Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) warned Tuesday that President Trump and the media are in a “death spiral,” adding that Trump’s demeanor with a “combative” press at Monday’s coronavirus task force briefings was “beneath what he should be doing.”
“I think the press has been in a death spiral that the president participates in, which hurts both of them,” Christie said on ABC’s “The View” on Tuesday. “I think that the questions are often combative and gotcha. His responses, I think at times, are beneath what he should be doing.”
Christie, who often had his own confrontations with the press, also argued Trump should limit his time at the daily press briefings, which periodically run more than two hours and often feature several tense moments with members of the White House press corps.
“He should be there for 10 or 15 minutes off the top to deliver the big headlines, answer a few questions, and then leave the rest of it to Vice President Pence and to the folks on his team — the experts on his team,” Christie said.
“I don’t think it helps the president, in the long run, to be in hand-to-hand combat with any member of the media, and I think also the media has some measure of responsibility as well for some of the things that they do — so, unfortunately, I think they’re both hurting the situation here,” he added.
Christie’s comments came after Monday’s press briefing where Trump had a particularly testy exchange with CBS reporter Paula Reid. Reid had asked Trump why he didn’t do more to address the coronavirus pandemic earlier. Trump responded by calling her “disgraceful” in the way she questioned him, adding that her outlet was “fake.”
Co-host Sunny Hostin noted that Trump went golfing in February as the virus spread. The first reported COVID-19 death in the U.S. occurred on Feb. 29.
“Actions matter and inaction matters,” Hostin asserted. “Why won’t this president take responsibility for just hiding his head in the sand and golfing?”
“See, Sunny, to me that’s part of what I talked about before — about the death spiral. The golfing thing is just a gratuitous shot that we don’t need to take,” Christie replied. “Believe me, members of Congress were golfing. The president and members of Congress and others in the state governments, I’m sure, were playing golf as well at certain times.”
The U.S. death toll from coronavirus passed 25,000 on Tuesday, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.