‘You don’t lay a glove on Donald Trump’: Nicolle Wallace took her friend Chris Christie to task for new book

MSNBC anchor Nicolle Wallace took former Republican Gov. Chris Christie to task for blasting Donald Trump advisors in his new book, while refraining from harsh criticism of the president.

Wallace was a GOP political strategist prior to her career in journalism and has known Christie for years. Both were appointed to prominent roles in the George W. Bush administration.

Christie is the author of the new book Let Me Finish: Trump, the Kushners, Bannon, New Jersey, and the Power of In-Your-Face Politics about his time on the Trump campaign and leading the transition.

Christie claimed it is an "honest book."

"So let me be honest," Nicolle told her friend. "You savaged Jared Kushner -- and he deserves it. But you don't lay a glove on Donald Trump, who empowered and empowers Jared Kushner today."

"I don't think that's exactly accurate," Christie argued.

"I say in there the president has real weaknesses," he continued. "I say in there the president surrounded himself with grifters and convicted and unconvicted felons. I think that's pretty direct stuff."

"I do what a lot of other books don't do, I point out his strengths," he argued. "I know him in a way other people don't know him, because I've known him for 17 years so I had a lot of personal time with him where I've gotten to see him as a father, and talk to him about fatherhood. I put that in the book."

"I talk about, you know, his sense of humor and the fun that we had, myself, Mary Pat, he and Melania, socializing together over the last 15 years," Christie argued.

"So who I'm trying to give a portrait of when I talk about the president in this book is the total person. Not just the political actor, not the, you know, "Apprentice" host, but the guy I went out to out dinner with, the guy I went out to lunch with, the guy that I got to know over the last 17 years."

"You were right about Jared Kushner," Wallace added.

Watch: