The New Jersey governor never said 'Yes I'm running,' and he never said 'No I'm not' Watch video
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie becomes animated as he takes a question after making a speech Tuesday night at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California.SIMI VALLEY, Calif. — Standing before an exuberant crowd of the conservative elite, Gov. Chris Christie lashed out at President Obama tonight at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, sounding every bit like a candidate polishing his stump speech.
But when asked later whether he was running for president his answer was artful, not direct — and not what many of the crowd of Republican faithful seemed to want to hear. They groaned at his response. He never said, "Yes I'm running," and he never said, "No I'm not."
Instead of his usual full-throated denial, Christie referred the audience to an online video including all the times he said he wasn’t running for president.
"Click on it, those are the answers," Christie said.
Asked again later, the governor gave a response he often offers when asked if he’s running for president, explaining that being asked never gets old.
"I hear exactly what you’re saying and I feel the passion with which you say it and it touches me," Christie told one woman who tearfully begged him to run.
"I'm just a kid from Jersey who feels like I'm the luckiest guy in the world," Christie said.
The question-and-answer session followed a 15-minute speech that marked Christie’s continued ascent in the national Republican Party. Christie walked into the room with Nancy Reagan and, speaking to an audience of about 900 people, frequently invoked the leadership of President Ronald Reagan while extolling his own work in the Trenton Statehouse.
“Our bipartisan accomplishments in New Jersey have helped to set a tone that has taken hold across many other states. It is a simple but powerful message — lead on the tough issues by telling your citizens the truth about the depth of our challenges.”
Christie lambasted President Obama as a president who had lost courage to deal with big national issues and is dividing the nation in order to win re-election.
“We watch a president who once talked about the courage of his convictions, but still has yet to find the courage to lead,” Christie said. “And still we continue to wait and hope that our president will finally stop being a bystander in the Oval Office.
“We hope that he will shake off the paralysis that has made it impossible for him to take on the really big things that are obvious to all Americans and to a watching and anxious world community.”
Citing Obama for having a “failure in leadership,” Christie argued American exceptionalism — the idea that the nation is superior to the rest of the world — has suffered under the current White House.
“We pay for this failure of leadership many times over,” he said. “The domestic price is obvious: growth slows, high levels of unemployment persist, and we make ourselves even more vulnerable to the unpredictable behavior of skittish markets or the political decisions of lenders.”
Christie delved into topics he generally avoids — like foreign policy and the nation’s position in the world — and equated domestic policy decisions, like the debt ceiling, to the diminishing stature of America among other nations.
The White House did not respond to Christie’s speech last night.
Speculation that Christie would reverse himself after months of denials and announce a presidential candidacy gained steam over the weekend in the wake of news reports citing anonymous sources.
But this morning, the governor’s brother said he wouldn’t enter the race.
“I’m sure that he’s not going to run,” Todd Christie told The Star-Ledger at an event near St. Louis. “If he’s lying to me, I’ll be as stunned as I’ve ever been in my life.”
Todd Christie’s remarks come after former Gov. Thomas Kean, who has close ties to the governor and his top advisers, told the National Review, a conservative magazine, on Monday that Christie was seriously thinking about running.
People close to Christie said today they were surprised by Kean’s comments, saying Christie and Kean hadn’t spoken in about a week. They insisted once again that Christie wasn’t going to run for president. Kean’s office said today the former governor was not doing any more interviews about Christie.
Wealthy donors and conservative commentators have been urging Christie for months to enter the race, and the pressure increased after Gov. Rick Perry of Texas, the current frontrunner, did poorly at a Republican candidates’ debate in Orlando last week. The other leading contender, former Gov. Mitt Romney of Massachusetts, has failed to light a fire among many top Republicans.
"It's been crazy," one Christie adviser said.
Another person close to Christie said that for the last two weeks he has avoided answering the telephone if he doesn’t recognize the number because so many donors have been calling to talk about the governor.
The back-and-forth speculation over whether Christie would run seemed to have the media tied in knots. At one point today Politico’s homepage had two opposite headlines adjacent to each other: “Christie source: Run still possible” and “Christie still not running.”
Christie has had frequent contact with donors this week as he continues a cross-country fundraising tour.
On Monday afternoon Christie appeared at an intimate fundraiser for the New Jersey Republican Party at the Ritz-Carlton hotel in a St. Louis suburb.
That night he headlined a fundraising event for the Missouri Republican Party at a 500-acre estate, Hunter Farms, owned by a prominent Republican family. Hundreds listened to Christie speak at an open-air pavilion erected on the estate for political events.
“He brought the house down,” said Ann Wagner, who is running for Congress from Missouri next year and faces a primary battle. “He was funny. He was engaging.”
Christie spoke this morning at a St. Louis-area fundraiser for Wagner, who was co-chairwoman of the Republican National Committee from 2001 to 2005, and made a failed effort to lead the committee in January. Like Christie, she was a fundraiser for former President George W. Bush.
Christie then traveled to Burbank, California, where the New Jersey Republican Party hosted a lunchtime fundraiser before appearing at the Reagan Library.
By Ginger Gibson and Chris Megerian/ The Star-Ledger
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