Chris Christie at CPAC: 'Sometimes people need to be told to sit down and shut up'

A question-and-answer session at CPAC turned into a moment of truth for Chris Christie on Thursday.

The New Jersey governor sat down with Fox News guest host Laura Ingraham on stage at the conference, and she dug into Christie with much more challenging questions than the softballs Sean Hannity would loft to Ted Cruz a little later.

She asked Christie, for example, how he could compete with the social conservatives that seemed more at home at CPAC.

But Christie defended his pro-life record, saying, "People make certain assumptions because you're a Republican from New Jersey."

She then challenged him about the way the press often portrays him as "explosive" or "hot-tempered." .

"The word they miss is passionate," Christie answered, and then rattled off the usual blather you hear a lot at CPAC, that it's how ardently people pursue their goals that matters, not what those goals might be. Whatever.

Even Ingraham had had enough of it. She then interrupted him with...

"But 'Sit down and shut up?'"

Christie didn't miss a beat:

"Well, sometimes people need to be told to sit down and shut up."

If you say so, governor.

Here's the video...