New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, drawing an apparent contrast with comments made by potential Republican presidential rival Jeb Bush, said Tuesday he would not have supported the war in Iraq had he known there were no weapons of mass destruction in the country.
“If we knew then what we know now and I were the president of the United States, I wouldn’t have gone to war,” Christie said during an interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper. “But, you don’t get to replay history.”
Bush, the former Florida governor, made news this week by telling Megyn Kelly of Fox News he “would have” authorized the war in Iraq even if he still knew everything we know today. But Bush has since backtracked, claiming he misheard Kelly’s question and doesn’t know what his decision would have been at the time.
Speaking of Jeb Bush’s brother, former President George W. Bush, Christie said Tuesday: “I think President Bush made the best decision he could at the time given that his intelligence community was telling him that there was WMD and that there were other threats right there in Iraq.”
“But, I don’t think you can honestly say that if knew then that there was no WMD that the country should have gone to war,” Christie said. “So, my answer would be no. But, you know, I think we have to avoid is continuing to go backwards in this country. We need a forward looking foreign policy that talks about how to reinsert American authority and influence around the world.”