Chris Christie defends "honest" NFL commissioner Roger Goodell
Embattled NFL commissioner Roger Goodell found a supporter on Thursday night in Gov. Chris Christie, R-New Jersey, who said that Goodell should keep his job despite accusations that the league mishandled domestic violence allegations against former Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice.
"Roger Goodell: Stay or go?" asked NJ 101.5 radio host Eric Scott during Christie's regular "Ask the Governor" radio show.
"Stay," Christie said. "He's an outstanding man, an honest man in my interaction with him ... I absolutely believe Roger Goodell is a good, honest, decent man, that has great integrity. He's admitted he made a mistake in the Rice case.
"We have to be a society that considers the totality of somebody's work, and their life. I know Roger to be a great husband and wonderful father to his two daughters," he added. "In my mind, if I were an NFL owner, I'd be voting to keep Roger Goodell."
Rice was initially suspended for two games in July after he was accused of punching his then-fiancee in the face in Atlantic City in February. A video showed Rice dragging the unconscious woman out of an elevator.
When footage released earlier this month showed Rice knocking her out cold inside the elevator, though, Rice was fired by the Ravens and suspended from the NFL.
Goodell has said the league did not see the video of the assault until it went public, a claim some reports have questioned. But even if it's true, critics said, the league should have made an effort to find it earlier.
"I think the way the NFL handled this was awful. It was outrageous," said Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-New York, in an interview on CBS' "Face the Nation" Sunday. "They had all the facts they needed. They had a player who admitted to beating his wife. They had video of him dragging her out an elevator. There was nothing left to determine. That player should've been fired immediately."
Several lawmakers have called on Goodell to step down, and last week, 16 female senators wrote a letter to Goodell expressing concern about the league's handling of the matter.
Christie was also asked about the possibility that jihadists with the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) might try to target New Jersey. Officials have warned that thousands of western fighters, some with American passports, are joining extremists fighting in Iraq and Syria. The fear is that some may eventually come back to the U.S., battle-hardened and ready to attack the homeland.
"There is no evidence that we have been told of that exists today about any direct threat to New Jersey, but we know that we have significant high value targets," Christie said Thursday. "And as part of the New York-New Jersey metropolitan area and the Philadelphia-New Jersey metropolitan area - that there's some significant concerns there."
During an earlier news conference in Trenton, New Jersey, on Thursday, the governor was again pressed on his plans for 2016, and whether he'll decide to mount a presidential bid. He suggested he would make a decision "at the beginning of next year."
He also said his job as chairman of the Republican Governors Association has given him a preview of the grueling schedule - the nonstop fundraising and jet-setting - that's required of a presidential candidate.
"That's all stuff for me to consider, to take into account," he said, according to the Asbury Park Press. "It gives me a window into ... what that would be like. And it gives my family a window into what that would be like."
"Either I'll think, 'This isn't so bad,'" he added, "Or I'll think, 'this is awful and I don't want to do it.'"