Last November, New Jersey traded away their Illinois-born, Goldman Sachs-bred chief executive for a take-no-prisoners, crime-fighting New Jersey stereotype, and now they get to reap the entertaining rewards. At a press conference yesterday, the Star-Ledger‘s Tom Moran questioned Governor Chris Christie about his whether his “confrontational tone” was healthy for the legislative process, to which the governor replied “You must be the thinnest-skinned guy in America” and warned, “you should really see me when I’m pissed. That’s not confrontational, alright?”

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What Moran called a “confrontational” tone, Christie argued was simply his manner of carrying himself, and that he did not feel the need to modify his attitude to make the press more comfortable:

“Now, I could say it really nicely. I could say it in the way that you all might be more comfortable with. You know, maybe we could go back to the last administration where I could say it in a way that you won’t even understand it. But

the fact of the matter is, this is who I am, and this is who the people elected. So you guys want to continue to talk about about this ‘process’ stuff, about my ‘tone,’ my combativeness… This is who I am, and like it or not, you guys are stuck with me for four years.”

He concluded by rebranding himself “honest and refreshing,” and hoping the media would pick up on that description of him. Moran responded to the press conference in the Star-Ledger, calling it a “pity.”

The exchange below:
Tags: bipartisanship, Chris Christie, New Jersey, politics, Star-Ledger