Whoopi Goldberg Asks Chris Christie Who He's Willing To Sacrifice To Reopen Economy

The former New Jersey governor told "The View" Friday that “lives are going to be lost inevitably in this, no matter what we do.”
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Like many other Republicans, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie has suggested that Americans need to be willing to sacrifice their lives to the coronavirus to save the U.S. economy.

“We sent our young men during World War II over to Europe, out to the Pacific, knowing, knowing that many of them would not come home alive,” he said earlier this month. “And we decided to make that sacrifice because what we were standing up for was the American way of life. In the very same way now, we have to stand up for the American way of life.”

But Christie didn’t have an easy answer when he appeared on “The View” Friday and Whoopi Goldberg asked him point-blank which of his own family members should die.

“You upset a lot of people last week for saying that the country needs to reopen because people are going to die no matter what,” Goldberg said. “You compared it to lives lost during World War II, calling it a sacrifice for the American way of life. So I’m asking, since you’re suggesting that I sacrifice, who are you sacrificing? Who are you going to give up in your family?”

Christie wouldn’t answer the question directly. Instead, he claimed people didn’t understand what he was saying.

“It’s a false choice, Whoopi, and that’s what people who don’t understand what’s going on keep saying,” Christie said. “We have 36.5 million people unemployed. We have in seven different states now the suicide rate going up.”

Realizing the governor didn’t mention which family member should, to use “Hunger Games” parlance, volunteer as tribute, Goldberg asked again.

“Who are you willing to sacrifice to die, Chris?” she said. “You’re saying people should be willing to sacrifice family to die. Who are you willing to give up?”

“Whoopi, that’s not what I said,” Christie retorted, adding, “lives are going to be lost inevitably in this, no matter what we do.”

Goldberg then asked Christie, “So you didn’t say some Americans have to make the ultimate sacrifice? You did not say that?”

Christie then claimed he said some Americans “will make that sacrifice no matter what we do,” before arguing that economic problems could lead to more deaths if the economy doesn’t open up.

“The balance is that there are people who are standing on food bank lines, people who are losing their homes, people who are losing their livelihood which is leading to depression, which is leading to suicide, which is leading to addiction, which is leading to domestic violence,” he said. “I saw all these things happen after Hurricane Sandy, when people wound up losing their homes, losing their livelihoods. These things happen. What I’m saying is, we have to balance.”

You can see the complete exchange below:

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