Thursday was the inaugural night for the newly-created Chris Christie Institute for Public Policy at Seton Hall University in Newark, and Christie chose New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo as his first guest. Although from different parties — Christie a Republican and Cuomo a Democrat — both leaders spoke about how they worked closely together, bridging any ideological divide.
Former Gov. Chris Christie defended President Trump and bashed Congressional Democrats as not credible on Thursday, saying the phone call that made the president the target of a near-certain impeachment inquiry was just Trump being Trump. Christie’s defense of the Trump administration had its limits — the former governor said a whistle-blower complaint that was released to the public on Thursday deserves to be investigated — but Christie said he’s convinced that the content of Trump’s phone call with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky was not unusual.
It was a night about getting along. On one side was former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, the Republican. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, the Democrat, sat to his left. There wasn’t a jab thrown. Instead, the hour-long session Christie moderated was filled with stories of working together, a willingness to reach across the political aisle — and a bunch of laughs.
At the debut event of an institute he created to promote civility in politics, former Republican Gov. Chris Christie sat with his cross-Hudson counterpart, Democrat Andrew Cuomo, for a discussion about their shared history and the country’s polarized politics. “This is a smart idea, it’s an idea whose time has come,” Cuomo said Thursday evening at Seton Hall Law School, which is serving as the home for the Christie Institute for Public Policy. “I’ve been in and around politics a long time. I’ve never seen it this bad and this dysfunctional.”
Former Gov. Chris Christie passionately defended the Grow New Jersey incentive programs that have come under scrutiny, and the people who administered them, on Thursday night — and vociferously ripped current Gov. Phil Murphy while doing so. All this on opening night of the Christie Institute for Public Policy, which he created in an attempt to bring civility back to politics. On this night, he certainly brought great theater.
Former Gov. Chris Christie said Thursday he’d never ask the leader of another country to “do (him) a favor” in a phone call if he were in the Oval Office the way President Donald Trump did with Ukraine’s president. But it’s just a difference in style — nothing more, Christie insisted.