Tempers flared Sunday on ABC’s “This Week” between former Gov. Chris Christie (R-N.J.) and New York Times columnist Michelle Goldberg, when the discussion turned to the now-infamous op-ed published anonymously in The New York Times, as Breitbart reported.
The Times ran a piece last Wednesday claiming to be written by “a senior official in the Trump administration.”
It was titled “I Am Part of the Resistance Inside the Trump Administration.” The author wrote, in part, “I work for the president but like-minded colleagues and I have vowed to thwart parts of his agenda and his worst inclinations.”
Goldberg lit the fuse on the Sunday program: “You hear it over and over again, including from that people who agree with Trump’s agenda, that he is unfit, that his instability puts us in danger, and that they feel like they have to be there to be the adults in the room. I honestly don’t understand how people can be part of this and not feel shame and not feel some responsibility for foisting this on this nation.”
Christie fired right back.
“Let me tell you, the idea that someone should be shamed for working in this administration is an outrageous statement,” he said. “It’s an absolutely outrageous statement. You’re serving your country. And if you get to the point, you have two choices, if you get to the point where the policy differences or the personal differences are profound enough that you can’t be proud of being there anymore, then get up and leave. But don’t be a coward and write an anonymous thing and then have a news organization be willing to accept that kind of cowardice, because that’s what it is.”
Goldberg responded, “Well, look, the news organization is not responsible for making sure that members of the administration behave honorably. If members of the administration are behaving dishonorably enough to go out and place op-eds like that, that itself is news. But the fact is, and obviously, you know this, nobody in this administration, or the number of people in this administration who have any respect for the president is infinitesimal, which is why it’s been so hard —”
Christie interjected, “That’s just not true.”
Related: Conway Says Op-Ed Author Will Be Known, as ‘Cowards … Always Tell the Wrong Person’
Goldberg continued talking right over him: “Which is why it’s been so hard to narrow down who wrote this in the first place.”
Christie said, “That’s your opinion. That’s just not true. That’s just not true. From where you sit, you have no respect for the president, that’s obvious.”
The former Garden State governor has been busy defending the administration; he used a Sunday interview on ABC News’ “This Week” roughly a week ago to rebuke journalists for making the memorial and funeral services of Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) more about tearing down President Donald Trump than honoring “the life of John McCain.”
“I think [Trump] understands the significance of the passing of John McCain, and quite frankly, I think that’s what we should all be focused on,” Christie, now an ABC News contributor, replied when ABC’s Martha Raddatz asked him if Trump “understands the significance.”
“But don’t be a coward and write an anonymous thing and then have a news organization be willing to accept that kind of cowardice.”
“And this is part of the problem with Washington, D.C. — it’s the commentary we have been hearing for the last 24 hours or so all about the rebukes supposedly of President Trump rather than the life of John McCain,” Christie said in that interview.
See video below for this past Sunday’s fireworks.
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