Chris Christie won’t be taking the olive branch Rand Paul offered yesterday anytime soon. The New Jersey governor declined Paul’s invitation to grab a beer to “patch things up” after their verbal skirmish between the potential 2016 rivals over the last week, and had a few other choice words.
“I really don’t have time for that at the moment,” said Christie on his “Ask the Governor” radio show, citing his upcoming campaign for reelection and “dealing with the other issues that invariably come on the desk of a governor when you’re responsible for actually doing things and not just debating.”
But Christie left the door open for a possible get-together: “If I find myself down in Washington, I’ll certainly look him up, but I don’t suspect I’ll be there anytime soon.”
Christie also shrugged off Paul’s calling him “the king of bacon” earlier the week over his “gimme, gimme, gimme” attitude for federal benefits in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, calling the senator’s name-calling “juvenile” and “childish.”
He clarified that he never directly cited Paul in his comments that sparked the conflict, pointing out that the reporter who asked him the question mentioned Paul while he was answering. “It really had nothing to do with Senator Paul, but Senator Paul wanted to make it about Senator Paul, so that’s fine,” he said.
“He’s not the first politician to use me to get attention in the national media, and I’m sure he won’t be the last,” Christie added.