On Monday, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie said that the U.S. needs to reopen public spaces, despite the latest projections showing thousands of coronavirus deaths. Christie appeared on CNN’s The Daily DC Podcast with Dana Bash, where he acknowledged the models predicting a total death toll of 100,000 people. Even so, Christie said that it was still worth it to “reopen the country.”
“Of course, everybody wants to save every life they can — but the question is, towards what end, ultimately?” Christie asked, suggesting that the economic damage of long-term social distancing could be worse than the death toll of the virus itself. “Are there ways that we can… thread the middle here to allow that there are going to be deaths, and there are going to be deaths no matter what?” he wondered.
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Christie has been heavily criticized for these new comments, especially on Twitter. Many users have condemned the former governor for what they called a “cavalier” view of human life. They noted Christie’s wording about “let[ting] some of these folks get back to work,” suggesting that he should take on that responsibility himself.
While Christie suggested a “middle” path to social distancing and reopening the economy, he did not suggest any specific alternatives. When Bash pointed out the Trump administration’s latest projection, which suggested the U.S. could have 3,000 coronavirus deaths per day by June 1, Christie said: “They’re gonna have to.”
For the latest information on the coronavirus pandemic, visit the websites of the CDC and the World Health Organization. In the meantime, here is what Twitter had to say about Chris Christie on Tuesday.
Do the Work
Will Chris christie go work at a meat processing plant?
— Art Martin (@gartmartin9) May 5, 2020
they could use some new workers.
Chris Christie should work three straight shifts in a hospital intensive care ward and then get back to me about what America needs right now
— Jeff Tiedrich (@itsJeffTiedrich) May 5, 2020
‘Sacrifice’
Today I got the idea to put together a thread of every public official, elected or appointed, who is advocating for or trying to normalize mass die-offs as a right and just sacrifice to make for the sake of The Economy ™. I’ll start with Chris Christie https://t.co/WvWq07Ulee
— Brooke Binkowski (@brooklynmarie) May 5, 2020
‘Privileged and Vulnerable’
Chris Christie would be a great experiment for this: someone extremely privileged but also someone extremely in the most vulnerable category. let’s send him out to the plants and warehouses to work and see what happens https://t.co/bPqvh6f5mR
— Matt Binder (@MattBinder) May 5, 2020
Priorities
We should thank Chris Christie for making things crystal clear for us: his team on the far-right values only one thing: money. And for the love of money they are fine with letting a few thousand, maybe a hundred or two hundred thousand (?) Americans die. Sky’s the limit, suckers. pic.twitter.com/Qf9FPCxdOr
— Joy Reid (@JoyAnnReid) May 5, 2020
Bridges
Reporter: What happens if, once we reopen the country, even more people start dying of the virus?
— The Volatile Mermaid (@OhNoSheTwitnt) May 5, 2020
Chris Christie: We’ll close that bridge when we come to it. I mean CROSS! Cross that bridge! Phew that was a close one.
People should listen to Chris Christie, he’s an actual expert on shutting things down and causing deaths. https://t.co/7a56VDntgg
— Marie Connor (@thistallawkgirl) May 5, 2020
Qualifications
chris christie is the failed governor who’s administration ended in scandal, who then ran a doomed presidential campaign. he’s in front of our eyes because the msm hired him as a political analyst. because failure from a republican is a hiring resume bullet for the msm.
— Oliver Willis (@owillis) May 5, 2020
American Ingenuity
If someone (Chris Christie) tells you that USA can’t do mass scale testing & contact tracing, remind them that we put a man on the moon & mobilized an entire nation to defeat Axis forces.
— Pam Keith (@PamKeithFL) April 28, 2020
We can do ANY damn thing necessary to save our country. We have a leadership failure.Period
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