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Chris Christie: 'No, I wasn't being held hostage'

Chris Christie vigorously defended his endorsement of Donald Trump on Thursday and pushed back against New Jersey newspapers that have called on him to resign if he's going to be jetting around with the Republican front-runner.

The New Jersey governor also panned all the memes that sprung up after he stood alongside Trump with a vacant stare on the night of Super Tuesday.

“No, I wasn’t being held hostage. No, I wasn’t sitting up there thinking, ‘Oh my God, what have I done?’” Christie told reporters during a press conference at the New Jersey Statehouse. “I was sitting up there — standing up there — supporting the person who I believe is the best person to beat Hillary Clinton, of the remaining Republican candidates, and it’s why I endorsed him. I understand everybody had a lot of fun with it. It doesn’t matter to me.”

Christie said he wasn’t sure what he else he could have done and suggested all the “armchair psychiatrists” give it up.

The New Jersey governor argued that Trump’s event, where he flanked his former Republican rival as he spoke on his triumphant Super Tuesday, wasn’t a typical Trump rally. The billionaire’s rallies tend to draw crowds of thousands of people who feed off Trump’s energy with cheers and applause.

“He gave a press conference,” Christie said, adding that there were only a couple dozen people in the room who were neither press nor campaign staff. “So it wasn’t the kind of circumstance where I’d be jumping up and down, cheering and smiling. He was answering questions from the national press corps and I was listening. So no, I wasn't being held hostage.”

Christie added that he wasn’t upset, angry, despondent or anything else. “I wasn’t anything other than happy that we had done as well as he had done that night and listening to someone give a press conference in front of the national press corps,” he said. “I don’t think that’s the appropriate time for smiling, cheering and clapping. So that’s all it was.”

Christie maintained that had Trump not been in the race, he would be on his way to challenging Hillary Clinton in the fall. “If he had not been in the race, I would have been the nominee," Christie said.

But Trump is in the race, and Christie emphasized that the New York billionaire was the best candidate left in a field that’s dwindled from 17 down to the final four. “I obviously thought I was better. The voters disagreed,” he said. “I’ve made a choice. Some people agree with that choice. Some people disagree with that choice. That’s what political choices are all about.”

He also dismissed the seven New Jersey newspapers that have called on him to resign if he's going to focus on his own political career instead of his gubernatorial duties. The Star-Ledger, one of the seven papers, on Thursday accused Christie of neglect. "Gov. Chris Christie has made it abundantly clear that governing New Jersey is a distant second priority for him, far behind the demands of his personal ambition," its editorial board said.

Christie, who bowed out of the presidential race last month, said he wasn’t surprised by the editorial. “They’re trying to find some way to be relevant as their circulations declines, as their readership declines, they’re trying to be relevant and the only way to do that is to set themselves on fire, which is what they did over the last two days,” he said, before pivoting to his dedication to the state. “I’ve been back 22 days since the presidential campaign, and I’ve been here 19 of the 22 days at work,” he argued. “And so that’s the way it’s gonna be going forward. Will there be occasions that I’ll go out on the campaign trail for Donald Trump? Yeah, but that will be on occasion.”

Since his shock endorsement last week, Christie’s former national finance co-chair, Meg Whitman, blasted him for his “astonishing display of political opportunism,” and fellow Republicans back home in New Jersey have expressed disappointment.

“I intend to be here until January 16, I believe it is, 2018, and then I intend to leave to go to the private sector, and that’s my intention, my plan, and there is nothing that will change that,” Christie said. “And in the time between now and then, I will be working as hard as I can as governor of New Jersey to do things right by the people of the state.”

The press conference Thursday was a stark contrast to Christie’s Monday press conference, in which he deflected any questions that didn’t relate to his state Supreme Court nomination.

“I was not gonna answer a whole bunch of questions about Donald Trump and my presidential campaign when I’m announcing a nominee for the Supreme Court and I have a judge standing behind me,” he explained on Thursday. “That had to be his day, and I knew if I opened it up to questions beyond on-topic, then all the questions would be on all of this. He deserved more respect than that.”

But on Thursday, he openly fielded questions, which included state issues but heavily focused on his Trump endorsement.

Christie distanced himself a bit from Trump’s campaign, insisting he isn’t a full-time surrogate and has no official position with his campaign. “I have no current plans to go back out on the road with him again, but I will, at some point, I’m sure, do so,” he said.