On Sunday, former New Jersey governor Chris Christie said that Trump’s “intolerant language and conduct” has given people “permission” to act the same as him, furthering his assertion that Trump is to blame for the rise in antisemitism and hate across the country.
“When you show intolerance towards everyone, which is what [Trump] does, you give permission as a leader for others to have their intolerance come out,” Christie said during a Sunday interview on CNN’s “State of the Union.” As the saying goes, “Intolerance of one breeds intolerance of all.”
During an interview with the New York Times earlier this month, the Republican presidential prospect blasted Trump, the current GOP frontrunner, for contributing to the spike in hatred towards Jews. The number of antisemitic and anti-Muslim incidents in the United States has skyrocketed after Hamas’s attack on Israel on October 7.
Christie pointed out that it’s not just Trump, accusing university professors and presidents of being “unwilling to stand up to antisemitism on their campuses,” and urging governors to send state police forces to campuses where Jewish students are being threatened.
“I think that there have been a lot of people who contributed to it,” Christie remarked on Sunday. “I think Donald Trump’s intolerant words and actions encourage others to follow suit.”