text: New Jersey Governor Chris Christie wasn't looking too presidential Tuesday night when he got into a heated debate with a veteran teacher at a town hall meeting. And now the state's largest teacher's union is calling him out for his 'bullying' behavior. 'He's always taken a very nasty and disrespectful tone with teachers and other individuals who dare to question him at these events,' Steve Wollmer of the NJ Education Association told NJ.com. 'It's the one thing that never seems to change.' Scroll Down for Video . Not being nice: New Jersey Gov Chris Christie (left) is being called a bully for the way he interacted with a teacher (Kathy Mooney, right) at a Tuesday night town hall meeting . That sentiment doesn't ring well with Christie's ambitions to run in the Republican presidential primaries next year. Tuesday night, Christie appeared at Kenilworth Town Hall to take questions from a group of citizens, when Kathy Mooney, a high school English Teacher from Roselle Park, took the microphone. Ms Mooney, who has been a teacher for 27 years, questioned Christie's motivations behind a legal settlement with oil company ExxonMobil which could have contributed drastically to the state's pension plans for teachers. Christie settled the deal for $225million, despite the fact that the state had originally asked for $8.9billion which Mooney described as 'favoring the affluent' and 'kicking state workers under the bus'. 'I know that you could have gotten more money, on the dollar,' Mooney said. 'Do you?' a defensive Christie quickly responded. 'You do know that? Really? You know that?' Mooney started to respond, but not before being cut off by the governor. A good deal? Mooney questioned Christie's decision-making behind a $225million legal settlement. The state originally wanted $8.9billion from the oil company, and Mooney says that would have had a huge impact on pensions for public employees . 'I mean: Do you know that?' Christie continued. 'I wanna know how you know that. Because you're a teacher, and you're standing in front of students every day, conveying to them, facts - things that they need to learn. So I would like to understand your analysis of how you know that in a ten year long, court case, that you have enough detail to know.' Mooney explains that she read about the deal in the newspaper and did not attend the meeting 'to be bullied'. 'You're not being bullied, because you're asking me a question, I'm going to ask you questions back,' Christie says, as he continues to dodge the issue. 'He said, "I'm not bullying you' as he bullied her,"' Wollmer said of the exchange. Perhaps the reason why Wollmer and his union responded sharply to Christie's town hall meeting Tuesday night, is that he blamed the union for their role in the current pension system. 'The fact is your union, over the course of time, has asked for significantly higher benefits - more expensive benefits - that your union knew the state could not afford,' Christie said Tuesday.
target: The presidential hopeful held a town hall meeting in Kenilworth on Tuesday .
  During the meeting, high school English teacher Kathy Mooney got up to ask the governor a question about pensions .
  She asked why he didn't seek a higher legal settlement in a case with ExxonMobil that would have contributed to the state's pension system .
  Christie responded by repeatedly asking how much Mooney knew about the deal instead of answering her question .