Chris Christie Accuses Jared Of Getting Trump To Fire Him
New Jersey Governor Chris Christie and presidential adviser Jared Kushner look on during a White House meeting about opioid and drug abuse, March 29, 2017. Image by Getty Images
Chris Christie accuses Jared Kushner in his forthcoming tell-all book of carrying out a political “hit job” on him as revenge for Christie’s prosecuting his father in 2005, The Guardian reported.
In “Let Me Finish,” due out on January 29, Christie blames the presidential son-in-law for having him ousted from Trump’s transition team after the 2016 election.
Curiously, Christie cites White House political supremo Steve Bannon as his source for the revelation. It was Bannon who actually fired Christie, but he mentioned Kushner’s supposed role after Christie threatened to publicly finger Bannon.
“Steve Bannon … made clear to me that one person and one person only was responsible for the faceless execution that Steve was now attempting to carry out,” Christie wrote in the soon-to-be-published novel, which was obtained by The Guardian. “Jared Kushner, still apparently seething over events that had occurred a decade ago.”
It’s not clear why Christie took Bannon’s remarks at face value. He apparently offers no other hard evidence that Kushner engineered the firing.
Christie posited that Kushner orchestrated his removal to seek vengeance for prosecuting his father, real estate magnate Charles Kushner, for tax evasion when he was a federal attorney. He served two years in prison.
Kushner was allegedly “paranoid” about having Christie around, bestselling author Michael Lewis wrote in his book, “The Fifth Risk.” Amid all the tension, Kushner urged Bannon to fire him.
The core of Christie’s book, according to The Guardian, was his dismay at Kushner’s actions against him.
Bannon reportedly told Christie as he was being shown the door: “The kid’s been taking an ax to your head with the boss ever since I got here.”
Alyssa Fisher is a news writer at the Forward. Email her at fisher@forward.com, or follow her on Twitter at @alyssalfisher
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