According to Good Morning America's George
Stephanopoulos, an increase in unemployment from 7.8 percent to 8.3
percent is a recovery. The ABC co-host pressed Chris Christie to agree
that, just as the Governor is proclaiming a New Jersey comeback, "...Can
President Obama make the same claim about the United States?"
According to Stephanopoulos's talking points, "Across the country, unemployment has gone from about 10.2 percent to 8.3 percent...The United States is on a comeback?"
Of course, the problem with this is that unemployment on January 20,
2009 was 7.8 percent. It's now 8.3. percent. An increase of .5 percent
constitutes an American comeback? [MP3 audio here.]
The GMA anchor repeatedly pushed Obama talking points on Christie, who
has endorsed Mitt Romney. Stephanopoulos highlighted the former
Massachusetts governor's insistence that the President has fought a war
on religion.
Stephanopoulos quizzed, "And that comes on top of Santorum comments
saying that the president has a phoney theology. Is this the debate
Republicans want?"
(Until Obama pivoted off of his original contraception stance, few
journalists were worrying if this was a debate Democrats "want" to
have.)
Later, Stephanopoulos dumped more negativity "We have a new AP poll out
this morning showing President Obama opening up an eight and
nine-point lead over Governor Romney and Rick Santorum. Is this campaign
hurting your party?"
The journalist offered the same liberal attack on February 1, 2012:
"You know, a lot of Republicans are starting to worry that a long
primary fight, the negativity of a long primary fight is going to hurt
the eventual nominee?"
A partial transcript of the segment can be found below:
7am tease
GEORGE
STEPHANOPOULOS: Also breaking now, new battle lines in the race for
President. Mitt Romney lashes out at President Obama, accusing him of
fighting religion. As this fight over faith breaks out, Republican
superstar Chris Christie joins us live.
7:07
STEPHANOPOULOS: We're going to talk to one of Mitt Romney's top
supporters right now, New Jersey governor Chris Christie. Thanks for
joining us.
CHRIS CHRISTIE: Thanks, George.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Let's talk about these comments about religion coming
up right now. This 2008 speech from Rick Santorum saying that- he said
Satan has his sights set on America and is making progress. Now,
Santorum is not backing down. But he also says it's not relevant. Is he
right?
CHRISTIE: Oh, listen, I think anything you say as a presidential
candidate is relevant. I mean, it's by definition, relevant. You're
asking to be the president of the United States. So, I don't think he's
right. I think it's relevant what he says. I think people want to make
an evaluation, a complete evaluation of anybody who asks to sit in the
Oval Office. So, I think it's relevant in that respect. Do I think
that's what we should be talking about as party and emphasizing at the
moment? No.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Well, that's what I wanted to get to next,
because you saw Mitt Romney last night saying President Obama has fought
against religion. And that comes on top of Santorum comments saying
that the president has a phoney theology. Is this the debate Republicans
want?
CHRISTIE: I don't think so. But, what I will tell you is that the idea
of the fighting against religion part of this goes more to the
Osamacare issue and the invasion of Obamacare into maybe some religious
freedom issue. I think that's an interesting conversation, an important
one to have in the context of overall Obamacare. What is that going to
mean for the country if it goes forward after the Supreme Court
arguments in the spring? But, in the end, I think, at least what I see
in New Jersey, George is that what people want to hear about what are
you going to do for the economy? How are you going to create more jobs?
How are you going to put my neighbor to work? How are you going to put
me to work so that we can get back to supporting our families?
STEPHANOPOULOS: And that's what you talked about yesterday in
your budget speech. You introduced your budget in New Jersey yesterday.
Called for a ten percent income tax cuts, investments in education. You
also titled what you called "the New Jersey comeback," pointing out that
unemployment has gone from about 10.1 percent to about nine percent.
Across the country, unemployment has gone from about 10.2 percent to 8.3
percent. So, can President Obama make the same claim about the United
States? The United States is on a comeback?
CHRISTIE: I'm sure he will and I think, listen, that's his right to
do. The people will evaluate the same way the people of New Jersey will
evaluate, you know, my claims and my evaluation of where the state is
headed as well. But you think about us. In 2009, we lost 117,000 private
sector jobs, George. Since I've been governor, we've added another
60,000 private sector jobs back. So, what I said was the New Jersey
comeback has begun. It's not complete. And we have more work to do. And
that's why I think, for us, after people made a lot of sacrifices,
shared sacrifices, now shared benefit for everybody by getting some of
their money back.
...
STEPHANOPOULOS: And John McCain says that this long campaign
and the tone of it is actually hurting Republican candidates. We have a
new AP poll out this morning showing President Obama opening up an
eight and nine-point lead over Governor Romney and Rick Santorum. Is
this campaign hurting your party?
CHRISTIE: Well, I think it always does. I thing you saw it with the Hillary Clinton/Barack Obama drawn out affair as well.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Although their favorability ratings stayed high during that fight.
CHRISTIE: Well, they did, George. But it's still, vis-a-vis McCain,
who had wrapped it up, it was a much more competitive race as they
continued to beat each other up and I think that's just natural. What
will happen, though, I think is once we settle on a nominee, and I think
it will be Governor Romney, and I think it will be by April or so.
STEPHANOPOULOS: That early?
CHRISTIE: I think it will be that early. I think he'll establish
momentum- Maybe not have the delegates in hand. But will clearly be the
person who is going to get the nomination. Then you will see it will
tighten up again. Because then people say, okay, now I'm comparing Mitt
Romney to the president. And I think you'll see it tighten again. And I
think we've seen this in political races before. So, I'm not dreadfully
worried about that part of it, but I do think it should remind us as
party, we should have never changed the rules, because what we're doing
now is creating ourselves problems we didn't need.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Governor Christie, thanks very much.
- Scott Whitlock is the senior news analyst for the Media Research Center. Click here to follow him on Twitter.
