6 New Jersey newspapers call for Chris Christie to resign
To say New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie had a rough day on Tuesday would be an understatement.
Six New Jersey newspapers issued a joint editorial calling on Christie to resign following his failed presidential campaign and subsequent endorsement of Republican frontrunner Donald Trump.
“We’re fed up with Gov. Chris Christie’s arrogance,” the papers wrote. “We’re fed up with his opportunism. We’re fed up with his hypocrisy. We’re fed up with his sarcasm. We’re fed up with his long neglect of the state to pursue his own selfish agenda. We’re disgusted with his endorsement of Donald Trump after he spent months on the campaign trail trashing him, calling him unqualified by temperament and experience to be president.”
The newspapers — the Asbury Park Press, the Bridgewater Courier-News, the Cherry Hill Courier-Post, the East Brunswick Home News Tribune, the Vineland Daily Journal and the Morristown Daily Record, each owned by Gannett — published the call for Christie’s resignation a day after the governor held a contentious press conference where he refused to answer questions related to his endorsement of Trump because, he said, “I don’t want to.”
Chris Christie watches Donald Trump speak during a news conference at the Mar-A-Lago Club in Palm Beach, Fla., Tuesday. (Photo: Andrew Harnik/AP)The newspapers noted that Christie spent 261 days out of state last year and traveled to campaign with Trump after giving the real estate mogul his endorsement on Friday. (On Saturday, even Trump told Christie it was time to “go home.”)
“For the good of the state, it’s time for Christie to do his long-neglected constituents a favor and resign as governor,” the papers wrote. “If he refuses, citizens should initiate a recall effort.”
The papers concluded: “New Jersey needs someone whose full attention is devoted to making life better for New Jersey’s citizens. That won’t happen until Christie steps down or is forced out.”
The joint editorial came the same day New Hampshire’s Union Leader newspaper, which endorsed Christie, admitted it was wildly wrong to do so.
“Boy, were we wrong,” Union Leader publisher Joseph W. McQuaid wrote in an editorial. “Watching Christie kiss the Donald’s ring this weekend — and make excuses for the man Christie himself had said was unfit for the presidency — demonstrated how wrong we were. Rather than standing up to the bully, Christie bent his knee. In doing so, he rejected the very principles of his campaign that attracted our support.”
The public humiliation didn’t end there.
After introducing Trump at a press conference in Palm Beach, Fla., on Tuesday night, Christie stood awkwardly behind Trump — and was widely mocked.
