Donald Trump's call to allow Russia to fight against the Islamic State is "just wrong," fellow GOP presidential candidate Chris Christie said Wednesday, and his comments put him in the "same boat" with President Barack Obama and his "JV" comments about the militants.
"The American people really want the future of whether ISIS attacks the United States to be determined by Russia and Vladimir Putin?" the New Jersey governor said on Fox News' "Fox and Friends" program. "I don't think so."
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Overnight, Russia started carrying out
airstrikes in Syria in the vicinity of Homs, a U.S. official told Reuters, saying Moscow gave the United States a one-hour advanced notice of the attacks, and Christie said that is bad news.
"For 40 years, we've kept Russia out of the Middle East," he said. "Forty years we've kept them out of the Middle East and this president is now going to let them back in? They're teaming with Iran. Our good friends in Iran...this is the beginning of Russia trying to replace America as the major power in the Middle East."
Putin "is an articulate, smart, thug, and the fact is, he's not going to be an easy adversary to deal with. We're certainly ill equipped by having a president, anybody else who thinks that we should allow Russia to take on ISIS and we should take a back seat has its fundamental misunderstanding," Christie added.
He further commented on the news that National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden, who is living in asylum in Russia, has launched a Twitter account, pointing out that the fugitive is under Putin's protection.
"So the guy that Donald Trump wants to turn over the fight to ISIS to is harboring Edward Snowden, who has done more damage to American national security in the last five years than any other person," said Christie. "This guy is a criminal and he's a traitor. I don't care whether he's on Twitter or not.
Christie also discussed the ongoing issues with Planned Parenthood, noting the organization was defunded in his state six years ago.
"My Democratic legislature sent bills to fund Planned Parenthood eight different times and we vetoed it eight different times and had those sustained," Christie said.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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