Politics

Christie: ‘If I was in the Senate right now, I’d kill myself’

Alexis Levinson Political Reporter
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New Jersey Republican Gov. Chris Christie really, really does not want to be in the Senate, or, to hear him tell it, anywhere near Washington.

“If I was in the Senate right now, I’d kill myself,” he told the Philadelphia Inquirer editorial board Friday.

Christie made a visit to the hallowed halls of congress earlier this week, visiting interim New Jersey Sen. Jeff Chiesa and other Senators in the midst of Washington’s continued flailing attempts to end the government shutdown and raise the federal government’s debt limit.

“What I said to any of them that I met with: Get the government reopened, stop monkeying around, and get back to work,” he said of his day in Washington. “I said, I’m out there in the field, people have no patience for this stuff. None.”

“The president saw this train coming for a long time,” Christie said. “All of a sudden today’s the first day he has anyone over to the White House? Same thing with the Speaker, same thing with the majority. They saw this train coming for a long time and did nothing to stop it.”

At a campaign event in Philadelphia the same day as the meeting with the editorial board, Christie described Washington as almost toxic and “an alternate universe.”

“I have to tell ya,” he said, “I was so thrilled to get out of there alive … and seemingly not infected by the awful partisanship that is going on down there now.”

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