New Jersey Governor, Chris Christie called out Texas lawmakers on Monday, following Texas Governor Greg Abbott’s request for federal disaster assistance. Christie accused Texan lawmakers of hypocrisy over their votes against federal aid for Hurricane Sandy – which devastated New Jersey in 2012.
“The congressional members in Texas are hypocrites and I said back in 2012 that they’d be proven to be hypocrites,” Christie said Monday. “It was just a matter of time.”
But just one day after, Christie started furiously back peddling, and begging everyone to not politicize natural disaster, so that federal aid can be advanced to Texas as soon as possible.
“Disasters should not be politicized,” Christie told Neil Cavuto, on Fox News. “It’s about people’s lives and getting their lives rebuilt … [People] want to hear that their government’s going to come in and partner with the state to get their homes and their businesses rebuilt and get their lives back together.”
Christie apparently still holds a grudge from five years ago, when 24 Republican House members in 2012, joined Senators John Cornyn and Ted Cruz to vote against a federal aid package amounting to $51 billion following Sandy’s rampage across the east coast.
While it’s still unclear as to whether Christie wants to settle old scores or is actually interested in getting Texans aid, his claims are that he really wants to move forward.
“What matters is not rehashing that argument, Christie said. “What matters is … people waited over 65 days for federal relief aid … during Sandy. That was six times the amount of time they waited after Hurricane Andrew and ten times more than they waited [after] Hurricane Katrina.”
On Tuesday, President Donald Trump visited Texas to take a look at the damage and provide his support to speed up recovery efforts. While the usual crowd of liberals found fault with President Trump’s visit, Christie defended Trump.
“President Trump has put together a great team of folks to go with him to Texas. This is not some type of photo op,” Christie said. “This a working time where he sits with [Texas] Governor [Greg] Abbott and they figure out what’s really needed … and it will form the basis of a relationship that’s going to continue for months going forward to make sure that challenges are met. So I think that President Trump has done an extraordinary job so far. He and the first lady are right to be down there.”