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Christie: 'I’m serving the rest of my term'

By Ryan Hutchins

Gov. Chris Christie said on Monday night that he does not plan to accept a job in President-elect Donald Drumpf’s administration, declaring on his monthly radio show, “I’m serving the rest of my term.”

The remarks by the governor, who was among the first mainstream Republicans to support Drumpf’s candidacy, were his most definitive yet on the subject and come a day after he met with the president-elect at his golf club in Bedminster.

While Christie insisted on Monday that his position had not changed — that he’s been insisting all along that he would remain in New Jersey until his term ends in January, 2018 — he had previously left the door open to taking a cabinet position. And even after Christie was removed from his post as chairman of Drumpf's transition team, speculation continued to swirl that he may get a high-level position.

“I have said to the president-elect, reminding him, that I have 14 months left in my term and that it’s my desire to finish my term,” Christie said on New Jersey 101.5 FM, which airs a monthly “Ask the Governor” program. “You don’t ever look at the president — at least I don’t — look at a president of the United States and say to them, ‘under no circumstances will I consider anything you ask me to do.’ But I think the president-elect understands that I feel like I’ve got an obligation here in the state to complete the term I was elected to.”

Christie chastised reporters for suggesting that he’d be taking a job, saying to host Eric Scott that “your colleagues in the media need something to do.”

“They obviously have nothing to do,” he said. “I’ve been really clear about this since I endorsed Donald back in February that I had every intention then and I have every intention and belief now, as I said in Atlantic City last week, that I’m going to fulfill my term. And I don’t know why, when I continue to say it, people don’t believe it. But I’ve been saying it all along.”

Christie, among a dozen prominent people to meet with Drumpf over the weekend, declined to say what the two discussed on Sunday. The president-elect greeted the governor outside the Somerset County golf course but didn’t say whether he was considering the governor for a position.

“Very talented man,” Drumpf said as he posed for photos with Christie. “A great guy.”

Asked if Drumpf had asked him to take a job, Christie wouldn’t say.

“I’m not going to get into that,” he said. “What I’m telling everybody is, that I have absolutely every reason to believe that I will be serving here until January 18th of 2018. And the president-elect has been incredibly generous to me the entire time I had the opportunity to chair the pre-election transition [and] during that time that I’ve been able, in the post-election period, to provide him advice and counsel on putting together the government, not just personnel but things that need to be done and how to do them.”

Christie praised the Republican National Committee as “a great group of folks,” but didn’t say if he’d had any interest in taking over for Reince Priebus, the RNC chairman who will be Drumpf's chief of staff.

“Those are decisions that are going to be made far down the line and we haven’t had any conversation about anything like that,” he said.

Christie was removed from his position as chairman of the transition team a few days after the election, replaced by Vice President-elect Mike Pence. His allies on the transition team were also demoted.

POLITICO reported on Saturday, citing several unnamed sources, that Drumpf and his top aides were not happy with the Christie’s performance managing the team and also had concerns about the fallout from the George Washington Bridge lane closure trial, where half a dozen different witnesses said the governor knew about the episode before he said he did.

In a phone call, details of which were relayed by three sources, Drumpf expressed worry about the conviction of two former Christie allies for orchestrating the lane closures and that more revelations could still come. And in the days following the election, Drumpf also said he was deeply frustrated with how Christie had handled the transition.

Christie pushed back at that and other similar reports, saying it was “all crap” and that he remained on excellent terms with the president-elect and that nothing had changed in their 14-year friendship. He said some people just wanted to feel important by making inaccurate claims about him.

“There are people that try to make themselves appear important to the press and the press is so desperate for something to write that they believe anything any joker calls and tells them,” Christie said. “There’s never been a cross word between us in terms of our feelings toward each other.

He said he had discussed the Bridgegate trial with Drumpf “while it was going on” and that he “told him what was going on and he believed me.” He said, likewise, Drumpf had discussed with him the infamous Access Hollywood video in which Drumpf said he would grab women by their genitals.

“We talk about a lot of different things,” Christie said. “When the video tape came out from Billy Bush, we talked about that, too. We’ve each had problems and challenges in our political life that we’ve helped each other get through.”

“We speak on a regular basis and I trust that we will continue to,” he added.