Chris Christie may be breathing easier after recovering from COVID-19, but he admits he was “wrong” about the way he handled the coronavirus prior to getting sick.
The former New Jersey governor and frequent contact of President Donald Trump announced he was positive on Oct. 3, about a week after he was seen without a mask at Judge Amy Coney Barrett’s Supreme Court nomination ceremony in the Rose Garden. Trump announced his positive COVID-19 test on Oct. 2.
Christie told The New York Times on Thursday that he feels better than he did when the virus first struck, but admits he still suffers from some fatigue.
He also expressed regret for the cavalier way he followed guidelines designed to keep him and others from contracting the disease.
“I believed when I entered the White House grounds, that I had entered a safe zone, due to the testing that I and many others underwent every day,” he said. “I was wrong. I was wrong not to wear a mask at the Amy Coney Barrett announcement and I was wrong not to wear a mask at my multiple debate prep sessions with the president and the rest of the team.”
Christie added: “I hope that my experience shows my fellow citizens that you should follow CDC guidelines in public no matter where you are and wear a mask to protect yourself and others.”
Although the former governor showed up at Barrett’s announcement and did the debate prep at Trump’s behest, he says he does not blame the president for getting him sick.
“I don’t know who infected me and I don’t know how frequently [Trump] was tested,” he said. “I was put in the third row, and what they told us was that everybody in the first three rows had been tested that day and tested negative. I shouldn’t have relied on that,” he said.
But while Christie is now asking Americans to wear masks, socially distance themselves and wash their hands, he’s not a full convert yet.
“I believe we have not treated Americans as adults, who understand truth, sacrifice and responsibility that I know them to be,” he said, griping that the responses to the virus are “governed by our two dominant political and media extremes: those who believe there is nothing to this virus and those alarmists who would continue to close down our country and not trust the common sense of the American people. Both are wrong.”