Video: Christie Announces His Pick To Serve Out Senate Term

Transcript

Governor Christie: Good afternoon. It’s my honor today to let you all know that I intend to appoint New Jersey State Attorney General Jeff Chiesa to be New Jersey’s next United States Senator. 

I’ve obviously known Jeff for twenty-two years, and he has been an extraordinary public servant in the time that I have gotten to know him. Graduate of the University of Notre Dame and Catholic University of America Law School, an outstanding private practice attorney, Assistant United States Attorney rising to leadership positions in the United States Attorney’s Office, Chief Counsel to the Governor my first two years as Governor, and now New Jersey’s Attorney General. 

I said on Monday that I was going to select the person who I thought would be the best person to represent New Jersey between now and October 16th, when all New Jerseyans gets an opportunity to elect the person to succeed the late Senator Frank Lautenberg. During the last few days as I’ve gotten to deliberate on this decision, it became clear to me that Attorney General Chiesa would be the best person to represent the people of the state of New Jersey in the United States Senate. 

And so I intend to execute all the appropriate documents to effectuate his appointment effective this Monday June 10th, and I want to thank Jeff and his family for their willingness to once again step in and serve the public of the state of New Jersey. And so it is my honor to introduce for remarks and then I will come back for questions. It’s my honor to introduce for remarks New Jersey’s newest United States Senator, Senator Jeff Chiesa.



U.S. Senator Appointee Jeff Chiesa: Good afternoon everybody. This is an incredible honor for my family and I. The Governor has given me some extraordinary chances to serve in public life, none of them that I expected, this probably the least of all, but to have this chance to continue to serve in public life is a wonderful opportunity for anybody. 

I’ll use my best judgment and the skill that I have to conduct myself in the way that will make – I hope that will make everybody in New Jersey proud, and to do everything I can to advance the interests of the people that live here as I’ve tried to do in all the positions that I’ve had the honor to have. 

I want to thank Governor Christie for again placing his trust and confidence in me. It really is extraordinary to me that I’m standing here today again with his confidence and his support. 

And I really want to thank my family because you can’t have the chances that I’ve had, and you can’t do the things that I’ve had a chance to do without the support of your family. And my wife Jenny and my children Al and Hannah have been incredibly supportive and I’m incredibly thankful to them for all that they’ve done for me, and I look forward to doing my best in this job over the next few months.