New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) said Tuesday that he would give President Donald Trump’s administration a “B” grade for its first 100 days in office.
“A ‘B’?” CNN’s Jake Tapper responded, surprised, during an interview Tuesday.
“The reason I’d give him a B, first and foremost, is because of Neil Gorsuch,” Christie explained, adding of Trump that “some of things he’s done by executive action have been very good on the regulatory side, and I can see, even in New Jersey, that businesses are responding really well.”
But, Christie hedged, “with some of the implementation, and some of the ways that his staff has served him has not been extraordinarily good, and I think they’ve got to get their act together in that regard and serve the President better.”
Given his position as a confidant of the president, Christie’s critiques hold some weight. In late January, the New Jersey governor criticized the implementation of the President’s first travel ban on seven Muslim-majority countries, which also suspended the United States’ refugee program. “The roll-out of this executive order was terrible,” he said.
On Tuesday, Christie added Republicans’ bungled health care effort to the list.
“I don’t think the way the whole health care situation was handled either on the hill or at the White House was exemplary,” he said. “We didn’t get the result that we needed to get. Now, I know they’re going back at it again. I wish them the best of luck at it, to try to get something that will be able to pass the House and Senate and get to the president’s desk.”
“But, you know, I’ve been a governor seven and a half years,” he continued. “You rely upon your staff to be able to tee the ball up and make sure that when you swing, you hit the ball and you hit the ball far.”
During the presidential campaign, Trump staked many of his promises on a hundred-day pledge. Now, however, he is sending mixed messages on the benchmark, alternatively calling it a “ridiculous standard” and launching a web page on WhiteHouse.gov listing his accomplishments during that time.
Christie said of the benchmark that, “no matter whether you think it’s real or artificial, it is a historical marker.”
“People start to judge you,” he said, referring to the hundred-day mark.
Watch below via CNN:
.@GovChristie gives @POTUS a “B,” says WH staff need to “get their act together” https://t.co/MZPC1l4wv5 https://t.co/N8hLQoO0m1
— The Lead CNN (@TheLeadCNN) April 25, 2017
You’d give Trump a Two Quarter Pounder Meal with a Diet Coke, and you’d be glad to fetch it.
A “B”? What a suckup. Trump couldn’t even shut down a traffic lane…
Some serious grade inflation going on here.
So, there we have it. The Republicans have partisaned the Supreme Court beyond recognition. It’s not enough that a President choose someone who passes the laugh test (Harriet Meyers, anyone? G. Harold Carswell?) but they have to be so reliably predictable on any given issue that we can count the votes before the argument is over.
Gorsuch is one of those, according to the Repubs, so that and that alone was sufficient to vote against him.
Meatloaf in perpetuity.