This week at the 2023 Erick Erickson conference in Atlanta, former NJ Governor and current GOP Presidential candidate Chris Christie took a “swipe” — according to Atlanta Journal-Constitution columnist Patricia Murphy — at the 98-year-old former President Jimmy Carter, who is currently in hospice care in Plains, Georgia.
As seen and heard in the clip below, Christie reminisces about his first presidential election as a voter — he was an 18-year-old college student at the University of Delaware who voted for Ronald Reagan. Christie then turns to the audience and says: “When we had problems like this in the late 70s, and a president who seemed completely lost — does it sound familiar?”
Christie interrupts himself to point out that Joe Biden has said that Carter is his favorite president. The audience laughs and Christie adds, “We should have known.”
Deeply Offensive and tone deaf. A sincere Public Apology is overdue. https://t.co/YF0t1pSmRo
— Rob Engstrom (@RobEngstrom) August 19, 2023
Sharing Murphy’s story, Republican political strategist Rob Engstrom wrote that Christie needs to apologize to former President Jimmy Carter, calling the remarks “Deeply Offensive and tone deaf” and saying “a sincere public apology is overdue.”
Engstrom and Murphy aren’t alone in believing Christie crossed a line with his Carter remarks. Former Florida Governor (and short-lived 2016 candidate for POTUS) Jeb Bush — whose father George H. W. Bush was the VP on the Reagan-Bush ticket that swept Carter out of the White House — retweeted Engstrom’s call for a Christie apology. Christie’s camp has not yet responded.
