How exciting: Chris Christie has become #14 on the Republican presidential dance card!
The Big Man from New Jersey entered the race with all the chutzpa and hullaballoo that marked his five-and-a-half years as governor of the Garden State. In his carefully-staged announcement speech, he said he’d be a truth-telling president: “There is one thing you will know for sure,” he roared, “I say what I mean and I mean what I say.”
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Swell Chris… but when your campaign slogan is “Telling It Like It Is,” it would help if you were not infamous in your home state as an audacious, inveterate liar. Even the editor of Jersey’s largest newspaper felt a journalistic duty to warn America about Christie. “Don’t believe a word the man says,” the editor wrote, pointing not to a few fibs and fabrications, but a lengthy “catalog” of “over-the-top, hair-raising type of lies,” including these gems:
• Having assured public employees that their pensions were “sacred” to
him, Christie then made cutting their pensions the centerpiece of this
first term in office.
• This June, he bragged on national TV that a court had approved those
pension cuts – but the court actually ruled them unconstitutional.
• At a recent South Carolina gun rights meeting, Christie crowed that
“no new [gun laws] have been made since I’ve been governor,” when
in fact he has enacted three gun-control measures.
• After he and his family racked up a $30,000 hotel bill during a
luxurious weekend getaway at a Jordanian resort, paid for by the King
of Jordan, Christie claimed the junket was not a violation of the state
gift ban, for he and the king were personal friends – but he’d only met
the king once, in a brief encounter at a political dinner.
If a politician has to tell you that he or she is a truth-teller, they’re probably not. So beware of Christie the compulsive liar – as the newspaper editor bluntly put it: “He’s a creep.”
“Christie Announces Run, Pledging ‘Truth’ About Nation’s Woes,” The New York Times, July 1, 2015.
“Gov. Christie’s Phony Truth-Telling,” The New York Times, July 1, 2015.
“After 14 years of watching Christie, a warning: He lies,” www.nj.com, June 27, 2015.
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