MSNBC Contributor Ari Melber Defends Fox's Steve Doocy On Controversial Question To Chris Christie

» 19 comments

Regular cable news watchers may remember New Jersey governor Chris Christie's strongly-worded response to Fox & Friends' Steve Doocy after the morning show host asked him whether there is 'any possibility that Governor Romney may go to New Jersey to tour some of the damage with you.'

Here's how Christie responded:

I have no idea, nor am I the least bit concerned or interested. I've got a job to do here in New Jersey that's much better than presidential politics and I could care less about any of that stuff. I've got a job to do. I've got 2.4 million people out of power. I've got devastation on the Shore. I've got floods in the northern part of my state. If you think right now I give a damn about presidential politics, then you don't know me.

Ok, really: What's the deal with people saying 'I could care less' when they clearly mean 'I could not care less'? Words mean things, people.

Anyway. At least one MSNBC contributor thought Christie's answer was a little much given the actual question he was posed.

'It's too much,' MSNBC contributor Ari Melber told host Melissa Harris-Perry about Christie's response. 'It's too strong. And the question ' to be fair to Steve Doocy, who asks a lot of really bad questions ' that was a straight question. Prior to that clip, they were talking about the role of the president. And then to balance it out, he said ' I don't think there's any spin on the ball ' 'What about Governor Romney?' It is not unusual within the traditions of our country to have the challenger engage. We do that on foreign policy. They get briefings. Governor Romney has been included and offered to talk to the management infrastructure. And there are briefings if you win. If Governor Romney were to win, there would be briefings before he became president. So it was not a political question. I think it was a fair question.'

Check it out, via MSNBC:

• Hmmm, I never saw it like that. I hope Governor Romney loses and I think Steve Doocy is an idiot shill, but I agree with Ari Melber here.

• I am Glad Douchey ask the question also .
  The BYTCHSLAP Christie handed Fox & Fiends is PRICELESS, it will be used in folklore for years to tell the story of the LONG GONE Republican party as they fade out of history becuas ethey CANNOT SEEM TO GET THEIR HEAD OUT OF THEIR'REARS!.

• teabagger

• ahhhh'Bengazi??? And how's that relief effort going in Staten Island??? I got buddies in Red Bank, NJ'4 hours for gas if they are lucky and no power'They were REALLY happy to have traffic diverted so fat ass Christie and the Kenyan Queen could take photo-ops'Say all you want about Bush and Katrina at least he held his cluster F with FEMA Brownie in an airplane hanger'

  PS: Joe Biden (you know, the guy one heart beat from the Presidency) STILL doesn't know what state he's in'

• Wow. Rabies is a very serious disease. You should seek treatment.

• Gotta luv these final days:

  -Obama backers keep hotel rooms and generators from storm victims.
  -Obama calls for Americans to 'revenge' her fellow Americans
  -Reid declares Senate gridlock will continue under his rein.
  -Gallup declares Dems oversampling by +11
  -CIA continues to defend itself against Obama smears
  -Biden declares he 'hasn't been proud of Obama for 1 day in last 4 yrs'
  -Obama getting squashed in early voting
  -unemployment numbers tick up

• Effector is a tea bagger, in the literal sense.

• -Chris Christie drops a Dooce on national television.

  I think it would be really good for you to make peace with the idea that Romney is going to lose. I know you're probably getting this 'information' somewhere inside the right wing bubble, but in reality Obama is very far ahead in early voting.

• 'Not unusual to have the challenger engage'? Engage in what'What a moronic statement by Ari Melber'fortunately there were 12 people watching the show'LOL

• i think this comes from outside the 'rightwing bubble'

  http://www.politico.com/blogs/charlie-mahtesian/2012/11/gop-ahead-of-early-vote-pace-148136.html

• I agree

  How about that POWER recovery in such a SHORT TIME after an HISTORIC STORM hitting DENSE population in an area the SIZE OF EUROPE.

  9 Million without power down to 2.2 in under 4 days

• And it doesn't say anything remotely close to what Steven said, does it?

  Thanks for playing, though.

• It's

  1) easier to say,
  2) sounds cooler as
  A) more euphonic, and
  B) less pretentious sounding**,
  and
  4) an example of an instance where the Shock Paradox applies*.

  *Despite that it's not just wrong but can be extremely grating when used in writing, in aural use it comes across as more emphatic than its logically correct opposite, and so can be, paradoxically, more effective in being understood and noticed. Similarly, it's often more effective to say phrases like 'F**k me!' though at least superficially impossible (See Professor C. Eastwood) than the more accurate 'I believe I have been unfairly disadvantaged in these regards'.

  ** This goes to culture. Merrye Olde Englande, being more ancient and dense, has a number of local dialects that have emerged as iconic for what they call the 'working class', what we'd call yer Jersey Shore (as it was), Redneck, hillbilly, 47%, etc culturally iconic stereotypes. Among these in England are Cockneys, associated with urban London, and Geordies, associated with the northeast coal mining and dock cities such as Newcastle-on-Tyne. In Cockney and Geordie culture, it's 'cool' to mock the privileged and the wealthy as snobs and 'nobs' by flaunting one's own ignorance and wrongness. So, much in the same way as it's become a cultural handshake among American white supremacist political reactionaries and authoritarians to use language which questions without basis Barack Obama's eligibility to be POTUS, it's a form of cultural handshake among certain unprivileged classes here as in England, to flaunt language conventions like this. In a human psychology sense, it's similar to choosing to say or write something in a certain manner you think is going to bug 'bleeding heart libruls' in hopes of doing so.

• IMPORTANT REMINDER :

  Don`t forget to change your clocks tonight and your President on Tuesday.

• what part of 38% to 35% don't you understand?

• That makes YOU the baggee.

• GAWD'give this subject a break already!

• Melber's take also suggests that Christie may have been ' in my view, undoubtedly was ' way too exhausted to easily recall or care about sociopolitical cultural niceties, and, more intriguingly, betrayed, once again, something we've been told again and again about Romney, namely being that other Republicans* don't like being around him, don't enjoy his company, don't bond with him, and, darn it, just don't like the guy.

  *If so, it's a possible source of bipartisan feeling.

• That was the moment one decent politician went off script and cared about the people of his state above the politics of the moment. The question was dumb as can be. Is Romney going to do 'disaster EVENTS'? Events?

  With Americans having such a difficult time all the Republicans care about right now is winning and this really goes for both parties. Over 180 million dollars by both parties spent to get themselves elected when that money could be used to help ordinary Americans? Well we didn't need the disaster to recognize exactly how nauseating that number is.

  We don't need people to come out and vote. What this country needs is for the electorate to all stay home in protest so that no vote is cast for anybody. Unfortunately with mail-in's and early voting that already is not an option.