NJEA calls on Christie to resign for 'bully' comment (VIDEO)
MANCHESTER, N.H. — The head of New Jersey's largest teachers' union called on Gov. Chris Christie to resign Sunday after the governor suggested the group's national counterparts deserve a punch in the face.
Wendell Steinhauer, president of the New Jersey Education Association, said in a statement Christie "should resign as governor immediately" after the Republican presidential hopeful assailed teacher unions for putting the interests of adults ahead of students.
"Chris Christie's instinct is always to threaten, bully and intimidate instead of build consensus and show true leadership," Steinhauer said.
"That's not news in New Jersey, where voters overwhelmingly reject his immature and inappropriate behavior as well as his failed policies and lack of leadership," he said. "It is clear from polling that voters in the rest of the country also reject his rhetoric and his behavior."
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Steinhauer, who's no stranger to publicly criticizing Christie, responded to the governor's interview with CNN's Jake Tapper on "State of the Union."
"They're not for education for our children," Christie told Tapper. "They're for greater membership, greater benefits, greater pay for their members. And they are the single most destructive force in public education in America. I have been saying that since 2009. I have got the scars to show it. But I'm never going to stop saying it, because they never change their stripes."
Christie suggested the national teachers' unions deserved to be punched in the face when he responded to a specific Tapper question that used the "punch in the face" phrase.
"During your first term as governor, you were fond of saying that you can treat bullies in one of two ways — quote — 'You can either sidle up to them or you can punch them in the face.' You said, 'I like to punch them in the face.' At the national level, who deserves a punch in the face?" Tapper asked.
Christie responded: "Oh, the national teachers' union."
The governor is scheduled to be in Manchester Monday afternoon for a meet-and-greet session before taking part in a GOP forum hosted by the Union Leader.
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