Christie to MSNBC: Their 'Attila the Hun' Branding Hurt Poll Numbers

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie blamed “relentless negativity” from the media and pundits for his low poll numbers, vowing they’ll rebound as presidential primary season nears.

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“How about nightly specials on this network for five months calling me Attila the Hun? How about, you know, relentless attacks from The New York Times and the media?” he told MSNBC this morning.

“Then, then you also wind up deciding to run for president. And when you do that inside your own state, you see it with Scott Walker and Bobby Jindal, when you do it inside of your own state, the people of your state go oh, you’re leaving us. You don’t care about us as much? And the numbers go down. Each one of the governors are running, the numbers are down in their states. That’s the way it goes. It will cycle back up.”

But, one of the hosts noted, Christie’s poll numbers were down in his home state before he announced he was running for president.

“I said that was part of it. The bridge stuff is part of it for certain. And the relentless negativity that I was subjected to. And then combine that with the idea that you’ve got a guy that going to run for president. When that happens, the combination of the two brings your numbers down. The numbers are going to go back up. They all do,” the governor said.

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“I’ve been in the 30s before. I’ve been in the 70s before, and I’ve been everywhere in between. You know why? Because I spend my political capital. I don’t frame it and put it on the wall and say isn’t that pretty? Don’t do anything because it might have to come off the wall. You get political capital, you spend it on tenure reform. You get it, you spend it on pension and benefit reform. That’s what you do.”

Christie says what separates him from the rest of the large pack of GOP hopefuls is he’s “combat ready.”

He says he’s perking the ears of voters in New Hampshire, too, by not shying away from entitlement reform.

“I see a lot of nodding heads. Even from older Americans, when I’m talking about this. They know it. They want someone to honestly talk to them about it and do it in a way where you’re not throwing granny off the cliff.”

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