For years, MSNBC host Rachel Maddow has been trying to get New Jersey Governor Chris Christie to appear on her show. She reports that she has invited him numerous times and that he has a standing invitation. But whenever she asks, the answer is always the same: Thanks, but no thanks.
What’s a good reporter to do? How about showing up at a Christie campaign event in New Hampshire and seeing if Governor Christie will at least respond to a question or two? So that’s exactly what Maddow did Friday.
When Maddow did confront Christie, he demurred and told her:
“Rachel, you beat the crap out of me for years, you expect me to voluntarily come on your program, come on.”
Wait a minute. Isn’t Chris Christie supposed to be a tough guy who isn’t afraid to tell people his version of the truth, no matter the consequences? Now he’s scared of a reporter? Maddow noted that, too, telling Christie:
“Oh, come on… You love the back and forth…”
Most politicians do. The majority enjoy a good, spirited interview with an excellent journalist such as Maddow, if only because it helps them prepare for future encounters with the media. But Christie replied to Maddow:
“With a lot of people, maybe not with you.”
And that’s probably because Christie knows that he cannot bully or bullshit Rachel Maddow. Should he try, she would call him out on his crap and put it right back in his face. She is, I’m willing to bet, much smarter than Christie, and he fears both her intellectual heft and her ability to ask questions he has no answer for.
But what this also tells us about Chris Christie is that he may look like a bear of a man, but in reality he’s just a sniveling wimp who cannot stand the heat of a real debate with a skilled reporter. And as Harry Truman famously said, “If you can’t stand the head, get out of the kitchen.”
Here’s the brief encounter between Christie and Maddow in New Hampshire:
Does he seem surprised? He was probably surprised. 🙂
Watch tonight! pic.twitter.com/CHe5FBKzl6— Maddow Blog (@MaddowBlog) February 5, 2016
This article was originally published by the same author at LiberalAmerica.org.