Politics

Democratic Super PAC Goes After Chris Christie: ‘We Want To Kill Him Dead’

Alex Pappas Political Reporter
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The president of a Democratic Party super PAC dedicated to digging up opposition research on Republicans said of New Jersey Republican Gov. Chris Christie: “We want to kill him dead.”

Brad Woodhouse, the president of the liberal super PAC American Bridge, made the provocative comments in a profile of the organization published by Bloomberg Politics.

The story notes that American Bridge would not back off its attacks on Christie. “We’re not going to pull resources from Christie,” Woodhouse told the outlet. “We want to kill him dead.”

Woodhouse, a longtime Democratic operative, has previously accused Republicans of using offensive rhetoric against President Obama.

In 2012, Woodhouse worked as communications director for the Democratic National Committee when its chairman, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, memorably said “we need to make sure that we tone things down, particularly in light of the Tucson tragedy,” referencing the “edginess and a lack of civility with the growth of the tea party movement.” Those comments were about whether political rhetoric could have contributed to the shooting of Democratic Rep. Gabrielle Giffords in 2011.

But on Thursday, Woodhouse seemed proud of his edgy Christie quote, retweeting it several times in his Twitter feed.

UPDATE: A Christie spokesman responded to the comments from American Bridge: “We’ve always known the Hillary opposition research team has been laser focused on Governor Christie for the last few years, but ‘killing Christie dead’ is ridiculous rhetoric. By the way, he is still standing.”

UPDATE II: Late Thursday, the RNC released a statement to reporters about the comments: “We understand that Democrats are getting desperate after the recent revelations about their presumptive nominee and need to create a distraction,” RNC communications director Sean Spicer said. “But in no circumstance is it acceptable to say about a sitting governor that you ‘want to kill him dead.’ A line has been crossed, and Brad Woodhouse should apologize. That Democrats would use this sort of unacceptable rhetoric only underscores that they are flailing.”

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