Chris Christie on snowstorm: You want me to go down there with a mop?

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie speaks during a campaign stop at Gilbert H. Hood Middle School in Concord, N.H., on Jan. 20, 2016. Credit: AP / John Minchillo
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie’s response to a woman who questioned his return to the campaign trail after this weekend’s storm drew ire from one of the state’s mayors.
The woman, who said she went to school in Pennington, N.J., challenged the 2016 presidential candidate over his quick return to New Hampshire despite coastal flooding in his home state.
After she said her friends and family were sending her flood pictures from across New Jersey, Christie insisted she was mistaken.
“There has been one county that’s flooded in the state. That was Cape May County,” the governor said in a town-hall meeting. “So I don’t know where from all over the state, since we have 21 counties, where that’s happened.”
Christie added jokingly, “I don’t know what you expect me to do. You want me to go down there with a mop?”
The governor boasted about the state’s quick response to the blizzard, saying they had plenty of crews out on the street during and after the storm to help recuperation.
“If there were anything left for me to have to do, I wouldn’t have come back” to New Hampshire, he said. “But what they want me to do is just sit there and stare, I could do that. But I don’t think it would make them feel any better.”
Mayor Patrick Rosenello, of North Wildwood, N.J., blasted the governor, who apparently hinted that he had overreacted.
“Unlike the governor who is in New Hampshire, I am in New Jersey and have been through this entire weather event,” Rosenello said, according to NBC.
Christie targeted Rosenello specifically over the mayor’s alleged claim that the flooding was worse than superstorm Sandy.
“He makes the incredible statement, ‘It’s worse than Sandy!’ Well damn man, you didn’t get any flooding in Sandy,” Christie said. “So if you got a foot of flooding it would be worse than Sandy.”
Rosenello fired back, “I have been with our paid and volunteer rescue personnel throughout the weekend and have witnessed their rescues and heroic efforts throughout the weekend. His comments are disrespectful to the property owners and residents who went through a traumatic weather event.”
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