Hillary Clinton’s worsening email scandal has been the talk of political pundits for weeks. But Fox News’ Chris Wallace chose to address a different candidate’s troubles with cybercorrespondence Sunday.
The host veteran journalist was joined by New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie on his program Sunday, during which he confronted the Republican presidential candidate about his similar use of a non-government email account as governor.
“You’ve had your own problems,” Wallace told Christie.
“During the height of the Bridgegate scandal it turns out that you and one of your top aides were texting each other and 12 of those texts were deleted,” Wallace explained. “And also, when you turned over your emails to the state legislature, the only emails you turned over were from your private Yahoo account.”
Christie, appearing a bit unsettled, quickly responded that his “government business was conducted on a government email account.”
According to the two-term governor, all of the emails found on his private account were “inadvertently” sent by members of his staff. State regulations prohibit lawmakers in New Jersey from conducting business related to their positions on anything but their government-provided email accounts.
“So let’s all remain calm,” Christie told Wallace, adding that his situation should be carefully distinguished from the scandal surrounding Clinton.
“We cannot compare that, can we, to someone having a private email server in the basement of their home, where they did all of the government business on their private email server in their basement,” he said.
“Are we comparing a press release to having national security and classified documents running through a server that’s not protected by the federal government?” he pressed Wallace.
While delivering a speech to primary voters in New Hampshire over the weekend, the Garden State governor repeatedly attacked Clinton. He blasted the former secretary of state for lacking transparency and accused her of not wanting Americans “to know what she’s doing.”
“The worst thing about this is the arrogance of Mrs. Clinton,” Christie reportedly said Saturday. “Here’s a woman who won’t answer questions [and] she’s running for president of the United States.”
“You think you’d see her in a room like this taking any question that comes up? No chance. She doesn’t do that,” he added.
In addition to dealing with residual concerns among voters who witnessed the Bridgegate scandal unfold, Christie’s favorability ratings have plummeted recently in his home state of New Jersey.
According to the latest Quinnipiac University poll, Christie has yet to lift himself out from the bottom tier of GOP candidates. He is currently polling at just 4 percent support among likely Republican primary voters.
