NJ Safe Task Force Presser - January 17, 2013 -
NRA Commercial Response (Transcript Below)
Governor Christie: Reprehensible. Because I'm a father who's a public figure who has four children, and my children had no choice realistically in what I decided to do with my career and what effect that's had on their lives in making them somewhat public figures, and making them subject to protection from the Executive Protection Unit. My kids don't have a choice about that, and to talk about the President's children or any public officer's children who have not by their own choice but by requirement to have protection, and to use that somehow to try to make a political point I think is reprehensible. And my children had no choice that I wanted to run for governor. I pretended that they did. I asked them what they thought but in the end they had absolutely no choice in whether I ran for governor or not, and they knew that by the way when I was asking them, which is why they didn't spend a whole lot of time answering. But the effects on their lives are significant, and they're a full couple of steps down from the effect that it would have if, you know, when your father's President of the United States, and the security concerns that go along with that. As they said in the commercial, you know, well the President has armed bodyguards for his children but he doesn't think it's good enough for your children. You know, the President doesn't have a choice, and his children don't have a choice of whether they're going to be protected or not. The reality of our lives in American society don't lead to that and I think it's awful to bring public figures' children into the political debate. They don't deserve to be there, and I think for any of us who are public figures, you see that kind of ad and you cringe, you cringe because it's just not appropriate in my view to do that. They've got real issues to debate on this topic. Get to the real issues. Don't be dragging people's children into this. It's wrong and I think it demeans them, and it makes them less of a valid trusted source of information on the real issues that confront this debate.
