New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie launched another attack in his ongoing battle with Republican Sen. Rand Paul, dismissing him as a “Washington politician” and criticizing him for taking pork for his home state of Kentucky.
Speaking on a panel in Colorado last week, Christie described the libertarian approach to foreign policy as “dangerous,” and acknowledged that Paul was one of the people engaging in that approach. Since then, the two likely 2016 Republican presidential contenders have lobbed insults back and forth at each other.
“I was asked a question at a forum in Aspen and I gave an answer,” Christie said Tuesday. “Now, I know that for politicians in Washington, DC this a completely foreign concept. They think that there has to be some, like, master plan behind every utterance you make. You’ve covered me long enough to know that there often is not. If you ask me a question, I give an answer. That’s what people expect from people in public life and that’s what I did.”
“I have nothing personal against Senator Paul. If we disagree on certain issues, we disagree,” Christie went on. “You know, his response seems that he has something personal against me, but that’s okay. He can just get in line on that front.”
“Secondly, I find it interesting that Senator Paul is accusing us of having a ‘gimme, gimme, gimme’ attitude towards federal spending when, in fact, New Jersey is a donor state and we get 61 cents back on every dollar we send to Washington, and interestingly, Kentucky gets $1.51 on every dollar they send to Washington,” Christie went on. “So if Sen. Paul wants to start looking at where he’s going to cut spending to afford defense, maybe he should start cutting the pork barrel spending that he brings home to Kentucky at $1.51 for every dollar, and not look at New Jersey where we get 61 cents for every dollar.”
“So, maybe Senator Paul could, you know, deal with that when he’s trying to deal with the reduction of spending on the federal side. But I doubt he would because most Washington politicians only care about bringing home the bacon so that they can get reelected,” Christie said.
Paul fired back at Christie in an interview with Sean Hannity Tuesday afternoon.
“You start trashing my state, now he’s really going to be in trouble. Don’t trash Kentucky buddy,” Paul said, re-upping his attack that Christie had a “gimme gimme gimme” attitude, particularly when it came to aid for New Jersey after Hurricane Sandy. Paul repeatedly referred to “liberal Republicans” criticizing him, and took a shot at Christie’s relationship with President Barack Obama, saying he was “parading around with his favorite Democrat, the President,” after the Hurricane.
Gabe Finger contributed to this report.