On the Wednesday's All In with Chris Hayes, MSNBC political analyst Joy Reid recalled that she was "fuming" during New Jersey Governor Chris Christie's reelection victory speech as she griped that the Republican governor "hypnotizes reporters" by appearing "so gosh darn every man."
She and host Hayes went on to complain that Christie had satisfied a "low bar" of being a Republican who does not "hate" President Obama.
After Hayes described himself as "angry" about the speech, Reid began:
Yeah, and I, as I was listening to Chris Christie's acceptance speech last night, you know, I was kind of fuming because he, Chris Christie has perfected the performance of being this sort of great man of the people that entrances the reporters, it enraptures and almost hypnotizes reporters because it's so gosh darn every man.
But his actual performance as governor doesn't marry up with the image. Last night, he talked about almost as if he was a Marine not leaving people on the beaches of Normandy. He talked about his big substantive achievement. Well, darn it, he hugged people, and people hugged him.
Reid added:
That is not, I mean, it is a minimum standard for a governor to accept federal aid. He did do that. And he didn't hate Barack Obama in the process. He gets credit for being able to do that in a Republican Party that punishes you for not hating Barack Obama. He deserves credit for that.
After Hayes injected, "That's a low bar," Reid concluded:
It's a low bar, he cleared it, but then I think this was so important, it's the first time I've actually heard broken down, what did he actually do to earn this rapturous response from the media?
Below is a transcript of the relevant exchange from the Wednesday, November 6, All In with Chris Hayes on MSNBC:
CHRIS HAYES: I have to say, it's one thing if you say, look, Chris Christie ran on capping property taxes, and he capped the property taxes, and you may not like it but he did it, okay? And that's fine. I mean, my record in New Jersey was I ran on capping property taxes, we got that passed through, we capped property taxes, I'm a low tax guy.
It's another thing entirely for your entire political persona to be bound up in your heroic help that you gave the people of New Jersey in their hour of need, when I have to say, the more that you look at this record, the less there is to it, the more angry I get, the more time I spend reporting on this.
JOY REID, MSNBC POLITICAL ANALYST: Yeah, and I, as I was listening to Chris Christie's acceptance speech last night, you know, I was kind of fuming because he, Chris Christie has perfected the performance of being this sort of great man of the people that entrances the reporters, it enraptures and almost hypnotizes reporters because it's so gosh darn every man.
But his actual performance as governor doesn't marry up with the image. Last night, he talked about almost as if he was a Marine not leaving people on the beaches of Normandy. He talked about his big substantive achievement. Well, darn it, he hugged people, and people hugged him.
That is not, I mean, it is a minimum standard for a governor to accept federal aid. He did do that. And he didn't hate Barack Obama in the process. He gets credit for being able to do that-
HAYES: Yeah.
REID: -in a Republican Party that punishes you for not hating Barack Obama. He deserves credit for that.
HAYES: That's low bar.
REID: It's a low bar, he cleared it, but then I think this was so important, it's the first time I've actually heard broken down, what did he actually do to earn this rapturous response from the media?