Former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie (Republican), once a close ally of Donald Trump, suggested on Sunday that the president must now recognise how his stance on Russia and its President Vladimir Putin is perceived.
Speaking on ABC’s This Week with George Stephanopoulos — following Trump’s Oval Office berating of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Friday — Christie said: “What we need to understand is, and what I think the president should try to do now, is to understand that part of the problem here is that he looks and sounds like an ally of Putin.”
Trump tore into Zelenskyy and accused Ukraine’s leader of not being grateful enough to the U.S. for military support amid its invasion by Russia, and suggested he was gambling with starting World War III. Commentators suggested Trump parroted Russian talking points during the fractious meeting. Trump has in recent weeks falsely blamed Ukraine for starting the conflict and called Zelenskyy a “dictator.”
Christie also pushed back on Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s talk about bringing Putin to the negotiating table in a bid to broker peace in Ukraine, which Putin’s forces invaded in February 2022.
“Rubio was saying, ‘We’ve got to get Putin to the table.’ Well, you can get someone to the table in a number of different ways, and it’s not just through honey,” Christie noted.
He added: “Sometimes it’s also through letting them know, ‘We’re going to continue to stand with our friends, and you’re not going to have any alternative but to continue to have this war as well.’”
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