The Morning Briefing - SPECIAL EDITION
Note to all: Salty language below
In what will forever be remembered as his “I don’t give a shit,” speech, Gov. Chris Christie delivered a Bulworth-inspired, expletive-filled tirade against the media during the New Jersey Legislative Correspondent’s Club annual show that would have made many Iowa-based religious conservatives pray for his soul.
All of the governor’s comments last night were surprisingly on-the-record, and certainly candid.
After Christie sat through the media’s silly skits mocking him for everything from Bridgegate to his presidential aspirations, the governor fired back using language normally reserved for a late-night conversation with confidants in a back room scrubbed of recording devices.
In years past, Christie’s staff always prepared a humorous video of the governor (one year with then-Newark Mayor Cory Booker). But this year, Christie did not have a video and said he would not make excuses.
“The truth is we don’t give a shit about this or any of you,” Christie told the Statehouse press corps.
Christie started his tirade against the president of the Legislative Correspondent’s Club, Claude Brodesser-Akner of NJ.com, refusing to say his last name. “Not because I can’t pronounce French names, but again because I don’t give a shit.”
Christie said he loved being critiqued by a reporter whose journalistic background is from that “extraordinary” news magazine,TMZ.
“The fact that you have to start off by apologizing to me for their use of a surreptitious iPhone video of me with an ice cream cone yelling at a guy on the boardwalk tells you everything you need to know about the core of his journalistic background,” Christie said.
“This is a guy who says he doesn’t know what I’m doing every day,” Christie said of Brodesser-Akner. “Then just get the fuck away from me. Every time I turn the corner in New Hampshire, you and that beard are there. So here’s my suggestion: open your eyes, clean the shit out of your ears and pay attention.”
Christie said he could speak candidly because his director of communications, Maria Comella, wasn’t with him.“Let me tell you everybody, I’m as scared of her as all of you are,” Christie said.