New Jersey Governor and Republican presidential candidate Chris Christie appeared at a campaign event in New Hampshire where he was asked by a woman how he would counter Islamophobia.
Christie responded by boasting of New Jersey's Muslim population and his nomination of a judge.
Christie began his answer by noting that New Jersey has the second largest Muslim-American population in the United States, then recalled touring mosques around the state in the wake of Sept. 11 to meet with members of the community, “so that they could see me and I could see them.”
And then he related another story -- this one far less uplifting, but no less stirring -- about what happened when he nominated a Muslim-American lawyer to a judgeship in New Jersey.
That's all well and good but, make no mistake, Chris Christie is completely full of shit.
Just last month Christie spoke to wingnut radio host Hugh Hewitt about refugee resettlement when he said we should not even accept small orphan children.
"The fact is that we need for appropriate vetting, and I don't think that orphans under 5 should be admitted to the United States at this point."
"We need to put the safety and security of the American people first," Christie said.
In addition to saying we shouldn't accept small children, Christie has repeatedly criticized the Obama administration for not saying the magic words and for generally being soft on terrorism in spite of all evidence to the contrary.
I have no doubt he'll explain this contradiction by blaming President Obama, again, if hes asked about it.
In any event, claiming you'll counter Islamophobia by reminiscing about your past hires really isn't much of an answer. It's a bit like rejecting accusations of racism by saying you had a black roommate in college.