ROAD TO 2016
Chris Christie
Born September 6, 1962, age 52, in Newark, N.J.
Education: University of Delaware, graduated 1984; law degree from Seton Hall University School of Law, 1987.
Business: Worked in private law practice, including as a lobbyist; elevated to partner.
Politics: U.S. Attorney for New Jersey from 2002-2008; elected governor of New Jersey in 2009 and re-elected in 2013
Family; wife Mary Pat Foster, married 1986. children Sarah Christie, Patrick Christie, Bridget Christie, Andrew Christie
Interesting factoid: Attributes his “telling-it-like-it-is” style to his Sicilian mother. “No suffering in silence” was her motto. “There will be no death bed confessions in this family,” he recalls her saying. “There will be nothing unsaid in this family.”
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie entered the 2016 race for president, promising to bring his “tell-it-like-it-is” style to Washington and the nation’s problems.
So far he’s struggled in the polls and in his efforts to stand out in a field of 17 Republican candidates, many of whom are better financed and arguably better liked. However, he did snag one of 10 coveted spots in the first presidential debate last week.
Christie, 52, considers his now famously brash persona his biggest positive.
”We need strength, decision-making and authority back in the Oval Office,” he said in his announcement speech.
Christie was considered a rising star of the national Republican party in his first term as governor in traditionally Democratic New Jersey. He was encouraged to run for president in 2012, but said the time was not right and backed Mitt Romney.
Because of his high profile, he was picked to give the keynote speech at the 2012 Republican National Convention. But, a month before the presidential election, Christie publicly praised President Barack Obama’s relief efforts after Hurricane Sandy, a gesture that party conservatives considered a self-serving and troubling misstep.
News reports out of the Northeast say a large percentage of New Jersey has soured on Christie as promises of an economic rebound have been replaced by sluggish job growth and a series of credit downgrades. Christie’s administration also has been plagued by problems with the state pension system and with scandals, including allegations that a major traffic tie-up at the George Washington Bridge in 2013 was orchestrated as payback against a mayor who did not support Christie’s re-election bid.
Christie has said he had no prior knowledge lane closings.
Christie voters are likely to come from the moderate wing of the Republican Party. He has strongest appeal with party activists and business people.
But he may appeal to Republicans who are eager to recapture the White House, with his track record of winning twice in a heavily Democratic state.
As of Aug. 4, Christie’ statements have been rated on the Truth-O-Meter 93 times. True or Mostly True ratings have come his way 39 times, or on 42 percent of his statements. He had 25, or 27 percent, Half Truths, 8 or 9 percent Mostly False, 14, or 15 percent, False and 7, or 8 percent, Pants on Fire ratings.
Below are a sampling. See them all at: http://www.politifact.com/personalities/chris-christie/
Chris Christie on Monday, July 23rd, 2012 in a news conference
“We created as many jobs in the first six months of this year as we did in all of 2011 and 2011 was the best single year for private-sector job growth since the year 2000.”
Gov. Chris Christie said his self-proclaimed “Jersey Comeback” continues to gain momentum, despite a rise in unemployment rate from 9.2 percent in May to 9.6 percent in June.
“By the way, the numbers indicate that the comeback is still very strong — 9,900 new jobs last month. We created as many jobs in the first six months of this year as we did in all of 2011 and 2011 was the best single year for private-sector job growth since the year 2000,” Christie said at a July 23 news conference in Trenton.
Is job growth as vibrant as the governor claims? In this fact-check, we are strictly examining whether the numbers are correct, not whether Christie’s policies deserve credit for them. We found Christie’s numbers are on target.
In June, the state added 9,900 jobs overall, including private-sector and public-sector employment. Adding that to the jobs gained since the beginning of the year puts 2012’s total so far at 39,600 jobs overall, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Last year the state gained 31,100 jobs.
So the first six months of job gains in 2012 have already outpaced job growth in 2011 by 8,500 jobs, supporting the governor’s point. Christie also said “2011 was the best single year for private-sector job growth since the year 2000.”
That is accurate as well. New Jersey added 33,400 private-sector jobs in 2011. The year before that, the state gained 10,200 jobs. And in 2008 and 2009 — in the peak of the recession — the state lost 224,900 private-sector jobs in total.
