Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie slammed Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Sunday over his response to his state's Board of Education's adoption of new history standards last week, Politico reported.
The new standards have been ridiculed by critics, including Vice President Kamala Harris, for how it teaches about slavery, particularly urging instruction on "how slaves developed skills which, in some instances, could be applied for their personal benefit."
"Gov. DeSantis started this fire with the bill that he signed, and now, he doesn't want to take responsibility for whatever is done in the aftermath of it, and from listening and watching his comments, he's obviously uncomfortable," Christie told CBS News' "Face the Nation."
When DeSantis was asked last week by CNN about the new standards, denying the move was his.
"I didn't do it. I wasn't involved in it," DeSantis said.
"I think that they're probably going to show some of the folks that eventually parlayed, you know, being a blacksmith into doing things later in life."
Pointing elsewhere is not "leadership," according to Christie.
"'I didn't do it' and 'I'm not involved in it' are not the words of leadership," he said.
"If this was such a big issue for Gov. DeSantis, he had four years to do this. He only started to focus on this when he decided he wanted to run for president and try to get to the right of Donald Trump. I think people see this as politically manipulative."
Christie has concentrated his efforts in the Republican presidential primary campaign on taking former President Donald Trump out of the race, according to Politico, but he has also been occasionally critical of other candidates, such as DeSantis.
Brian Freeman ✉
Brian Freeman, a Newsmax writer based in Israel, has more than three decades writing and editing about culture and politics for newspapers, online and television.
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