Chris Christie blames Trump and reporters for testy briefings: 'A death spiral'

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Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie said on Tuesday that both President Trump and the media put themselves in a "death spiral" in which Trump responded to reporters in ways that were "beneath" the office during the coronavirus.

"I think the press has been in a death spiral that the president participates in -- which hurts both of them. I think that the questions are often combative and 'gotcha.' His responses, I think at times, are beneath what he should be doing," Christie said during an appearance on "The View."

He said that he's told Trump multiple times that his press briefings should be "much shorter."

"He should be there for 10 or 15 minutes off the top to deliver the big headlines, answer a few questions, and then leave the rest of it to Vice President Pence and to the folks on his team -- the experts on his team," Christie said.

"I don't think it helps the president, in the long run, to be in hand-to-hand combat with any member of the media, and I think also the media has some measure of responsibility as well for some of the things that they do -- so, unfortunately, I think they're both hurting the situation here."

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Christie's comments came after Monday's press briefing where Trump had a particularly testy exchange with CBS reporter Paula Reid. Reid had asked Trump why he didn't do more to address the coronavirus pandemic earlier. Trump responded by calling her "disgraceful" in the way she questioned him, adding that her outlet was "fake."

"View" co-host Joy Behar pushed back on Christie's comments, asking him whether the press should not call Trump "out on his lies."

"No, what I'm saying is Joy, you can't just isolate one press conference," Christie said. "If you look over the course of the time of this entire crisis, but even go back further to the beginning of the presidency. This has been a very combative relationship between the media and the presidency, and I'm not one of those people who just blames it on one side. I think both sides have shown over the course of this relationship that they're both too combative with each other."

Christie also suggested that co-host Sunny Hostin was engaging in the "death spiral" when she brought up how Trump golfed during the virus' spread.

"Actions matter and inaction matters," she said. "Why won't this president take responsibility for just hiding his head in the sand and golfing?"

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"See, Sunny, to me that's part of what I talked about before -- about the death spiral. The golfing thing is just a gratuitous shot that we don't need to take," he said.

"Believe me, members of Congress were golfing. The president and members of Congress and others in the state governments, I'm sure, were playing golf as well at certain times."