Chris Christie Calls Out Trump Staff For D-Day Cemetery Interview
Chris Christie, the former governor of New Jersey, says that Donald Trump’s staff did him no favors by allowing him to do an interview with Laura Ingraham from Fox News for D-Day at the cemetery in Normandy, France.
The Daily Beast says that Christie was a panelist on ABC’s This Week and criticized the Trump team for what he says was an embarrassing interview on what was a solemn day. The former New Jersey politician and prosecutor said that it was a bad look for the president to call out his political rivals with the cemetery in the background.
“I also think that the president’s press staff served him poorly in two instances in Europe. Putting him in front of Piers Morgan and putting him in that interview at that site with Laura Ingraham. That doesn’t serve the president well.”
Christie said that the interview on D-Day did more harm than help for Trump, and his staff should know that in such an interview, he would speak off the cuff, getting himself in trouble.
“I’d argue that when [White House Press Secretary] Sarah Sanders, or whoever made those decisions to put him in those positions–put him there, they ill-served him.”
President Trump Falsely Accused By NBC and Other Media of Delaying Start of D-Day Ceremony for Laura Ingraham Interview https://t.co/tld9P3mzll pic.twitter.com/EHZfdrn0IM
— world events (@Yohniellaffont) June 6, 2019
Other conservatives criticized the optics of the interview in the Normandy cemetery. CNN’s Amanda Carpenter stated that having “a draft-dodging president” with a host who “espouses white supremacist talking points” using the graves of American soldiers who saved the world from Nazis as a prop was vulgar.
But Mediaite says that instead of blaming Trump himself, Christie pointed a finger at Sarah Huckabee Sanders, saying that she was on the trip and should have not put him in that position. Christie was willing to call out Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi for her earlier comments that were said to have triggered Trump, but panelist and former Obama official Patrick Gaspard said that they are different, because Pelosi’s comments were made in private.
“It’s not the same as stating in front of graves of American troops at Normandy and blasting somebody in your…”
But Christie interrupted Gaspard, saying that Pelosi invited criticism, saying she “earned that one.” Throughout his appearance of the show with host George Stephanopoulos, Christie was critical of almost everyone with the exception of Donald Trump, but Gaspard continued to disagree, saying that any president should know the difference between speaking at a press conference and smearing a political rival at a sacred site.
