Christie defends his record on ‘Meet the Press’

A feisty Gov. Chris Christie (R) defended his own record as governor and former Port Authority chairman David Samson while firing back at NYPD commissioner William Bratton on NBC's "Meet the Press."

Host Chuck Todd was chided by the Republican candidate for president when he asked if allegations that Samson used his position to pressure United Airlines into creating a route dubbed "The Chairman's Route" have put a "stain" on his administration.

"You have no idea as you sit here today that he did anything wrong," Christie said of the man described by Todd as the governor's mentor. "Neither does anybody else."

Christie says he defended his handling of the Bridgegate allegations with a "no holds barred" two-hour press conference

"Let's wait to see if Mrs. Clinton ever does one-fifth of that," Christie said, referring to questions about classified email being handled on a personal server. He called it a "failure of leadership" by President Obama to "stand up" and urge Clinton to take full responsibility for the emails.

The governor said he was "happy" to run on his record, repeating the line from the first debate. After Todd ran down a list of issues the state is facing such as nice credit downgrades, NJ's last-place ranking for business tax climate among all 50 states and unemployment about the U.S. average, Christie responded, "you should have seen it when I got there."

Christie blamed public sector unions that "refuse to do any more compromising on pensions" for contributing to the credit downgrades.

"What the last credit report said was that if the pension problem were fixed New Jersey would be good fiscal condition," Christie said.

Christie says he has respect for Bratton despite his sharp remarks towards Christie about the rising crime rate in New York. Christie pointed out how crime fell "significantly"  when Bratton worked in the Giuliani administration but has risen under deBlasio.  It's the current mayor's "Democratic liberal policies" that are making New York unsafe, according to Christie, who says "It's ironic that the only person who thinks it is safer in NYC is walking around with armed guards all the time." As president, Christie says he will "enforce law and order."