LAS VEGAS, Nevada — Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie told the annual summit of the Republican Jewish Coalition on Saturday that the U.S. could not withdraw from the world, even as it began by addressing problems here at home.
Speaking without teleprompters or notes, Christie said: “The world knew what was going on in Germany in the 1930s, and they said ‘It’s not our problem, it’s not as bad as you say.’ Yet we know that that disease spread throughout Europe and throughout the world, and led to atrocities that none of us could imagine.”
He warned that the antisemitism on campuses today was not new, and was happening with the “acquiescence” of administrators.
He said that his definition of “America First” began with addressing that problem at home: “America must first fix the problem of antisemitism on our campuses.”
But Christie went on to criticize those in the Republican Party — without naming anyone specifically — who said that “America First” meant abandoning Israel to fight on its own.
When they say “America First,” he said, “What they really mean is America alone.”
When America withdrew from foreign alliances, he said, it left leadership to “the Russians, the Chinese, the North Koreans, the Iranians. They are the forces of evil. And they are behind the violence that is happening all over the world.”
Christie said that it was unacceptable that children in the U.S. could be taught that there was a moral equivalence between the Palestinian Hamas terror group on the one hand, and the State of Israel on the other.
Hamas, he said, sought to attack innocent civilians to provoke fear among good people, which is why it had to be opposed.
Christie said that Americans needed to stand up to students who were coming out of universities with “false moral equivalences.” He said they needed to be told that the consequences of following their radical ideas would be “ugly, dangerous, and not free.”
He reiterated that the U.S. needed to be engaged in the world, and not to withdraw from it. “There is no substitute for American leadership in this world. None at all. And if we allow that to happen, evil will win, and good will lose.”
He closed by urging voters to “beware” — without naming names — “of the candidates who are never wrong,” saying they should prioritize “character.”
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the new biography, Rhoda: ‘Comrade Kadalie, You Are Out of Order’. He is also the author of the recent e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.