We rated Christie’s ruling True.
Chris Christie on Tuesday, January 14th, 2014 in a State of the State address
“Today, our unemployment rate is 7.8 percent. That is the lowest in five years.”
New Jersey’s jobs picture is improving so much that the state’s steadily declining unemployment rate is the lowest it’s been since before Gov. Chris Christie took office.
That’s one of several jobs claims the Republican governor made during his State of the State address in Trenton.
“Today, our unemployment rate is 7.8 percent. That is the lowest in five years,” the governor said before touting gains in private-sector job growth that the Truth-O-Meter has previously rated as True and Mostly True.
Federal and state labor data confirm that New Jersey’s unemployment rate is 7.8 percent as of November 2013, the most recent month for which data is available.
Although New Jersey’s unemployment rate has exceeded 9 percent for much of Christie’s tenure, the fact is that federal and state data both confirm that the unemployment rate was lower than 7.8 percent for the first three months of Christie’s five-year time frame.
We rated the governor’s claim Mostly True.
Chris Christie on Monday, July 6th, 2015 in an interview on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe”
“There’s now been three independent investigations (into the bridge scandal) all of which have said” that Christie did not have prior knowledge of or involvement in the lane closures.
Aside from the national media, no one cares about Bridgegate, says New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie.
“They don’t care because they know that there’s now been three independent investigations all of which have said exactly the same thing I said the day after it happened,” Christie told host Joe Scarborough on MSNBC’s Morning Joe, in reference to the September 2013 bridge closing scandal.
“And so, at some point people just say well, you know, after three investigations — two of them run by folks who were Democrats, Democratic legislature and Democratically appointed U.S. attorney — you know, after a while people just say, ‘Okay, I guess he’s telling the truth.’ “
Multiple New Jersey officials close to Christie have been accused of devising a scheme to close parts of the George Washington bridge, under the guise of conducting a traffic study, causing a week of massive traffic jams. The maneuver is widely believed to have been political retribution against officials in Fort Lee, N.J., which was most impacted by the lane closures.
Since the week of the closures, Christie has consistently denied that he knew anything about the lane closures until after the fact.
Have three investigations — one by a law firm commissioned by Christie, one by the state legislature and one by the U.S. attorney’s office — agreed with him?
Only the law firm investigation expressly stated that Christie had no knowledge of the lane closures. In contrast, the legislature’s investigation suggested that it’s still a possibility if more evidence emerges, and the U.S. attorney didn’t say the case is definitively closed.
Christie’s statement was partially accurate but left out important context.
We rated it Half True.
Chris Christie on Wednesday, November 7th, 2012 in a press conference
Says “I was the first governor in America to endorse Mitt Romney.”
Christie spent the past year crisscrossing the country to stump for Romney, a Republican. President Barack Obama defeated Romney in Tuesday’s election, and many have mentioned Christie as a possible 2016 presidential contender.
During a press conference in Harvey Cedars to discuss preparations for a nor’easter about to hit New Jersey, Christie answered a question about praising Obama’s response to Hurricane Sandy. Christie also dismissed questions about his loyalty to Romney after the widely publicized image of his extended handshake with Obama when the president toured hurricane damage along the Jersey Shore on Oct. 31.
“I’m a guy who tells the truth, all the time. And if the president of the United States did something good, I was going to say he did something good and give him credit for it,” Christie said, according to a Nov. 7 story on the New York Post’s website.
“But it doesn’t take away for a minute the fact that I was the first governor in America to endorse Mitt Romney, that I traveled literally tens of thousands of miles for him, raised tens of millions of dollars for him and worked harder, I think, than any other surrogate in America other than Paul Ryan,” he continued.
Christie’s “a guy who tells the truth, all the time”? Not quite.
The Truth-O-Meter gave the governor a False in September when he said he was the governor to endorse Romney. We noted then that Gov. Dave Heineman of Nebraska was first, followed by Gov. Butch Otter of Idaho.
Consistently supporting a candidate for president is one thing. But consistently repeating a false claim about being the first governor in the country to endorse that candidate is ridiculous. Pants on Fire, governor!
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