Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie criticized Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis over his response to a question about the Capitol insurrection on Jan. 6, 2021, after the governor said he “wasn’t anywhere near Washington that day.”
Asked at a campaign stop in Hollis, New Hampshire, earlier this week whether he believes former President Donald Trump “violated the peaceful transfer of power” in the events surrounding Jan. 6, 2021, DeSantis called for the 2024 race for the White House to be about President Joe Biden’s “failures and our vision for the future.”
“I wasn’t anywhere near Washington that day. I had nothing to do with what happened that day. Obviously I didn’t enjoy seeing what happened, but we’ve got to go forward on this stuff. We can not be looking backwards and be mired in the past,” he added.
Christie, one of DeSantis’ rivals in the 2024 Republican presidential primary, told CNN DeSantis’ response was “one of the most ridiculous answers I’ve ever heard.”
“He wasn’t anywhere near Washington. Did he have a TV? Was he alive that day? Did he see what was going on? I mean that’s one of the most ridiculous answers I’ve heard in this race so far. You don’t have an opinion about Jan. 6, except to say I didn’t particularly enjoy what happened? People were killed,” he said.
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A group of pro-Trump rioters breached the Capitol building during the violent insurrection in hopes of derailing Congress’ certification of the 2020 presidential election.
“We had members of Congress who were running for their lives. We had people trying to hunt down the vice president of the United States chanting hang Mike Pence,” Christie added.
He also accused then-President Donald Trump of doing “nothing to stop what was going on until it got to the point where even he could no longer stand it.”
Christie called Capitol riot “one of the most disgraceful days in American history,” accusing Trump of “inciting people and insisting that the election was stolen when it wasn’t.”
Trump has argued that he deserves immunity from lawsuits accusing him inciting the Jan. 6 attack on the Capital. He has also said he called on supporters to peacefully protest the 2020 presidential election.
