Christie Slams ‘Weakling’ Obama Over Syria Policy
Republican presidential candidate Chris Christie blasted President Barack Obama’s foreign policy after the president defended U.S. policy in Syria during an interview to CBS’s 60 Minutes.
“In a situation that is as volatile and with as many players as there are inside of Syria, there aren’t any silver bullets,” Obama said on Sunday. “What we are not going to do is to try to reinsert ourselves in a military campaign inside of Syria.”
Appearing on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” program on Monday, Christie argued that Russian President Vladimir Putin‘s military incursions in Syria reflected “the fundamental failure of Barack Obama’s approach to foreign policy. Because he thinks if you do nothing you can’t get in trouble.”
Christie said that if he were president, he would respond to Putin by immediately enforcing a no-fly zone. “And my first phone call would be to Vladimir. And I’d say, ‘Listen, we’re enforcing this no-fly zone. And I mean we’re enforcing it against anyone, including you. So don’t try me. Don’t try me. Because I’ll do it.’” Adding that Putin is simply “punching above his weight.”
The Republican presidential hopeful also mocked “this weakling in the White House” who was grilled by 60 Minutes’ host Steve Kroft. “We saw that. I mean pushed around by Kroft. I mean, when Kroft starts pushing the president around because he’s basically been his, you know, buddy for the last seven years,” he remarked.