Current Republican presidential candidate and former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie spoke with Dana Bash on CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday, laying out his analysis of the Israel-Hamas conflict and who fueled intolerance in America in recent years.
He critiqued U.S. President Joe Biden after acknowledging that he deserved credit for aiding in the hostage release. “Where I think he’s starting to err into an area where I think is wrong is to say he hopes that this continues, that the truce continues. He can’t be doing that kind of stuff, in my view, publicly,” Christie said. “His voice has to be just purely supportive of what Israel is doing to try to protect its territorial integrity and the safety and security of its 9 million citizens.”
He also offered harsh words to his primary opponent for the GOP nomination, former President Donald Trump. “Well, look, when you show intolerance towards everyone, which is what he does, you give permission as a leader for others to have their intolerance come out,” Christie said.
He noted that others had fueled the fire, too, identifying “university professors on some of our most elite campuses in this country with university administrators and presidents who have been unwilling to stand up against antisemitism on their campuses most particularly.” Christie called it “outrageous and wrong” that many Jewish students no longer felt safe at college.
He said that Israel’s “main priority has to be degrading Hamas’s capability to militarily strike against Israel and its people again” but that the Jewish state would be most qualified to evaluate that objective against recovering hostages.
“Hamas is trying to wipe Israel off the map,” Christie said. “And they’re doing so with Iranian, North Korean and Russian assistance.”
