Mika Brzezkinski asked Chris Christie: Why didn't any of the GOP candidates talk about Donald Trump being ruled a financial fraud? More importantly, why didn't anyone talk about Trump making a death threat against General Mark Milley?
"What the heck was that? What happened last night?" she asked. (I dunno, I didn't last five minutes before switching back to the Phillies game. What a mess!)
"Donald Trump is the frontrunner. He is the former president of the United States. A judge found him liable for massive fraud, and he called for the execution of the chairman of the Joint Chiefs. How is it that nobody in the room brought that up last night?"
Christie was affronted. Harumph! He listed all the things he did criticize Trump for.
"So, you know, I only have so much time, Mika. I hit all of those things. Maybe some of the points you wanted to have hit weren't hit, but I was responsive to the questions asked," he said.
"He called for the execution of Mark Milley. He called for the death of -- " Mika said.
"Mika, Mika, I talked about that this week. I talked about that this week on social media. I talked about it on other interviews I did beforehand. It's hard for me to believe that i would come onto your show this morning, after what i did and said last night, and then you have criticisms that I didn't go after Donald Trump enough. You know, maybe it's just too early out here in California for me," he said.
Chris, I think you know the difference. When you had the biggest platform -- the GOP debate -- you didn't go after his imminent danger to democracy by egging on violence against the former Joint Chiefs head. Instead, you nibbled around the edges.
"I'm asking, what was going on in that room? That that never came -- like, these two major headlines about Donald Trump, one that's absolutely frightening, okay, what is going on in that room with all of the Republican candidates? The moderatpr -- what is happening? What universe are we in that that doesn't come up? I'm not specifically pointing at you, but doesn't it seem strange?" Mika said.
But Mika, no one asked me! It's not my fault!
"Look, the questions were never asked, Mika. I'm not going to sit up here and be defense counsel for the other six candidates, because I did my job last night. I was the only one who went directly after Donald Trump on all the issues I just spoke about. I hope that you get to have each one of them on and ask them why they won't do it," he said.
"I'll tell you why they won't do it, because they all want to either be Trump's running mate or in a cabinet if he becomes the nominee or the president. So I have no interest in that. I've offered all those positions before by him, with the exception of vice president, and I turned them down. I have no interest in that. I want to be president of the United States. That's why I was making the case about American involvement in Ukraine last night. Why I was making the case on why our national debt is unsustainable. Why I was making the case last night about the education system and how it is failing our children and their families.
"So that's why I was out there making those cases I could last night on the questions I was asked. I was not going to get involved in the food fight that went on, like, between Nikki Haley and Tim Scott about drapes in the residence of the U.N. ambassador. I don't think that's something that's going to improve the lives of the American people."
I think Mika was asking why no sense of outrage or proportion, Chris, but okay. You do you.
