Chris Christie Lied Right To Jake Tapper’s Face

Thanks to Donald Trump and Trump-fueled ridiculousness like Ted Cruz’s not-machine-gun “machine gun bacon,” not much attention is being paid to the second-biggest mouth in the Republican primary field. If Governor Chris Christie (R-NJ) has any luck at all, no one at this Thursday’s Republican presidential debate will have seen his interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper this week, because among the many lies Christie told was one that could sink his already-meager support with GOP primary voters.

Pretty much all Christie did during that interview was lie, most hilariously when he tried to explain away his flip-flop on Bruce Springsteen, and for which Rachel Maddow promptly busted him. But it was Tapper’s full-court press on gun control that really did Christie in. Tapper asked Christie to elaborate on this exchange with Sean Hannity, from 2009:

Christie: “I favor some of the gun control measures we have in New Jersey…”

Hannity: “Bad idea.”

Christie: “We have a densely populated state and there’s a big handgun problem in New Jersey. Now, I don’t support all the things that the governor supports, by a long stretch. But on certain gun control issues, looking at it from a law enforcement perspective, seeing how many police officers were killed — we have an illegal gun problem in New Jersey.”

Hannity: “Should every citizen in your state be allowed to get a licensed weapon if they want one?”

Christie: “In New Jersey, that’s not going to happen, Sean.”

Hannity: “Why?”

Christie: “Listen, with the Democratic Legislature that we have, there is no way those type of things –“

Hannity: “Would you support it?”

Christie: “Listen, at the end of the day, what I support are common sense laws that will allow people to protect themselves. But I also am very concerned about the safety of our police officers on the streets. Very concerned. And I want to make sure that we don’t have an abundance of guns out there.”

Christie’s response barely makes sense on its own terms, since he simultaneously argues that it’s good to change your mind, but also that he hasn’t changed his mind in 19 years, but listen to what he specifically says about the assault weapons ban…READ MORE

By: Tommy Christopher

Tommy Christopher is The Daily Banter's White House Correspondent and Political Analyst. He's been a political reporter and liberal commentator since 2007, and has covered the White House since the beginning of the Obama administration, first for PoliticsDaily, and then for Mediaite. Christopher is a frequent guest on a variety of television, radio, and online programs, and was the villain in the documentaries The Audacity of Democracy and Hating Breitbart. He's also That Guy Who Live-Tweeted His Own Heart Attack, and the only person to have ever received public apologies from both Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck.