Tough-guy Christie a softy with 5-year-old wannabes

TRENTON - Gov. Christie bantered Wednesday with two 5-year-olds at one of the more unusual - and adorable - Statehouse "news conferences" that Trenton has seen.

A YouTube video of a then-4-year-old New Jersey boy crying because he couldn't be governor - "I'm too small!" - went viral last week. So Christie made the boy, Jesse Koczon, honorary governor for the day and his twin brother, Brandon, honorary lieutenant governor.

The video was shot by the boys' parents, Jon and Dawn, on the way home from voting in the 2009 elections. In the video, Jesse says he would raise property taxes as governor, but he backtracked on that statement Thursday because otherwise "I'm not going to be the governor for that long."

"The kid's perfect," Christie responded.

The video earned the Old Bridge family $10,000 on America's Funniest Home Videos.

"I've been in that scene when you have your kids going wild in the back of the car," Christie said. "I related to it as a dad."

He showed the video to his wife, Mary Pat, "and she said, 'You're inviting them in, right?' "

Christie sat between the boys as their evidently nervous parents and Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno prompted the twins with some answers and tried to maintain the boys' focus as at least 10 video cameras and several reporters hung on every word.

When Christie asked Jesse what he was going to do as governor, he said he was just going to go home.

"I can't be here. I'm just a little kid," he said.

"Well, you were sitting in my chair in there, weren't you?" Christie asked.

"What was I doing there?" Jesse responded.

He said he could wait a few years to be governor, "when I'm 30 or 48." Christie is 48.

The governor with the tough-guy reputation came across as a softy father (he has four children) with an ability to decipher the garbled words of young children.

But Christie's biting sense of humor did come across as he repeatedly used the opportunity to needle the real lieutenant governor. When Brandon talked out of turn, Christie turned to him and said: "You're supposed to stand here and say nothing." That was a reference to the countless news conferences where Guadagno stands behind the governor in silence.

Guadagno opened herself up to it, though. Christie asked what Brandon was going to do as lieutenant governor. Prompted by Guadagno, Brandon said: "Whatever my brother tells me to do."

Christie's advice to Jesse referred to how Christie and Guadagno were heavily criticized for being on vacation during a blizzard in December: "You get to tell the lieutenant governor to do whatever you want. How about this: Never go on vacation during a snowstorm."