Christie knocks DeSantis video on Trump LGBTQ stance as ‘food fight’ between teenagers

Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R), a 2024 Republican hopeful on Sunday knocked Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) and former President Trump after the DeSantis campaign released a video attacking Trump’s stance on the LGBTQ community, likening it to a “food fight” between teenagers.

“I’m not comfortable with it, and I’m not comfortable with the way both Governor DeSantis and Donald Trump are moving our debate in this country,” Christie said of the ad on CNN’s “State of the Union,” arguing that “they’re trying to divide us further” when there are “big, big issues to be talking about here.”

“This type of video does nothing to address those issues. And it is a teenage, you know, food fight between Ron DeSantis and Donald Trump. And I don’t think that’s what leaders should be doing,” Christie said.

DeSantis’s campaign shared a video featuring a clip from the 2016 Republican National Convention in which Trump vows to do “everything in my power to protect our LGBTQ citizens” that also appears to tout the Florida governor’s crack down on gender-affirming care and other transgender issues. The campaign account characterized Trump as having done “more than any other Republican to celebrate” Pride Month.

Despite Trump’s comments on the 2016 campaign trail, his administration moved in its first year to ban transgender people from the military. As he campaigns for another term in 2024, Trump has vowed to “ban men from participating in women’s sports” and to crack down on gender-affirming surgery.

“It certainly doesn’t make me feel inspired as an American on the Fourth of July weekend to have this type of back-and-forth going on at all. And it’s wrong to be doing it, and it’s narrowing our country and making us smaller,” Christie said.