Asked to respond to comments by South Jersey Power Broker George Norcross III in NJ.com, Governor Phil Murphy laughed.

“It’s very hard for an Irishman to be referenced to the King of England,” Murphy said.

Then he stuck up for his wife.

“Nobody works harder,” Murphy said. “She doesn’t get a dime for it. Bless her heart. She’s the mother of four, by the way.”

In the middle of a statewide brawl, Norcross yesterday told the Ledger, “He thinks he’s the King of England and Mrs. thinks she’s the Queen of England.”

Moments later at his press conference, Murphy explained his formation of a task force to examine the distribution of Economic Development Authority tax crdits.

“This is doing our job, my job, no politics,” the governor said. “Nobody’s getting attacked here. When we’re set and done we will have done more for Camden than anyone.”

He wanted an audit of the EDA.

“We have to make sure we know where every penny went,” Murphy said. “I go into that with no geographic bias. They could not find 20% of the jobs that were purported to be created. We put in place an independent task force. The objective here, the endgame, is the truth, to track down every penny on behalf of the taxpayers of this state.”