Christie: Sharp style is still civil

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) said Sunday that his trademark straightforward style doesn't make his discourse uncivil.

The governor, appearing on "Fox News Sunday," was asked about confrontations such as a famous video where verbally tangles with a teacher at a town hall meeting.

Host Chris Wallace asked Christie if talking about all the "crap" he hears from public employee unions and calling the teachers union a bully is uncivil.

"There is absolutely nothing that is not civil about that at all," Christie said. "What I think the president was talking about was the type of things where people are getting so emotional and trying to get people to become in some cases violent."

Talking with the teacher, the governor said, he was just being "straight."

"What I think we've become in this country, and this is why I make a distinction between hostility and vitriol and straight talk, is we've become so politically correct," Christie said. "And we have so gotten into this figuring out how not to answer a question, how to be completely neutral about things. And people have become fogged over listening to political conversation that's like that.

"What I'm doing in New Jersey is when they ask me a question, I give an answer," he said.