Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) said on Sunday that “not much was accomplished, but no damage was done” during President Biden’s meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday.
Christie said on ABC’s “This Week” that while he didn’t believe Biden accomplished much, the president avoided any major mistakes.
“I think the bar was low because he didn’t get in conflicts with anybody. There wasn’t any kind of difficult moments except for the one with Kaitlan Collins,” Christie said, referring to a heated exchange when the CNN White House reporter asked Biden why he was confident Putin would change.
“In the end, I think, not much was accomplished, but no damage was done. And I think that’s probably all they were looking for … was to come out unscathed. No big mistakes. Come home, and he can say America’s back. That’s what his point was, and I don’t think he did anything that made us believe that we weren’t,” Christine said.
Former Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel (D) said he believed the meeting was a little better than Christie’s evaluation. He also speculated that Putin might have welcomed the meeting, seeing it as a departure from the his relationship with President Trump and “all the unpredictability of the last four years.”