New Jersey Governor Chris Christie (R) held a news conference (see video) on Wednesday. During the course of the news conference, Governor Christie blasted his fellow Republicans in the House of Representatives, and specifically targeted House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH), for inaction on a $60 billion dollar aid for the victims of Hurricane Sandy.
Governor Christie attempted to call Speaker Boehner four times on the night of the vote and got no response from the Speaker.
“There is no reason at the moment to believe anything they tell me, because they’ve been telling me stuff for weeks, and they didn’t deliver,” Governor Christie said as he expressed his "disgust" with the House Republicans. He blamed “toxic internal politics” for the failure to pass the bill.
“There’s only one group to blame for the continued suffering of these victims: the House majority and their speaker,” Christie said. “It was disappointing and disgusting to watch.”
But Governor Christie was not the lone Republican taking Speaker John Boehner to task for not bring the bill to the House floor, saying that the GOP leadership and specifically Boehner, "put a knife in the back of New Yorkers and New Jerseyans. It was an absolute disgrace.”
“They’re in New York all the time filling their pockets with money from New Yorkers,” King thundered on CNN in discussing the fiasco. “I’m saying right now, anyone from New York or New Jersey who contributes one penny to congressional Republicans is out of their minds.”
After meeting with Speaker Boehner late Wednesday, Rep. Peter King backed off a bit and told Today Show's Matt Lauer that "it was time for shock therapy, which is why I said it,”
It worked and a vote is scheduled on Friday and another vote on January 15.
King also told Lauer that “What’s done is done. The fact is, when the money was on the line, the decision had to be made. John Boehner made the right decision. John Boehner agreed to put it all on the calendar.”
King regretted that the vote didn't come soon, but added “If we’re going to carry grudges the rest of our lives, we’ll never get anything done.”
Matt Lauer asked, “Do you have any doubt that he’ll be re-elected speaker?”
He will be, Rep. King told Matt Lauer. “John is really a voice of reason in our conference, despite some of the things I said yesterday.”
“What a difference 24 hours makes,” Matt Lauer remarked.
Send John Presta an email and your story ideas or suggestions, johnpresta@att.net
John is the author of an award-winning book, the 2010 Winner of the USA National Best Book award for African-American studies, published by The Elevator Group. Mr. and Mrs. Grassroots: How Barack Obama, Two Bookstore Owners, and 300 Volunteers did it. Also available an eBook on Amazon. John is also a member of the Society of Midland Authors and is a book reviewer of political books for the New York Journal of Books
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