Former Governor Chris Christie (R-NJ) unloaded on an ABC News panel Sunday morning, firing back after fellow panelist Donna Brazile claimed that President Joe Biden deserved credit for uniting the world against Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The discussion on ABC’s “This Week” began with anchor George Stephanopoulos and Jonathan Karl discussing continued calls from Ukraine for a NATO-assisted no-fly zone — and the fact that many Republicans, like Senator Marco Rubio (FL), who were often critical of Biden appeared to be on the same page in saying that would escalate into a war with Russia.
Stephanopoulos then noted that the United States did appear to be preparing to send planes to European nations in order to “backfill” supplies as those nations gave planes to Ukraine.
“It should have happened a long time ago. I would disagree with Donna on this one,” Christie said. “A president did unite the world. It was Zelensky, not Biden. He was very clear about what leadership was supposed to look like. We should have been arming the Ukrainians for the last year. We weren’t. We should have been doing much more on domestic production of oil. Instead we’re going backwards and gave Putin the card to hold us hostage and with Nord Stream 2 we gave him the card to hold Europe hostage.”
“I believe if we aggressively armed Ukraine from the time Joe Biden got in office, if he continued the Trump policy and continued to arm Ukraine –” Christie continued.
Katl interrupted, arguing that former President Donald Trump had held back arms from Zelensky.
“Jon, the Ukrainians were armed,” Christie pushed back, saying that Biden had ultimately ended the arming of Ukraine. “We import half a billion barrels a day from Russia. We could stop paying blood money if we increased domestic production.”
WATCH:
Could have stopped Putin. @GovChristie: “If [Biden] continued the Trump policy and continued to arm Ukraine-” @JonKarl scoffed: “Continued the Trump policy?”@GovChristie: “The Ukrainians were armed and in January of 2021 Joe Biden stopped that policy.” #ThisWeek pic.twitter.com/ODlF9cV7nw
— Brent Baker (@BrentHBaker) March 6, 2022
Brazile pivoted back to Christie’s point, claiming that Trump had “tried to play a game” with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
“He tried to play a game and was impeached for it,” Brazile said, insisting that Biden was the one who deserved credit for a Europe unified again Russian aggression. “I think the president has rallied the country, rallied NATO. Gotten the Germans – look at the countries coming to help the Ukrainians.”
“You think that’s because of Joe Biden?” Christie asked.
“Yes, I believe Joe Biden has shown leadership,” she said.
“No. Donna –” Christie pushed back.
“It’s because of his leadership,” Brazile interrupted.
“It’s because when the tanks rolled into Ukraine they were closer to Germany than before,” Christie argued. “You can’t give Joe Biden credit for that.”
Christie went on to argue that banning Russian oil was the obvious next step, and Stephanopoulos challenged him on that: “You’re for this right now if the president does it. It feels like he’s going to move in that direction. Will Republicans forego criticizing him for increased gas prices?”
Christie pushed back, however, saying that banning Russian oil was only half of the solution — and dramatically increasing domestic production was the other half.
“You have to ban Russian oil and increase domestic production. That’s where Joe Biden is going to have a problem. He’s held captive by the environmental left,” Christie explained.