New Jersey Governor and Republican presidential candidate Chris Christie has followed up on his earlier denial that he had ever personally donated to Planned Parenthood.
GOP competitor and Florida Senator Marco Rubio leveled the charge last week, based on a Christie biography that quotes the governor as saying “I support Planned Parenthood privately with my personal contribution” in 1994. Christie had previously asserted that the charge was false, but declined to comment specifically on the quote.
Now, he tells Jennifer Rubin of the Washington Post, “I’m convinced it was a misquote.” In a curious twist, LifeSiteNews notes that Christie would go on to hire Brian Murray, the author of the Newark Star-Ledger article in which the quote originally appeared, as his gubernatorial spokesman.
Christie further attempted to reassure pro-lifers by noting that at the time, “I was fighting against county funding of Planned Parenthood even though I was pro-choice.” The original quote has Christie citing his alleged donation as an example of why the abortion giant did not require public funding.
Christie has never attempted to deny his pro-choice past before becoming pro-life in 1995, making it unclear as to whether he would need to deny supporting Planned Parenthood during his his time as a professed pro-choicer.