Liberal pundits have criticized 2016 Republican presidential hopeful and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie.
Politicsusa.com reported Jon Stewart, host of "The Daily Show" on Comedy Central, spoke disparagingly of Christie this year after he initially required Kaci Hickox, a nurse returning from West Africa over concerns about Ebola.
Urgent: Do You Support Chris Christie for the GOP Nomination? Vote Here Now
After Christie dismissed Hickox’s frustrations and said she’d “understand” after she’d had some time to reflect, Stewart said, “Why does Christie have to be such a d*ck about everything?”
But not everything Stewart says about
Christie is negative. NBC News reported that after Christie in 2012 worked with President Barack Obama to bring aid to New Jersey in the wake of Superstorm Sandy, Stewart said, “It’s amazing how once you remove political partisanship and gamesmanship, performance improves dramatically!”
Another Christie critic is Martin Bashir, a political commentator for MSNBC from 2010 to 2013, who reportedly discouraged Christie from running for president.
Bashir described that situation as “a somewhat coquettish romance” and not “the full-blooded commitment of a man who finds the very idea irresistible.”
Newsbusters reported he concluded, “Go home, Mr. Christie. Your state needs you much more than America does.”
Urgent: Who Should the GOP Nominate in 2016? Vote Here Now
Liberal pundits particularly took Christie to task after the September 2013 “Bridgegate” scandal regarding the morning rush hour closing, for five days, of two of the three traffic lanes from Fort Lee, N.J., to the George Washington Bridge and New York City.
The Star-Ledger reported the question remains as to whether the closings were politically motivated.
When it was reported that a 91-year-old woman was delayed medical treatment due to the traffic jam and later died, MSNBC host Lawrence O’Donnell said the woman was going to become the “Willie Horton” of
Christie’s presidential campaign, according to Mediaite.com. Horton committed violent crimes after being released on a furlough program that then-Massachusetts Gov. Michael Dukakis supported and was then heavily featured in infamous attack ads against Dukakis when he ran as the Democratic candidate for president in 1988.
Slate reported last January that Christie spokesman Colin Reed made reference to a spoof ad O’Donnell had produced that slammed Christie as Reed described MSNBC as “a partisan network that has been openly hostile to Governor Christie” and almost gleeful in its efforts to attack him.
Chris Matthews, host of the talk show “Hardball With Chris Matthews” on MSNBC, responded to Bridgegate by hyping Christie as “the new Nixon." Matthews used that phrase to describe Christie on eight consecutive episodes.
Newsbusters reported Matthews said Jan. 15, “Well, this is not yet a Watergate, but the more we learn about Chris Christie, the more he does look like Richard Nixon.”
The National Review reported that after the scandal broke, MSNBC’s "Rachel Maddow Show" became “all Bridgegate, all the time,” with host Maddow indicating she felt Christie’s political career was over.
Maddow suggested that Christie or his aides ordered the closure of the bridge lanes to gain revenge against the Democrats in the state legislature who objected to his aborted decision to not appoint a Democratic state Supreme Court appointee to another term,
The Huffington Post reported.
Maddow indicated she still wasn’t ready to throw in the towel after a report issued this month by the Democrat-dominated New Jersy state legislature found no evidence that Christie was aware of his staffers’ plans to close down part of the bridge,
the National Review reported. It said she argued that the committee didn’t find incriminating evidence because it was unable to interview key witnesses.
Vote Now: Which Potential GOP Candidate Would You Support in 2016?
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.