ENGLEWOOD -- Gov. Chris Christie on Monday took aim at U.S. attorneys who were told to quit by President Donald Trump, saying the federal prosecutors were political appointees who knew they were living on borrowed time.

"All this moaning and complaining from people like Preet Bharara and Paul Fishman is to me, ridiculous," said Christie during an appearance at electronics manufacturer LG to tout new unemployment numbers.

"They received notice that they were leaving office. That notice was given to them by the people of the country on November 8, when they elected a Republican president."

Fishman, the former U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey, resigned Friday at the request of the White House, which also demanded the resignation of 45 other U.S. attorneys appointed by President Obama.

Bharara, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, tweeted on Saturday that he'd been fired after refusing to resign as requested by President Donald Trump over the weekend.

Christie, a former U.S. attorney for New Jersey, was named by Republican President George W. Bush on Sept. 10, 2001.

Two weeks after Democrat Barack Obama was elected president, Christie tendered a resignation letter on Nov. 17, 2008 that became effective Dec. 2, 2008. He announced he was running for governor shortly after that.

Fishman's office oversaw the successful prosecutions of three Christie allies in connection with so-called "Bridgegate" scandal over 2013's politically motivated access lane closures at the George Washington Bridge.

Fishman had lamented that his ouster, while expected, was needlessly abrupt, telling USA Today that "a transition period would have been a lot better."

The governor, however, rejected Fishman's argument on Monday.

"Did he somehow think that President Trump was going to reappoint him?" asked Christie. "I think that was unlikely. I think that the president handled it well. The people that handled it poorly were the United States attorneys who didn't hand in their resignation."

Bharara's dismissal, however, came as something of a surprise, given his public statements after a December 2016 meeting with then President-Elect Trump. Trump had reportedly asked him to consider remaining as the U.S. attorney for New York.

"I agreed to stay on," Bharara had said after the meeting with Trump, noting that Trump's designee to be U.S. Attorney General had asked him to stay put as well.

Christie, however, said the fault lay with the federal prosecutors, who were in denial about being political appointees who serve at the pleasure of the president and "hanging on with your fingernails, being scraped off the desk to get out of the office."

The president, Christie said, had shown "extraordinary patience" in waiting as long as he had to dismiss the remaining Obama appointed prosecutors like Bharara and Fishman, whom the governor accused of believing they'd originated from "virginal births."

He also laughed off a reporter's question about whether he'd again serve as U.S. attorney for New Jersey.

"I've had that job. You don't go backwards in life," he answered. "You go forward."

Claude Brodesser-Akner may be reached at cbrodesser@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @ClaudeBrodesser. Find NJ.com Politics on Facebook.