New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie says he has no problem with Donald Trump telling a crowd at a rally that a “bomb” had gone off in New York City before officials were able to determine what caused the explosion that injured 29 people on Saturday night.
“I think that what Donald did was perfectly appropriate,” Christie said on CNN’s “State of the Union” Sunday morning.
At a rally in Colorado Springs, Trump informed the crowd about the blast.
“I must tell you that just before I got off the plane, a bomb went off in New York,” the Republican nominee said.” And nobody knows exactly what’s going on. But boy, we are living in a time — we better get very tough, folks. We better get very, very tough.”
“It just happened,” Trump continued. “So we’ll find out, but it’s a terrible thing going on in our world and in our country. And we are going to get tough and smart and vigilant. And we’re going to end it. We’re going to end it. We’ll see what it is. We’ll see what it is.”
Trump’s comments came hours before New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio held a press conference, saying the explosion on 23rd Street appeared to be the result of an “intentional” act and that there was no indication it was linked to terrorism. According to de Blasio, it was “too early” to say whether it was a bomb that caused the blast. Officials also said it didn’t appear the Manhattan blast was connected to a pipe bomb explosion earlier Saturday in New Jersey.
A short time later, Hillary Clinton told reporters aboard her plane that she had been briefed on “the bombings” in New York and New Jersey — criticizing her opponent for not deferring to local and federal law enforcement.
“I think it’s important to know the facts about any incident like this,” Clinton said. “It’s always wiser to wait until you have information before making conclusions.”
“I don’t think you have to defer when saying that there was an explosion and a bomb in New York,” Christie said Sunday. “I mean, everybody knew that. It was being reported on television.”
The governor, who also serves as the chairman of Trump’s transition team, said the Democratic nominee’s criticism was inappropriate but not unexpected.
“This is typical Mrs. Clinton,” Christie said. “She has absolutely no basis to be critical of what he did yesterday. But since her campaign is only based upon that, that’s the only, you know, issue she could go to. And it’s a shame. But it’s because of her type of leadership over the last eight years, along with the president, that the world is a much more dangerous place.”
At a press conference early Sunday afternoon, de Blasio pleaded for the public’s patience during the investigation.
“We are not going to jump to conclusions,” the mayor said. “We are not going to offer you easy answers. We are going to make sure we have all the facts. We know there was a bombing. That much we do know.”
