'He doesn't know Trump the way I do': Christie fires back at Adam Kinzinger for pointing out early support of ex-president

Appearing on CNN to promote his new book, Chris Christie (R) took umbrage with a comment Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) made on Twitter that pointed out the former New Jersey governor was the first "mainstream" politician to give a thumbs up to Donald Trump 2016 presidential campaign.

Speaking with CNN host Jim Sciutto, Christie was asked about the Kinzinger tweet that stated, "As @ChrisChristie tries to pretend to be both anti-Trump and pro-trump, will be interesting to hear about what made him decide to be the first mainstream politician to glowingly endorse him."

Referring to both Kinzinger's tweet and a Christie appearance on Fox News earlier in the day, Sciutto prompted, "On Fox News, you said you're still friends with Trump, but you're a friend who tells him the truth. And as you know, Trump is an all-in or all-out guy. We have seen this with a whole host of folks who pledged loyalty to him, but he in effect exiled when they got on the other side of him on even a single issue. I wonder what kind of compromise do you plan to strike with Trump?"

"That hasn't been my experience," Christie protested. "I've been friends with him for 20 years and we disagreed any number of times, privately and publicly, and we remained friends over these 20 years. It is not my experience."

"With all due respect to Adam Kinzinger, he doesn't know Donald Trump the way I've known him over the years and had the experience I had," he insisted. "In the end, what I'm saying is the former president needs to understand that the election is over, and that exacting vendettas and revenge for people who don't believe that the election was stolen and the facts prove it was not, that's not the way for us to win elections in the future."

"He has not done that," host Sciutto interjected.

"We need to be talking about the issues and we should be talking about the issues that Joe Biden and Kamala Harris are putting forward right now as their prescription for the American people," Christie deflected without criticizing Trump. "Because if you look at polls there, Jim, the American people aren't loving that either."

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