Chris Christie: Trump Calling Clinton A Bigot Is ‘Unwarranted,’ But She Called Him Names First

On Sunday, New Jersey governor and Donald Trump surrogate Chris Christie pointed the finger at Hillary Clinton for starting a fight about bigotry in an appearance on ABC’s The Week.

Host Martha Raddatz asked Christie whether he agrees with Trump that Clinton is a “bigot” — a statement the Republican presidential nominee has repeated on the campaign trail. “This type of discourse in the campaign is just unwarranted, but it was started by Mrs. Clinton,” Christie replied.

“Mrs. Clinton started the idea of calling Donald Trump those types of names. And the fact is that, once you are the person — and Mrs. Clinton is the person who injected this type of commentary into this race — once you inject that type of commentary into this race, you can’t then sit back and start complaining about it or have some of your handmaidens in the media complain about it. The fact is that she’s been the person who started this type of conversation in the campaign. She should be ashamed of herself.”

Last Wednesday, Trump told a rally in Jackson, Mississippi that his opponent’s policies hurt minorities, eventually shouting, “Hillary Clinton is a bigot!” He doubled down on his statement in an interview with Anderson Cooper the next day: “She is. Of course she is. She’s totally bigoted, there’s no question about that.”

Trump’s remarks were made shortly after a Clinton campaign ad and speech in Reno, Nevada that highlighted the Trump campaign’s ties to the alt-right movement and glowing endorsements from the likes of Neo-Nazis, Klansmen, and other American white supremacists.

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