MSNBC’s Nicolle Wallace, Chris Christie battle over Fox News

MSNBC host Nicolle Wallace grilled former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) on why he chose to leave Fox News off a list of people, events and phenomena he alleges in a new book have destroyed the Republican Party. 

“The book is about conspiracy and lies and you really don’t take on Fox News. Why not?” Wallace asked Christie as he appeared on her weekday program “Deadline Whitehouse” on Tuesday. “Have you seen The Tucker Carlson program?

“No, I don’t watch it,” Christie said of Carlson’s prime-time show, the top-rated cable new program in the country featuring segments that often make national headlines for their controversial subject matter. 

“Are you aware of what he does?” Wallace pressed Christie. 

“Not really,” Christie responded.

Wallace, a former Republican political operative turned liberal cable news pundit, pointed out that Christie takes shots in his new book at The New York Times, CNN and MSNBC, but “not Fox.” 

“I don’t attack them as conspiracy theorists,” Christie said of mainstream media outlets. “I talk about bias.” 

Wallace told Christie she finds it not to be “an intellectually honest case to make against conspiracy theories without taking on Fox News.” 

“Well you can write that in your book,” Christie said, dismissing the host’s line of questioning, to which Wallace responded: “I’m not trying to save the Republican Party.” 

Wallace: The book is about conspiracy and lies and you really don’t take on Fox News, why not? Have you seen The Tucker Carlson show?
Christie: No I don’t watch it
Wallace: Are you aware of what he does?
Christie: Not really pic.twitter.com/HmQ8174cpe

— Acyn (@Acyn) November 16, 2021

Christie has been popping up on major news networks this week to promote his new book, which examines the modern Republican Party and charts what he calls “a path forward.” 

One of former President Trump’s earliest supporters in national politics and his leading debate coach during Trump’s time on the campaign trial, Christie has not said whether he is considering another run for public office in the future, including a potential presidential campaign in 2024. He has also not said if he would support Trump in 2024, should the former president run for the White House again. 

“Oh look, I don’t know that he’s going to run. I don’t know whether I’m going to run,” Christie, who ran for president in 2016, said during a recent CNN interview. “In 2021, the idea of making predictions for 2024 is folly.” 

Wallace, a former White House staffer to President George W. Bush and a campaign aide to 2008 GOP presidential nominee John McCain, regularly attacks Trump, his allies in political office and conservative media. Last week, she suggested a growing threat of domestic terrorism carried out by ideological extremists might be the result of content being broadcast on conservative news networks.  

“This threat is emboldened and empowered by a right-wing disinformation machine that includes members of Congress, people like Arizona Republican Paul Gosar, whose post depicting the murder of Democratic Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was met with calls for censure and an ethics investigation from one party, the Democratic Party,” she said.

“It also includes right-wing media networks who glorify vigilantes, people like Kyle Rittenhouse, and supply millions of Americans with a steady supply of toxic stew of grievance and violent rhetoric.”