie told supporters of Republican congressional candidate Susan Brooks in Fishers, Ind., on Monday. “I don’t expect to be asked.”
But ABC News reported Tuesday that Christie used the same word when asked if he was dismissing the idea.
“I also think it is extraordinarily arrogant for you to say you won’t even listen to the nominee of your party — especially for me,” he told reporters after a tour of a school for autistic children in Bedminster, N.J.
If “Mitt Romney calls and wants to discuss it with me,” he said, “I will sit down and talk with Gov. Romney about it.”
“He knows that it’s not my desire, my lifelong wish to be vice president of the United States … This is not something I am campaigning for or looking for.” (SEE ALSO: Christie at Ind. fundraiser: ‘I don’t expect to be asked’ to join Romney ticket)
Speculation about Romney’s running-mate choice has increased since former Sen. Rick Santorum dropped out of the race, making the former Massachusetts governor the likely nominee. Christie endorsed Romney early in the primary process, during an October campaign stop before the New Hampshire GOP debate at Dartmouth College.
Media reports have mentioned a wide range of other possible vice presidential names, including Santorum, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush.