Former Republican New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie castigated Donald Trump after his 2024 rival posted what was said to be Obama’s home address on social media.
Christie made the comments to CNN’s Jake Tapper on Thursday, a week after a man with guns and ammunition in his van was arrested near the home of former President Barack Obama in Washington, D.C.
Prosecutors said this week the man, Taylor Taranto, had shared a Truth Social post where Trump posted an old conservative newsletter about his first 100 days in office that also included purported details of the Obama’s new home in the Capitol.
Taranto has also previously been identified as a participant in the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection.
The former governor and 2024 presidential hopeful said he didn’t know if Trump had posted the address intentionally, but that it was par for the course.
“I think the problem, again, is his conduct, which has no regard for anyone other than himself,” Christie told Tapper. “Now, I don’t know whether he really meant to put President Obama’s address out there or not. …This is the problem with someone who doesn’t think about this country and its citizens first.”
“They wind up doing things like this, whether it was intentional or inadvertent,” he continued. “What it shows is a lack of responsibility, a lack of accountability for what you’re saying. It’s like calling the special counsel a crackhead. It’s like putting out a former president’s address. It is irresponsible conduct.”
Prosecutors alleged Thursday that Taranto, 37, posted on the messaging service Telegram last week after reposting Trump’s message, writing: “We got these losers surrounded! See you in hell, Podesta’s and Obama’s.”
He also reportedly live-streamed on YouTube that day, saying he was in the neighbourhood where the Obamas live and that he was looking for “entrance points” so he could get a “good angle on a shot,” according to The Associated Press.
Christie said later he rejected Trump’s attempts to recast his indictment last month as a witch hunt. The former president was arraigned on 37 federal counts related to his handling of classified documents after he left the White House. He has pleaded not guilty to all charges.
“What I say to everybody who says, ‘Well, he’s treated unfairly,’ ― the documents case he brought on himself by refusing to give them back for 18 months after he was asked to do it,” the former governor said.