Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie slammed specific members of the Trump administration in his new book “Let Me Finish,” saying that President Trump brought in “riffraff” to help him govern.
“Donald so urgently needed the right people around him and a solid structure in place,” Mr. Christie wrote, according to excerpts obtained and published by Axios. “Far too often, he’s found himself saddled with the riffraff.”
Mr. Christie listed a litany of criticisms of several high-profile members of the administration, all of whom are no longer on the president’s team. The insults included calling Michael Flynn, the former National Security Adviser, a “Russian lackey” and “future federal felon.”
He also targeted Scott Pruitt, the previous head of the Environmental Protection Agency, and Tom Price, the former Health and Human Services secretary, both of whom left their agencies after scandals surfaced.
The president needs more people like Mr. Trump’s counselor Kellyanne Conway and Treasury Secretary Steven T. Mnuchin, according to Mr. Christie, but has “a boatload of Sebastian Gorkas.”
Mr. Christie served as the head of Mr. Trump’s transition team but was ousted shortly after the election.
Other excerpts from “Let Me Finish” show that Mr. Christie holds Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law and a senior adviser, responsible for pushing him out.
Mr. Christie blamed Mr. Kushner, White House Strategist Steve Bannon and others for butchering the transition “for their own selfish reasons.”
“The day after Trump was elected, he was handed a detailed road map that would have avoided many of these pitfalls and launched him on a far more promising path, a plan that was fully consistent with his values, his campaign promises, and his publicly stated views,” he wrote. “But that plan was thrown in the trash. Literally.”
• Gabriella Muñoz can be reached at gmunoz@washingtontimes.com.
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