Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who is running for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, slammed President Joe Biden for exchanging nearly $6 billion in frozen Iranian assets for five wrongfully detained Americans.
"I wouldn't have made this deal," Christie told CNN's "The Source with Kaitlan Collins" on Monday. "As much as I would've liked those Americans to be home, you cannot give $6 billion to a terrorist state."
In exchange for the release of the five American prisoners, the Biden administration released five Iranians in U.S. custody and issued a waiver for international banks to allow the transfer of nearly $6 billion in Iranian oil sale proceeds from South Korea to a bank in Qatar.
The Associated Press reported that the $5.9 billion in cash released to Iran is money South Korea owed the oil-rich country that had not been paid before the U.S. imposed sanctions on oil transactions in 2019.
The U.S. said the funds will be held in restricted accounts and will only be used for humanitarian supplies, such as food and medicine. Those types of transactions are reportedly permitted under the U.S. sanctions targeting Iran for its advancing nuclear program.
"The idea that Iran would use this money for only humanitarian efforts," Christie said. "Let me tell you what humanitarian is in Iran — that means they cut your hands off before they kill you. That's humanitarian in Iran. This is one of the most barbaric regimes in the world."
In an interview with NBC earlier this month, Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi said the money will be used "wherever we need it."
Asked how he would have approached the situation, Christie said, "You do the very best you can, you continue to work as hard as you can to get them returned home, but you don't get them returned home to make matters worse.
"Americans are now more of a target for Iran than they were before. Because they took five this time, maybe they'll take 10 next time and then they'll be looking for $12 billion or $15 billion — this never ends."
Christie said he would have drawn the line at the prisoner exchange, and would not have authorized the release of the frozen assets.
"This empowers that regime to support terror and encourages them to take more Americans in order to try to get more money from assets that are frozen because of their own terrorist conduct," he said.
Christie joins some Republicans vying for the presidential nomination and a bipartisan group of lawmakers who have expressed similar concerns about a future increase in the abduction of Americans abroad by hostile nations.
Loved ones clapped, cheered, and cried when the five freed Americans arrived in Fort Belvoir, Virginia, on Tuesday morning. All had been sentenced in Iran to 10 years in prison on espionage charges, according to The Hill.