Chris Christie Scolds Republicans for Heckling Biden at State of the Union: ‘Big Mistake’

Former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie reprimanded his fellow Republicans for heckling President Joe Biden and giving him the “best part” of his State of the Union address.

In a panel on ABC’s This Week, George Stephanopoulos asked Christie if he thought Congressional Republicans made a “mistake” by yelling at Biden during his speech. The former governor agreed — calling it a “big mistake,” and saying “you don’t want to rise to the bait, and they did. A number of them did.”

“The better response would have been to respond to that with laughter,” said Christie. “If you really wanted to respond to the president saying something as ridiculous as the Republicans — because of what one Republican has said, Rick Scott (R-FL), which was immediately rejected by almost the entire rest the party — what they should have done was laughed at the president then, and moved on.”

Christie’s comments refer to the ongoing discourse about Biden’s attempt to slam Republicans over proposals from Scott (and other Republicans) to make cuts or privatize programs like Medicare and Social Security. As for the uproar Biden caused in his initial remarks, Christie cast a dim view of the “yelling and screaming” from the GOP.

“I think that’s always bad,” Christie said. “It doesn’t get you anywhere, and it gave Joe Biden an opportunity to engage them back in a way that was spontaneous, that I think was probably the best part of his entire speech.”

Watch above via ABC.