Murphy Hits Back Against Christie Criticism: 'Give Me A Break'

NEW JERSEY - As he has done so many times in the past during his regular COVID-19 briefing, Governor Phil Murphy took difficult questions and handled them calmly and efficiently Wednesday. Until former Governor Chris Christie's recent remarks were brought up.

Speaking Tuesday to discuss the launch of his NJ 30-Day Fund, Christie said that more should have been done to help small businesses in the Garden State and reporters brought that up to Murphy, who said he had seen the remarks.

"I applaud the effort that he and Mary Pat are making towards small businesses, so we shouldn't take away from that. But you know what? I wish he had stopped there, frankly," he said. "There's no reason to inject us/them or any amount of politics into this. We have strived from day one to make the calls on the science, on the data and on the facts. Let's just keep it at that."

Christie also said that public workers could have sacrificed more so that the New Jersey Economic Development Authority (EDA) was more robust to help small businesses. And that did not sit will with the sitting governor.

"I don't know whether to laugh or to cry, but he's evoking the EDA, as I understand it in his comments, which was a piggy bank for special interests under his leadership. Big companies at the absolute expense of small companies," Murphy said. "My math tells me that our EDA in this crisis has committed $100 million dollars to help 20,000 small businesses of which half of them already have the money."

And while New Jersey’s largest union of state workers agreed to furloughs and to hold off on a wage increase to avoid layoffs, Murphy also said that the idea of laying off more workers was the wrong move.

"Who thinks that laying off middle class workers who are the very folks at the front lines, providing the services that our residents so desperately need, who thinks that laying them off somehow benefits New Jersey's families when in fact the exact opposite is the case," he said.

The Christies on their organization web page, said they have stepped up to help just as they did when responding to Superstorm Sandy, bringing New Jersey together to combat a crisis. The Christies said they began this fund to help New Jerseyans get back on their feet and come back even stronger from the COVID-19 pandemic.

"I appreciate the fact that he's helping out small businesses, but come on man, particularly given the train wreck the EDA was under his leadership all for the benefit of special interest, at the expense of small businesses," Murphy said. "Especially how public sector workers were crushed under him. Give me a break."

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