Terry Branstad — Iowa’s Republican governor — says he’d welcome embattled New Jersey Governor Chris Christie to Iowa this year campaign for his 2010 reelection effort.
“Well first of all, he’s the chairman of the Republican Governors Association and (Christie) was here in 2010 for me and did a very fine job,” Branstad told reporters this morning. “…We’re not going to turn down other Republican governors that support and help us.”
Christie — a potential 2016 Republican presidential candidate — has been embroiled in controversy after a text message became public, showing his deputy chief of staff ordered a four-day traffic jam on a busy bridge as retribution against a political foe. Christie has said he had no knowledge of the order and he fired two staff members who were involved.
“Obviously there’s going to be a lot more looking into it, but I think he was deeply disappointed on members of his staff that did some things that were inappropriate and he took action to get rid of them, to dismiss them,” Branstad said. “I guess time will tell how this goes, but I think he handled it like a leadership should — take ownership and take action to see that it doesn’t happen again.”
According to Branstad, there are a lot of things that happen in state government that a governor doesn’t learn about “until after the fact” and “it’s possible” Christie did not know about the situation.
AUDIO of Branstad’s comments about Christie, made during his weekly news conference, 2:35