Gov. Chris Christie criticized President Donald Trump’s order banning travel from seven majority-Muslim countries on Tuesday, saying the president’s goals were laudable but his plan is too broad and its implementation was “terrible.” The Republican governor, who was among Trump’s most-prominent backers during the campaign but was fired as his transition chief, said the president’s aides had failed him in the way they launched the plan, leading to the widespread confusion and mass protests at airports across the nation. “The roll-out of this executive order was terrible,” Christie said at an unrelated event, answering questions from the press in New Jersey for the first time in 147 days. “The right people were not involved or consulted. There was confusion in the enforcement that went on here.” Christie notably said he considered the process to obtain a green card, which allows a foreign citizen to take up residency in the United States, to constitute the sort of “extreme vetting” that Trump is seeking. Some holders of green cards were detained for hours as they tried to re-enter the country over the weekend. Beyond how the order was implemented, Christie also suggested that Trump would be better off focusing on intelligence about specific groups rather than pursuing a blanket ban on entire nations. “I think the president’s intention here is right,” Christie, a former U.S. attorney in New Jersey, said. “His intention is to try to protect our country from terrorist attacks from people who mean to do us harm. However, I think you need to make those decisions based upon intelligence and not generalizations.” Christie joins several prominent Republicans and countless Democrats who have been critical of Trump’s plan, but he stopped far short of saying he would take any action as a result. On Sunday, attorneys general from 15 states and the District of Columbia called Trump’s executive action “unconstitutional, un-American and unlawful,” and they vowed to act quickly to help empower the court orders issued Saturday night which put a partial stay on the executive order. Christie, who jointly controls the Port Authority, which runs the region's three major airports, said he didn’t think that kind of action was warranted. But he wouldn’t entirely rule it out for New Jersey, saying he had plans to speak to his attorney general Tuesday afternoon and that the subject would likely be discussed. Still, he said Democrats were making this about politics rather than policy, saying many had “knee-jerk reactions." “Yeah, mistakes were made and people need to stand up who made those mistakes of implementation,” he said. “But, also, let’s not be trying to take advantage of the situation for political gain as well. I think that just makes the situation worse and doesn’t make our country safer.” During his short presidential campaign last year, Christie aggressively assailed Trump’s initial call for a ban on all Muslims from entering the United States, saying at one point that it was a “ridiculous.” But the two-term governor said he considers the order issued on Friday a scaled-back version of what Trump described during the campaign — that is, a ban on all Muslims from entering the country. Christie said he and former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani had worked to persuade Trump that his original proposal was not the right way to go. “This is narrower than that,” he said. Christie also said Trump “deserved much better than the roll-out he got” and that “unacceptable” mistakes were made — a clear attack on some White House aides. POLITICO reported this month that the governor, who was passed over for a high-profile job in Washington, has been playing a longer game, believing some of Trump’s top aides and cabinet members may face major challenges in the early months of the administration and that the president may call on him to shore up things. Christie said he spoke to Trump half a dozen times between Christmas and the inauguration, and spoke to him again last week. He said their relationship remains strong. “How much better do you want me to be? We aren’t going to marry anytime soon — he’s already taken, and so am I,” Christie said. “The president and I have a great relationship. We’ve known each other and have been friends for 15 years.” -- Additional reporting by Katherine Landergan from http://www.politico.com/states/new-jersey/story/2017/01/christie-trumps-travel-ban-too-broad-implementation-was-terrible-109234
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