Plus his signature tough-guy talk: “I am not running for president of the United States as a surrogate for being prom king of America…”
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Presidential candidate Gov. Chris Christie told NBC’s Matt Lauer that his temper on the campaign trail is “an absolute controlled anger” that shows his passion about important issues.
As president, Gov. Christie said he would introduce a simplified tax system, reduce government regulations, increase business investment and improve America’s overall economy.
“He had a problem with the pension, and I work for the State of New Jersey”, said one woman we spoke with.
Debbie Wasserman Schultz, chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee, criticized Christie’s leadership on New Jersey state finances and his management style.
Following the announcement, he headed out on the campaign trail to New Hampshire, where he will hold the first of what is expected to be a series of town hall sessions he hopes will help turn his reputation for plain speaking into an asset.
“It was really rubbing our faces in it by picking this location”, said Anthony Rosamilia, president of the Essex County Education Association, a group that organized a demonstration outside the high school.
Standing next to his wife, Mary Pat, and their four children, Mr Christie played up his middle-class upbringing and promised to “speak the truth” in his “tell it like it is” campaign for the presidency.
New Jersey Democrats, however, have challenged Christie’s claims of bipartisanship, pointing to incidents like the “Bridgegate” scandal. Christie’s effort is largely driven by his outsized personality; his resume, while notable, contains scattered land mines that have given many Republicans pause. He pledged to be straight with voters about his beliefs – “and if you like it, great”, he said. “We need to fix the broken entitlement system”, he declared, saying that politicians have lied to Americans about the scale of the country’s obligations.
During the announcement Christie told stories of his family and shared his focus of the future for our country.
There’s no doubt that the political landscape today is much different than 2012, when conservatives all but begged Christie to run in the lead-up to election. But on Tuesday he took aim at the president’s foreign policy as well as the clear Democratic frontrunner to be the next president.
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Despite the similarities, there are the requisite minor differences in tone that make telling apart GOP candidates like a game of “Spot the Difference.” Christie, like many others in the field, has positioned himself as a Washington outsider.
