The GOP only has Donald Trump to blame if Kamala Harris chooses Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro as her running mate, Chris Christie told George Stephanopoulos and Donna Brazile on Sunday’s “This Week.” “And I’ll tell you this, if she picks Shapiro on Tuesday, Donald Trump created Josh Shapiro,” Christie began.
“He endorsed [Doug] Mastriano, the weakest Republican candidate in that field,” he continued, explaining the 2022 campaign for governor in Pennsylvania. “What it allowed Josh Shapiro to do was instead of playing to his base to try to win a narrow election, he saw an opportunity for a coalition-building election. And that’s what he did.”
Shapiro is on the shortlist of potential vice presidential picks for Vice President Kamala Harris, seen as a strong candidate due to his immense popularity in Pennsylvania, a key tipping point state in the 2024 presidential election.
“So now [Shapiro’s] seen as a coalition builder because he did it,” Christie added. “But the only reason he could do it is because Trump made another ridiculously stupid endorsement by endorsing Mastriano, who was a flawed, weak, bad candidate.”
Christie also addressed the former president’s claim that he will pardon those who were convicted of assaulting police officers during the Jan. 6 Capitol riots. “Trump’s been consistent, he says he’s going to pardon them, and what people need to understand about Donald Trump is what I’ve learned over 22 years,” Christie said. “When he says something, he’s going to do it. And so if he says he’s going to pardon those folks, if he’s elected, you could take to the bank that he will.”
Christie’s comments contradicted those of Rep. Byron Donalds, who spoke with Stephanopoulos just before his conversation with Christie. Donalds insisted Trump would instead review the charges against the convicted on a case-by-case basis.
Brazile commented on the racism inherent in Trump’s questioning of Harris’ racial identity earlier this week, as Donalds had also defended. The move is from “the playbook of the late ’60s and the ’70s,” she said, and reminiscent of Trump’s own questioning of President Barack Obama’s place of birth in 2011.
“America is tired of this playbook,” she continued. “We’re tired of questioning people’s background simply because they don’t look like something or someone else. Donald Trump wants to be the arbitrator of who is an American, and he’s not. Is this strategy or impulse? Impulse.”
You can watch the George Stephanopoulos interview on ABC’s “This Week” with Chris Christie and Donna Brazile in the video above.
