In an NBC interview due to air Monday morning, Republican Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey, a candidate for president, offered support to Gov. Paul LePage amid the controversy over LePage’s recent comments, saying public leaders often say things they wish they hadn’t.
“He’s apologized,” Christie said, according to a report of the interview released by NBC. “It doesn’t change a bit for me my affection for him, my respect for him, as a leader and as a person, and he’s a good man.”
LePage has been under fire for comments during a town hall meeting Wednesday in Bridgton, when in the course of remarks about Maine’s drug crisis, he said drug dealers with nicknames like “Shifty” or “D-Money” were coming to Maine and, often, impregnating a “white girl” while here.
The comments, l argely overlooked when they were made, rose to attention when they were cited by a Republican operative in a release to Maine media on Thursday.
Reaction was swift within Maine and beyond, prompting LePage to hold an impassioned news conference at the State House on Friday morning to address his statements, during which he offered an apology but also railed against the media for their reporting.
LePage was one of the first to endorse Christie’s candidacy for president, and Christie made frequent Maine stops in 2014 to support LePage’s re-election bid.
This relationship triggered pressure on Christie to address LePage’s comments, and other presidential candidates — such as Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton — issued statements denouncing LePage.
In his home state of New Jersey, Christie was also urged to distance himself from LePage after the comments. The president of the New Jersey NAACP, Richard Smith, said he hoped Christie would “disavow himself with this gentleman,” according to the Philadelphia Inquirer.
In his NBC interview, which is set to run on the “Morning Joe” program on MSNBC on Monday morning, Christie stopped short of criticizing LePage, but did say the remarks were offensive, according to the NBC report.
Christie is said to have described LePage as outspoken.
“Every one of us, me, and everybody else who’s in public life says things at times they wish they could take back,” Christie told NBC.