Chris Christie calls President Obama a ‘weakling’ who gets pushed around
Chris Christie speaks in Manchester, N.H., last week. (Photo: Jim Cole/AP)
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie did not stifle his laughter upon hearing that President Obama had dismissed criticism of his foreign policy as projecting weakness in the Middle East.
“Really? Projecting weakness? He’s not projecting weakness, Mika. He is weak. That’s why his weakness is being projected — because he’s weak,” Christie said to Mika Brzezinski, host of MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” Monday.
The Republican presidential candidate argued that Russian President Vladimir Putin’s presence in Syria is the “fundamental failure” of Obama’s foreign policy strategy. He accused Obama of thinking that he won’t get in trouble if he simply does not do anything.
Christie, a longtime critic of Obama, said he would enforce a no-fly zone immediately if elected commander in chief. In response, he said, Putin would keep his warplanes on the ground.
“No-fly zone in Syria right away,” he said. “And my first phone call would be to Vladimir. And I’d say, ‘Listen, we’re enforcing this no-fly zone. And I mean we’re enforcing it against anyone, including you. So don’t try me. Don’t try me. Because I’ll do it.’”
Chris Christie visits employees at Granite State Manufacturing in Manchester, N.H. (Photo: Jim Cole/AP)
The Christie campaign has been promoting its candidate as a strong Ronald Reagan-type antidote on the American right for the perceived “weakness” of Obama’s administration.
Many Republicans harshly criticized Christie, a Mitt Romney supporter, for putting partisanship aside in autumn 2012 to work alongside Obama to help New Jersey residents in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy. The storm, which hit one week before the general presidential election, killed at least 37 people in New Jersey, damaged or destroyed 346,000 homes and caused an estimated $30 billion in losses for businesses in the Garden State alone.
The argument that Christie hurt Romney’s chances by working with Obama during a time of crisis reemerged during the first GOP primetime debate in August when Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul slammed Christie for giving a “big hug” to Obama. Christie dismisses the argument outright.
During the GOP race so far, the space in the limelight for a tough-talking New York-area politician who “tells it like it is” has been hijacked by real estate tycoon Donald Trump. It appears that Christie is trying to re-earn attention by making his stance on Obama’s courage — or lack thereof — crystal clear.
Also on “Morning Joe,” he evoked the president’s interview with Steve Kroft on “60 Minutes” over the weekend to make his case.
“And this weakling in the White House, who got pushed around last night, by the way, by Steve Kroft,” Christie said. “We saw that. I mean pushed around by Kroft. I mean, when Kroft starts pushing the president around because he’s basically been his, you know, buddy for the last seven years…”
