Christie Defends Going on Maria Bartiromo’s Show Despite Denouncing Election Conspiracies She’s Pushed: ‘I Give Her Kudos’ for Inviting Me

Mediaite founder Dan Abrams confronted Chris Christie on his NewsNation show Wednesday night about taking his book tour to Maria Bartiromo’s show.

Christie has been making the media rounds for his book Republican Rescue, and on Wednesday morning he appeared on Bartiromo’s Fox Business program.

It was notable that Christie was on her show because, while Christie has been particularly outspoken about the big lie and how Donald Trump needs to stop pushing nonsense about 2020, Bartiromo herself pushed a number of conspiracy theories about the election results.

Abrams noted how Christie’s book is partly about “truth deniers” and “conspiracy theories,” remarking, “One of the people in the media who has spread the lies and the conspiracy theories is Maria Bartiromo, who is on Fox Business. And you chose to do her show to promote your book. How do you reconcile that?”

“Because I’ve had a long, long relationship with Maria,” Christie said. “We can’t persuade people if we wind up ignoring the people that we disagree with.”

He said he’s been friendly with Bartiromo and would “try to persuade her” that what she has said is “not helpful for her or useful for the country.”

Abrams countered that at the very least he could have brought it up and told Bartiromo directly, “Hey, by the way, you’re part of the problem.”

“I’m not expecting you to be out there as some hero,” Abrams said. “But I do think when you choose to go on a show like that… she seems to be the very person you’re talking about in your book!”

Christie reacted by actually arguing Bartiromo deserves “kudos” for having him on knowing what he says in his book.

“I think that it says a lot about her that she had me on. Because she knows exactly what the book was about and exactly what I was talking about. And so, the fact that she reached out, even with what the subject matter of the book is, and asked me to be on the program, I think says a lot about Maria.”

You can watch above (the relevant part starts at the 6:20 mark), via NewsNation.