Chris Christie, Bill Barr call Donald Trump a child: 'Like a defiant 9-year-old kid'
Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and former Attorney General Bill Barr both compared former President Donald Trump to a child on Sunday as Trump continues his bid for the White House.
Christie, one of Trump’s rivals in the 2024 Republican primary, zeroed in on Trump’s criticism of his former administration officials, accusing the former president of being a “petulant child.”
“I stood on the stage in 2016 and heard Donald Trump say he would only hire the very very best people, and he would know how to manage them,” Christie said on CNN's "State of the Union" before listing out Trump’s treatment of former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and other officials.
The former New Jersey governor noted Trump’s complimentary treatment of the officials before they served in the Trump administration – and his criticism of them at the end of their tenures.
“If you believe what he said when they left, that means he didn’t pick the very best people and doesn’t know how to pick personnel. If you believe about what he said at the beginning, the great stuff, then this guy is the worst manager in the history of the American presidency,” Christie said.
“Either way, Republicans should listen to what he says. He’s a petulant child when someone disagrees with him,” Christie added.
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It’s not the first time Christie has used the insult. He called former President Barack Obama a “petulant child” in 2016 over his use of executive orders.
But Christie wasn’t the only former Trump ally comparing Trump to a kid on Sunday. Former Attorney General Bill Barr accused the former president of being “like a defiant 9-year-old kid who's always pushing the glass toward the edge of the table."
“Trump has many good qualities, and he accomplished some good things. But the fact of the matter is, he is a consummate narcissist, and he constantly engages in reckless conduct that puts his political followers at risk and the conservative and Republican agenda at risk,” Barr told CBS' "Face the Nation."
The former attorney general continued, “Our country can't be a therapy session for a troubled man like this.”
Steven Cheung, a spokesperson for Trump, told USA TODAY in a statement on Sunday: "Of course these morons would rather protect a corrupt and politicized system of justice. Their entire pathetic existence is rooted in swampy D.C. insider behavior."
Trump and some GOP leaders have claimed that the charges against Trump over his alleged mishandling of classified documents have been politicized. The former president pleaded not guilty to the charges last week.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Christie, Barr slam Trump over attacks on former aides, investigations
