New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie on Sunday failed to explain why his state had nine credit downgrades and struggled with job growth during his tenure as governor.
Appearing on “Fox News Sunday” with Chris Wallace, Christie cited battling a Democratic legislature and Hurricane Sandy as explanations for New Jersey’s struggling economy.
Wallace: You have had Bridgegate which involved some of your top aides. You have had nine credit downgrades in New Jersey on your watch. New Jersey has the eighth-slowest job growth since the recession ended in 2009. Those are not badges of honor.
Christie: Yeah, except you’re using dated material, Chris. This year, 2015, New Jersey had its greatest job growth in 15 years. In 15 years, that spans five different governors. This year, we created over 60,000 new private-sector jobs in New Jersey. And by the way, we’ve cut spending.
Wallace: — the fact that since the recovery — and this is January information — you’re still the eighth-slowest state in job recovery.
Christie: Chris, we were the slowest state when I became governor. The slowest state. And I’m working with a Democratic legislature that won’t do everything that I want to do but with the stuff I have forced them to do, we have now moved up the chart. And I’m not going to let anybody insult the people of New Jersey who have worked hard to bring our state back. By the way, in the midst of all that, too, we were hit with the second-worst natural disaster in American history that devastated our state. And in the light of that, to have this comeback that we’ve had in 2015, it is extraordinary. And the people of New Jersey deserve great credit and I’m honored to lead them. And I’m not gonna let [crscore]Marco Rubio[/crscore] or anybody else, even you my friend, insult the people of my state.
Wallace: I’m not insulting your people, I’m just citing your record —
Christie: It’s their state. It’s not just my state. It’s their state. Like it’s our country. And I’m not going to allow people to insult the effort of the people of New Jersey. They’ve done a great job.
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