Chris Christie lost it with a New Jersey activist heckling him over the slow pace of repairs on the two year anniversary of Hurricane Sandy this week. Instead of considering the activist’s message or the intemperate behavior from a man who may run for president, Fox News' Heather Nauert gushed over Christie’s outburst as “refreshing” and “great.”
Nauert played a clip of Christie giving “a piece of his mind” to a heckler who was upset not enough has been done to help storm victims.
CHRISTIE: I’d be more than happy to have a debate with you anytime you’d like, guy, ‘cause somebody like you – who doesn’t know a damn thing about what you’re talking about except to stand up and show off when the cameras are here. I’ve been here when the cameras aren’t here, buddy, and done the work! You want to have the conversation later, I’m happy to have it, buddy. But until that time, sit down and shut up!
Nauert sounded as if she was trying to stifle an approving laugh as she said, “There you have it!” She went on to suggest that the man Christie yelled at was just some Democratic opponent. Nauert continued, “The guy he’s talking to is James Keady. He’s a former Democratic councilman from Asbury Park, New Jersey. He founded a group called ‘Finish the Job’ that’s been critical of the pace of rebuilding that’s been taking place in New Jersey.”
Bloomberg reported what Nauert left out of her description of Keady:
The 43-year-old Keady is a small businessman who runs his family’s tavern, where many of the customers are in less frequently because, Keady says, they’re out of pocket from the storm damage and waiting to get back in their homes.
…He grew up in Belmar, now lives in neighboring Spring Lake, and after the storm, he said, he took a month off of work and volunteered “every day” in Belmar. “They trusted me with one of their borrowed dump trucks and I was running clean up crews all over town,” Keady said. “I wanna know how many crawl spaces the governor was in, cleaning up. But he got his photo-op in Belmar.”
Keady talked about how only 20 percent of a $1.1 billion a program to get people back in their homes has actually gone out. “His administration is sitting on $800 million of taxpayer money that was supposed to go to our fellow New Jerseyans,” Keady said.
But Nauert was so impressed with Christie’s bullying, she didn’t have time to consider much of anything else in the situation. Nauert raved, “Isn’t that refreshing? Whether or not you agree with Christie’s politics, it’s refreshing to hear from a politician like that. It’s great.”
Host Brian Kilmeade was a bit less enthused. “You can say ‘refreshing’ is a good word, unless it’s you,” he said.
Watch it below.