ABC host calls out Chris Christie for blaming mass shootings on 'both sides'
Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) on Sunday was called out by ABC host George Stephanopoulos after he blamed mass shootings on "both sides" of the political spectrum.
During a segment about the mass shooting in Uvalde, Texas, Christie said that he "wouldn't be doing much of anything" if he was still governor because New Jersey's gun laws are strong enough.
"It does appear that there's been a hardening in the Republican Party around this issue," Stephanopoulos noted.
"Well, I think there's been a hardening on both sides," Christie insisted. "I think it's just a constant symptom of where we are in the country right now. This is one issue that that's an example of but there are many others where people in each party have decided that there's no compromise here because there's no one on the other side willing to compromise and they say that about each other and point fingers both ways."
"Is this really a 'both sides' issue though?" the ABC host asked, doubting Christie.
"No, I think both sides create the atmosphere," the former governor replied. "So where the president has said the stuff that he's said in his speech the other evening [last] week and the emotion he says it with, he is essentially trying to imply that people that disagree with him are immoral. And I think when you start raising it to that level, you better win because if you don't, the other side will never move towards you ever if you're going to say this is a purely moral issue and if you don't agree with me, yeah, then you're immoral."
Democratic strategist Donna Brazile argued that mass shootings are an issue of morality.
"When it's taking the lives of innocent children, it's taking the lives of 80-year-old grandmothers who are in a grocery store trying to feed her family," Brazile exclaimed. "It's moral! What is life if it's not, I cannot walk the streets."
Watch the video below from ABC.