Imus in the Morning, 02-23-2012
(Transcript Below)
Governor Christie: Good morning Don. Thanks for having me.
Don Imus: You're quite welcome. Bruce going out on tour again?
Governor Christie: He is.
Don Imus: So when you go to the...have you been to a Springsteen concert since you've been Governor?
Governor Christie: No. He hasn't gone on tour since I've been governor.
Don Imus: So will you go now this time?
Governor Christie: Oh you bet.
Don Imus: So do you have to take a big security detail with you?
Governor Christie: Yeah unfortunately I do.
Don Imus: But when you were Attorney General and you were going all the time did you have security with you?
Governor Christie: No security then.
Don Imus: You just showed up?
Governor Christie: Just showed up.
Don Imus: A couple bongs and your shirt...
Governor Christie: Absolutely. Snuck some booze in. It was great. You know the beer is so expensive there, why not stick a couple of bottles in?
Don Imus: We were talking off the air. I watched that entire Whitney Houston home going service. I thought it was not that you asked but I thought it was appropriate what you did lowering the flags to half mast. She was an important part of pop music period. She drank alcohol and if that disqualified people from going on and having a successful life I wouldn't be here.
Governor Christie: That's absolutely right. I'll tell you Don I saw some of the worst sides of our country in the aftermath of this. You know I had people sending me awfully...I got a lot of positive email too but a lot of hateful email calling her names all surrounding the drug use and what I said at my press conference was that anybody who wants to make those accusations, there but for the grace of God go I. I've seen it in my family. I've seen it in close friends and it's a disease. People try to conquer it every day. Some people are successful, some people aren't but it doesn't diminish what she accomplished in her life. She was a Jersey girl. She came back and lived in New Jersey. She donated to New Jersey charities and worked hard for her church and other causes. She deserved to be honored. In my view it wasn't a close call.
Don Imus: Now one of the great voices...not patronizing her because she's dead, one of the great voices in pop music period.
Governor Christie: Extraordinary, an extraordinary voice and I'll tell you that was the most chilling part for me of the funeral which as I was saying off the air with you, it was really a joyful ceremony for most of it, but at the end when they were getting ready to remove her casket from the church, it was the only time in the whole ceremony the church was completely silent and then without warning they put through all the speakers the beginning of I will always love you, that a capella part of it. It was physically jarring because you felt like she was there and that was the first time I saw her mother during the ceremony completely break down and just started screaming, my baby, my baby. You know, you're a parent. There's nothing that you can think of that can be worse than losing a child.
Don Imus: Tough to watch.
Governor Christie: It was.
Don Imus: So Bernie said he wanted me to ask you before we ask you a couple other things well let's start, I'll ask you about your budget. But first of all...what are you at odds with the Mayor of New York about the New York City Police doing what in Newark?
Governor Christie: Well I don't know exactly what they were up to and so we're trying to find that out. My Attorney General is working with folks in New York City and others to find out what was going on so I don't really have an opinion on it yet Don because I don't know enough about it to have an opinion but certainly if the NYPD was over in New Jersey I hope they were doing it in a way that was coordinated with New Jersey law enforcement and federal law enforcement so that we don't have people tripping over each other. That's dangerous for law enforcement and it's counterproductive to getting the job done. But I don't know if that's what happened. We'll have to see what the facts show.
Don Imus: Like for example here at Fox they won't let you bring a gun into the building because they have a marvelous security force here at Fox. I mean all ex cops, great, and if something goes wrong they don't want somebody else with a gun in here...
Governor Christie: You in particular, I think this rule was made for you Don. Let's be fair because Bernie would be dead at this point. I think Bernie would be gone.
Don Imus: But this goes back to a number of years. Does it go back to when you were Attorney General?
Governor Christie: It goes back to when I was U.S. Attorney in 2007 apparently. I got asked about this at a press conference the other day. I don't remember ever being briefed on this. Now I could have forgotten...
(...)
