The man who has been one of Barack Obama’s staunchest critics and one of the most ardent supporters of Republican challenger Mitt Romney was quick to praise the president on Tuesday.
New Jersey governor Chris Christie was effusive in his compliments of President Obama’s handling of Hurricane Sandy.
In an array of TV interviews and on Twitter, Christie lavished the president for his handling of the monster storm that ravaged the northeast, including New Jersey.
“It’s been very good working with the president,” Christie said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.” “He and his administration have been coordinating with us. It’s been wonderful.”
On NBC’s “Today,” Christie said the president had been “outstanding” and FEMA’s response has been “excellent.”
The straight-forward GOP governor also sent out a thankful tweet: “I want to thank the President personally for all his assistance as w recover from the storm.”
Christie said he spoke with Obama three times on Monday, including at midnight, when Obama agreed to speed along a major disaster declaration for New Jersey without all the “normal FEMA mumbo jumbo.” The declarations for New Jersey and New York were issued on Tuesday morning.
“The president has been all over this and he deserves great credit,” Christie said. “I’ve been on the phone with him, like I said, yesterday, personally three times. He gave me his number at the White House, told me to call him if I needed anything. And he absolutely means it.”
Christie’s shoot-from-the-hip style has made him a popular governor who considered running for the GOP presidential nomination before having second thoughts.
His praise of Obama’s handling of the natural disaster comes in the final days of a presidential campaign that is too close to call, according to all the polls. Christie’s acclaim will be considered significant to an Obama campaign that worried whether the president’s response to the storm could warrant criticism of any kind.
But the New Jersey governor said he wasn’t thinking in the slightest about the upcoming presidential election when trying to make sure residents of his state remained safe.
On “Fox and Friends,” he bristled at the mere mention of presidential politics when asked if Romney would come and tour the Garden State’s most damaged areas such as Atlantic City.
“I have no idea, nor am I the least bit concerned or interested,” Christie said. “I’ve got a job to do here in New Jersey that’s much bigger than presidential politics, and I could care less about any of that stuff. I have a job to do. I’ve got 2.4 million people out of power. I’ve got devastation on the Shore. I’ve got floods in the northern part of my state. If you think right now I give a damn about presidential politics, then you don’t know me.”
Three people died in New Jersey due to the storm, according to the Associated Press.
