Christie channels Trump, blasts Jeb over ‘anchor babies’

In an interview with conservative radio host Laura Ingraham Tuesday, Christie pointed out the former Florida governor’s rustiness, citing Bush’s conflicting stances on the Iraq war and the more recent flap over the phrase “anchor babies” as examples.

“When you haven’t been in a relevant campaign as a Republican since 1998, you are going to continue to make the kind of mistakes that we see Gov. Bush making,” Christie said. “The fact is we’re re-litigating the Iraq war, something that we shouldn’t be doing because of how Gov. Bush has been talking about it.”

Christie then turned his attention to Bush’s “anchor babies” remark, which he tried walking back Monday by saying that the term was “frankly, more related to Asian people.”

“Now, we’re having the comments that he made yesterday regarding folks of Asian descent. We’ve had the comments that he just made regarding a number of other areas of immigration,” Christie argued.

“The fact is if what we want to do as a Republican Party is re-litigate the old wars of the ’90s and the 2000s, then Jeb is the perfect candidate,” Christie said, adding that the party needs someone who’s fought the Obama administration from the outset.

“We need to have someone who’s going to go in there and know how to fight these fights,” Christie said. “We need a change of course here, and we need someone who’s going to be a tough, strong direct leader. Not someone who has to everyday apologize for what you said yesterday.”

The New Jersey governor shifted gears, taking Ingraham’s bait and going after Bush’s donors, who have contributed over $114 million to his campaign and super PAC.

“If your father and your brother have been president of the United States, you’d raise a lot of money from people who had donated a lot of money to them,” Christie said.

Christie’s made his remarks only hours after Trump went after Bush over his “anchor babies” comment and subsequent correction. Trump described the situation as “a mess.”