Former New Jersey governor and onetime Republican presidential hopeful Chris Christie said on Sunday that it is likely the anonymous individual behind the New York Times op-ed describing an internal resistance at the White House is not a high-level staffer.
The scathing essay, authored by a “senior administration official,” detailed actions some White House staffers take to stop President Trump’s policies or actions. Its release has led to a national guessing game over who the author may be. A slew of top officials, including Vice President Mike Pence and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, publicly denied writing it.
Christie said those denials represent the top brass of the administration and are the only individuals that could be labeled as a senior official.
“The people who have denied so far and the list of people that have denied encompass almost all the people that you and I would determine are senior administration officials,” he told ABC’s “This Week” host George Stephanopoulos.
Christie said the New York Times has a duty to publicize the author if it is one of the individuals that denied writing it. He also criticized the author and called on the person to depart the White House.
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“If someone is out there outright lying about their participation in something like that, that would then force them to out this person” he said. “If you get to the point where the policy differences or the personal differences are profound enough that you can’t be proud of being there anymore, then get up and leave.”
The op-ed topped off yet another chaotic week for the administration. Trump and top officials were also forced to defend against a new book from the Washington Post’s Bob Woodward.
One of the journalists that uncovered the Watergate scandal that led to former-President Richard Nixon’s resignation, Woodward outlined in detail the concerns throughout the White House over, among other things, Trump’s fitness for the office.
Christie, who is mentioned in the book, said the quotes included were false and that Woodward never called to fact-check the details with him.
“Bob may in fact be relying on people who are making things up and he didn’t do his homework,” Christie said.
