Jim Rosica
Republican presidential candidate Chris Christie on Wednesday continued to call out political insiders and reporters for focusing on ‘inside baseball’ matters that don’t matter to most American voters.
The New Jersey governor, appearing on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” program, used the example of the race to be the next speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives.
John Boehner, a fellow Republican and speaker since 2011, last week said he was stepping down.
“He made the decision this time to walk away because he didn’t want to be the issue,” Christie said of Boehner. “So that’s a mature approach to it. So now we’re going to see who the new leader is going to be and how they’re going to approach things.”
But, Christie asked, do “the American people care?”
Christie said he was starting a #DearDC social media campaign to “be a conduit to the powers-that-be in Washington, D.C., and start to make sure they do their job or at least hold them to account when they’re not doing it.”
“I said this the other day – this is like ‘Game of Thrones,’ ” he said. “They don’t care. Do you think they really care who the Speaker is? What they care is why isn’t tax reform on the president’s desk?
If President Obama “wants to veto Republican tax reform, let him do it. But it should be on his desk,” Christie said. “Why isn’t a repeal and replacement of Obamacare on his desk? If he wants to veto it, then he’ll veto it. That will … at least you’ll have a Republican vision for the future. And then it sets the parameters of the election.
“But we’re doing nothing and it looks like the Republicans are obstructionists, not the president. We need to put things on his desk. That’s why you have a Republican Congress and they won’t do it.”
His talk show comments echoed his remarks to candidates Carly Fiorina and Donald Trump at the Sept. 16 GOP candidates debate on CNN, after Christie got tired of their cross-sniping about each other’s record as a business leader.
“While I’m as entertained as anyone by this personal back-and-forth about the history of Donald and Carly’s career, for the 55-year-old construction worker out in that audience tonight who doesn’t have a job, who can’t fund his child’s education, I’ve got to tell you the truth: They could care less about your careers, they care about theirs,” he said.
“The fact is that we don’t want to hear about your careers, back and forth and volleying back and forth about who did well and who did poorly,” Christie said at the debate.
“You’re both successful people. Congratulations. You know who’s not successful? The middle class in this country who’s getting plowed over by Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. Let’s start talking about those issues tonight and stop this childish back-and-forth between the two of you.”
Here’s the clip from this morning: http://on.msnbc.com/1KKOxLO
