Christie slams reporter on storm criticism: Stop 'making it up'

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie strongly contested the notion that his state sustained residual flooding damage from the winter storm that slammed the East Coast over the weekend, accusing one reporter of "making it up."

During an interview with MSNBC's "Morning Joe," senior Huffington Post politics editor Sam Stein asked the governor about "critics in your state and elsewhere who do wonder why you're back up in New Hampshire so early."


"I know there's some flooding damage in the southern part of your state, clearly a lot of residual damage from the storm. What do you say to those critics who say, 'Why did you go back up to New Hampshire so quickly?'" Stein asked, as the program rolled footage showing flooding in Stone Harbor, New Jersey, on Saturday.

“Sam, I don’t even know what critics you’re talking about. There is no residual damage, there is no residual flooding damage," Christie said. "All of the flooding receded yesterday morning. And there was no other damage. People were driving around the streets yesterday morning of New Jersey. So this is just what they wish would have happened."

"Unfortunately for them, we know how to do this," the governor continued. "We managed the storm extraordinarily well. New Jersey Transit was back at noon yesterday after the storm, our roads were all open by 7 a.m. yesterday. And so, I think that’s what just folks who want to criticize me for anything that I do, and I have not heard any of that criticism, I have not seen any of that criticism, and I think you’re just making it up.”

Christie cut short his campaigning in New Hampshire on Friday afternoon, returning to his state "before the first flake of snow hit the ground," he said. He returned to the first primary state on Sunday, as residents in the northern part of the state began to dig out from historic snowfall totals, while along the coast, residents slammed Christie's assertion that their state "dodged a bullet."

"Oh yeah?" asked a resident of Cape May County, New Jersey, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer's report published Sunday evening. "Gov. Christie should come down here and get in his fishing waders and live my life." According to the same report, in which residents, local officials and business owners called the flooding worse than the northern part of the state experienced during Sandy in 2012, Christie characterized coastal flooding as minor to moderate, and remarked at a Sunday news conference that there was no significant property damage.

Another business owner said of Christie's assessment of storm damage, "He couldn't claim a disaster because that would mean he'd have to stay here."

In an interview with CNN's Jake Tapper, also on Sunday, Christie remarked that the areas affected by flooding over the weekend sustained little to almost no damage in 2012.

"Oh, no. Listen, the folks that were evacuated were evacuated when we planned to do that if the tide came in," He said. "Let's keep this in perspective, Jake. North Wildwood and the Cape May County area was the least flooded area during Hurricane Sandy and had almost no damage in that area of the state. So to compare it to Hurricane Sandy, you're not comparing it to what happened to the rest of the state and also, from looking at what is going on in Margate. High tide is now over in Margate and the water will now recede and we have no concerns for flooding the rest of the day today and what we're hearing from the mayors is that there is no significant type of property damage there at all and so we've really done very, very well in this storm, and we have no concerns about flooding or damage from flooding any time soon."