Christie declines to ‘second guess’ chokehold grand jury

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, citing his background as a prosecutor, is declining to criticize a Staten Island grand jury's decision not to bring an indictment in the death of Eric Garner, a man suspected of selling loose cigarettes.

Traveling in Canada Thursday, Christie said, "As someone who led a prosecuting office for seven years, before I became governor, one of the things I learned is, that you never know all of the things that a grand jury knows unless you're in that grand jury working with them."

The governor is in New Jersey on a trade mission and his remarks regarding the Garner case were reported by New Jersey Advance Media. He also said,  "When I was U.S. Attorney, I used to really, really dislike when politicians who didn't know a tenth of what the prosecutors and the grand jury knew would second guess their work purely for political reasons or out of ignorance. So I'm not going to second-guess that work."

Christie's comments came as public figures throughout the U.S. were also weighing in on the grand jury decision. Here is a sampling:

• Hillary Rodham Clinton said she supports federal reviews of police-involved deaths of black men in Ferguson, Missouri, and New York City. The former secretary of state said the families and communities deserved a "full and fair accounting" and the deaths had forced the nation to "grapple with some hard truths about race and justice in America." She noted that black men are more likely to be stopped and searched by police, charged with crimes and sentenced to longer prison terms. "We have allowed our criminal justice system to get out of balance," Clinton said. "And I personally hope that these tragedies give us the opportunity to come together as a nation to find our balance again."

• The black community is not right to be upset about the ruling, said U.S. Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., in an interview with The Associated Press. "If this were a white person it would have been the same thing," King said, adding that Garner's death was largely the result of his health problems - something the coroner's report affirmed. "I'm not blaming the guy for being heavy; I'm saying if he was in different physical condition, if he was in normal physical condition, this would not have killed him," he said and later added, "He had serious heart deficiencies caused by obesity, caused by diabetes, and that's what contributed to his death. That's from the autopsy. That's not me."

• "I'm not going to rule that in or out, but I do think that the American people deserve more answers about what really happened here and where - and was our system of justice handled properly," House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, said in Washington, calling the situations in Ferguson and New York serious tragedies and saying there may need to be congressional hearings.

• "The grand jury decisions in New York and Ferguson, Missouri, should lead to a "vital and honest discussion" about race and policing, said former New York Mayor David Dinkins, the first black leader of the nation's largest city. Families fear what could happen to "anyone's child" during a law enforcement encounter, he said, but it's crucial to "foster hope for fairness."

• New York should consider better police training, body cameras on officers and other changes, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said on public radio's "Capitol Pressroom." The Garner case and others like it have a "corrosive" effect on society and cause many to lose faith in the criminal justice system, he said. Lawmakers should discuss improving the system and restoring public trust. He suggested topics including police cameras, law enforcement training and changes to the grand jury process.

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The Associated Press also contributed to this story.