New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie on Sunday called Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Rodham Clinton a “disgrace” for saying he and fellow GOP presidential candidates have the same “extreme views” on women’s health issues as terrorist groups.
“That’s a disgrace and she’s a disgrace,” Mr. Christie said on “Fox News Sunday.”
“She’s a disgrace for saying that, for comparing Republicans to terrorist groups — don’t let her go on that,” he told “Fox News Sunday” host Chris Wallace. “That’s awful.”
“That’s a disgrace. It is a disgrace,” he continued. “Can you imagine if we compared the Democratic Party to terrorist groups? Can you imagine the outrage in the mainstream media for that? Yet, she stood up and said that Republicans are like terrorist groups.”
Mrs. Clinton made the remark at a campaign rally last week in Cleveland, where she named GOP presidential candidates Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, Ohio Gov. John Kasich and Republicans in general as “dead wrong” on women’s health, such as in calling for federal defunding of Planned Parenthood.
“Extreme views about women, we expect that from some of the terrorist groups, we expect that from people who don’t want to live in the modern world, but it’s a little hard to take from Republicans who want to be the president of the United States,” said Mrs. Clinton.
Mr. Christie, who is polling near the back of a crowded GOP field, said that his views on abortion, Planned Parenthood and women’s health are not out of the mainstream.
“I don’t think mainstream America is for an organization getting federal funding, who kills children in the womb, in a particular way, so that it maximizes the value of their body parts on the open market for sale for profit.,” he said. “Now, if Mrs. Clinton thinks that’s what mainstream America likes, I’m happy to have the debate with her.”
He said that debate likely won’t occur because “she doesn’t even want to talk about what’s really going on at Planned Parenthood. She just wants to talk about these vague generalities about ’war on women.’”
“But I’m not going to be someone who’s going to stand up and allow her to call my party ’terrorists’ because we’re not,” said Mr. Christie.
• S.A. Miller can be reached at smiller@washingtontimes.com.
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