New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie joined Matt Lauer on The Today show Wednesday morning to wallow in the GOP's midterm election wins, but the interview tensed up when Lauer asked the Bridgegate Governor if he needs to stop being a bully when confronted by people who disagree with him if he intends on running for the presidency:
"[This is] the first time I've had you here since you had another run-in with a heckler at an appearance a couple weeks ago," Lauer said, two minutes into the interview. "It was the second anniversary of Hurricane Sandy, a guy wouldn't sit down, and you said 'Sit down and shut up.'
"That kind of response is something your staunch supporters love; it makes other people queasy," Lauer continued. "Are you going to have to control that side of your personality to be seen as presidential outside ... New Jersey politics?"
"First of all, you're assuming I wasn't controlled," replied Christie, to which Lauer gave a head nod of apparent acknowledgement, eyebrows raised.
"I sat and took it for awhile," Christie answered. "The hundreds of people that were there deserved to hear what we had to say that day. That person had had their say. I sat and listened to it. It was time for them to sit down."
"I'm not going to change, Matt," Christie concluded. "This is who I am."
Lauer then tried another approach, asking if Christie, rather than "controlling" that side of himself, might just "hide" it instead.
"There's no hope in that," Christie deadpanned, shaking his head to laughter off camera.
Christie's staunch supporters love his bullying act, but the conservative base hates his guts for sucking up to President Obama, so he'd be well advised to stop being an a-hole when among mere mortals. Hmmm....What's the saying about a leopard not being able to change his spots?
Almost every time I hear Christie respond to his anger management problem, he usually says that he gave the person enough time to speak and they needed to let other people talk. He "took it" is how he phrased it. So has the entire state of New Jersey.
