Former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie denounced President Donald Trump on Thursday, accusing him of inciting his supporters to storm Capitol Hill.
“That is something that no president of the United States should ever do, and I am just absolutely sickened by what I saw today,” Christie said.
Christie reacted to Trump’s actions in an interview with ABC News host George Stephanopoulos.
He condemned Trump for telling his supporters to be strong instead of weak during a rally to protest the election results and urged his supporters to march on Capitol Hill.
“Those people today who have been lied to constantly by the president about a fraudulent election acted out, and acted away not just on their own but through his encouragement,” he said.
Trump, Christie said, “breached something that I think nobody should have to put up with” from a leader in the United States.
Christie also criticized Trump for saying that his supporters were “good people” despite their violent actions.
The former New Jersey governor has known Trump for many years and was the first major Republican primary opponent in 2016 to endorse his former rival.
Since the election, however, Christie has sharply criticized Trump for disputing the outcome of the election.
“This kind of thing, all it does is inflame without informing,” he said in early November after the election. “And we cannot permit inflammation without information.”