Christie faults Trump for spike in Islamophobia and antisemitism

News

By Ryan King

Chris Christie partly blamed his onetime friend Donald Trump for the spike in antisemitism and Islamophobia across the country.

The former New Jersey governor posited that Trump’s language has emboldened others to act hatefully.

“When you show intolerance towards everyone, which is what he does, you give permission as a leader for others to have their intolerance come out,” Christie told CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday.

“And that’s been going on for quite some time, not just with Donald Trump, but with university professors on some of our most elite campuses in this country.”

Trump’s son in law Jared Kushner is Jewish and his daughter Ivanka converted to Judaism.

Throughout his presidency, Trump, now 77, proudly cast himself as a stalwart supporter of Israel during his time in the White House, recognizing Jerusalem as the capital and brokering the Abraham Accords.

The Post contacted the Trump campaign for comment.

Since war erupted in Israel following the deadly Oct. 7 surprise attack by Hamas, there has been a spate of antisemitic incidents on college campuses across the US.

Infamously last month at Cooper Union, Jewish students claimed they were forced to hide in the library during pro-Palestinian protests.

At George Washington University, the phrase “Free Palestine from the river to the sea” was projected on a campus building.

The phrase alludes to the land between the Jordan River and Mediterranean Sea.

It is widely interpreted as a call to erase the Jewish state altogether and considered an antisemitic slogan by the Anti-Defamation League.

At the same time, there has been a uptick in Islamophobic attacks.

Last month a 6-year-old Palestinian boy in the Chicago area was allegedly murdered in a hate crime by a landlord.

Christie, 61, has long pitched himself to voters as the only candidate equipped to stand up to Trump’s attacks — and hit back with barbs of his own — in the 2024 GOP contest.

“You really now in my view have four major contenders for the nomination: Donald Trump, Ron DeSantis, me and Nikki Haley,” he said.

Notably absent from his list was entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, who is generally polling higher than the former governor nationally.

Christie has concentrated on New Hampshire as his ticket to the party nod. In the Granite State, he’s averaging third place behind Trump and former UN ambassador Nikki Haley.

Despite his current standing in distant third, Christie was optimistic about his chances, noting how the late Sen. John McCain was in third place in New Hampshire around this time in 2008.

“People are just starting to engage, even in a place like New Hampshire,” he told ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday.

Christie, whose campaign says he has qualified for the fourth GOP debate on Dec. 6 in Tuscaloosa, Ala., insisted he will be in the GOP contest for the long haul.

“I will be in this race through to the convention,” he said.