Chris Christie accuses Steve Bannon of lying about him
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie rejected Steve Bannon's version of events surrounding the days following the release of the "Access Hollywood" tape, in which Donald Trump was heard talking about women in vulgar language.
In an interview on PBS "NewsHour" Monday night, anchor Judy Woodruff asked Christie whether his "unwillingness to stand up for the president" after the release of the tape was the reason he was shut out of the Trump administration, an assertion that was made by Bannon in his interview with CBS News' Charlie Rose on "60 Minutes" Sunday.
Christie had a few things to say about this.
"That conversation that Mr. Bannon references in his interview never happened," he told Woodruff. "Never had any conversations with him. I didn't need to convey those kind of feelings to staffers. I was speaking to the principal -- to the man who's now president of the United States."
Bannon told Rose that the day after the tape was released -- which he called "Billy Bush Saturday," after the show host who was also heard on the tape -- was "a litmus test." And Bannon was taking the names of those who stuck by candidate Trump in perhaps the darkest period of his candidacy.
"I got to get my black book and I got 'em," Bannon told Rose, adding, "Christie, because of Billy Bush weekend...was not looked at for a cabinet position."
"I told [Christie], 'The plane leaves at 11:00 in the morning. If you're on the plane, you're on the team.' Didn't make the plane," Bannon recalled.
The New Jersey governor continued to push back with a detailed response to Bannon.
"Secondly, I was there the whole Billy Bush weekend. I was there during debate prep, leading debate prep for the second debate, both on Friday and on Saturday," Christie told Woodruff. "And by the way, if I was off the team, then why did I lead debate prep for the third debate?"
And, he pointed out, he was offered administration jobs.
"It's been widely reported and it is true that I was offered cabinet positions that I turned down," Christie said. "So I suspect this little black book that Mr. Bannon's talking about -- the only one who read that black book was Mr. Bannon himself. I know that no one else cared about itm and now that he's been fired, no one's gonna really care about anything else Steve Bannon has to say."
He told Woodruff that over that weekend, "I spoke the truth directly to the president of the United States, and I didn't need to have - go on the air or do it publicly, or to self-aggrandize myself now as you know Mr. Bannon is doing by giving a '60 Minutes interview.' This, I suspect, is his last 15 minutes of fame, and that's fine. I hope he enjoys it."
He continued to pummel Bannon as someone "who's just Donald Trump's friend for a year," compared to the 15 years he's been Mr. Trump's friend. He said he'll continue to tell the president the truth, which he added, was "why I was at the White House Thursday while Steve Bannon was off doing an interview with '60 Minutes.'" Bannon left the White House in August.
CBS News' Katiana Krawchenko contributed to this story.
