New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie on Friday said he will return home to the Garden State for the impending snowstorm, leaving the campaign trail.
{mosads}”I’m sorry, NH but I gotta go home — we got snow coming. #Jonas,” the Republican presidential candidate tweeted Friday afternoon.
“I want to make sure the people of my state feel safe and secure,” he added.
Christie said his wife, Mary Pat Christie, will be staying in New Hampshire to continue the campaign.
“The fact is — you are never not the governor,” he wrote.
The state is facing a blizzard warning with between 4 and 14 inches of snow, according to CBS.
Christie had been planning to stay in New Hampshire.
“I was on a call last night. I’ll be on another call tonight,” he told WMUR on Thursday.
“If I feel like it’s necessary for me to get down there, I will, but I’m not driving a plow truck, OK? We have all of our people ready to go. They know what to do.”
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio criticized Christie earlier Friday for staying in New Hampshire as the storm approaches.
“I think he needs to come back,” he said Friday in an interview with CNN. “A day or two ago, it might have been a question mark. Right now it’s not a question mark anymore. Obviously, we are being warned that it could even be worse and we find this out with each storm — sometimes it’s less than we expected and sometimes it’s more, so for any governor, it’s time to come home.”
Democratic National Committee spokesman Eric Walker also released a statement slamming the governor for putting his presidential campaign first.
“Absentee Governor Chris Christie proved once again that he’ll put his own political ambitions before the well-being of his constituents,” Walker said in a press release.
“It’s shameful that the governor would phone it in instead of being on the ground to handle the crisis.”