Christie-affiliated super PAC hits Trump over remarks about Hezbollah

A super PAC affiliated with GOP presidential candidate Chris Christie took aim at former President Trump for praising Iran-backed Hezbollah last week.

The Tell It Like It Is PAC released a new campaign ad titled “Fool” on Monday that highlighted Christie’s criticism of Trump’s remarks on Hezbollah. The video included an interview Christie gave with CNN last week, where he repeatedly called Trump a “fool” for making such comments.

The video included the clip from Trump’s Wednesday speech, in which he said Hezbollah is “very smart, they’re all very smart.” 

“He’s a fool. Only a fool would make those kinds of comments,” Christie said to CNN. “Only a fool would give comments that could give aid and comfort to Israel’s adversary in this situation.

“But he cares about one person, one person only: the person he sees in the mirror when he wakes up in the morning. We cannot once again nominate a fool like this and get him anywhere near the presidency of the United States. And having a fool like Donald Trump, who would make those comments in the tone that he made them is proven to folks that he has no business being president United States.”

Trump has faced blowback for his comments on Hezbollah, including from other GOP presidential candidates, like Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and former Vice President Mike Pence.

The Trump campaign has attempted to walk back the remarks, arguing that just because the former president called Hezbollah “smart” does not mean he was praising the group. 

“President Trump was clearly pointing out how incompetent Biden and his administration were by telegraphing to the terrorists an area that is susceptible to an attack. Smart does not equal good,” read a tweet from the campaign’s “War Room” account.

Tensions between Hezbollah, which is based in Lebanon, and Israel have risen since Hamas launched its deadly attack on Israel on Oct. 7. Hezbollah has fired rockets numerous times at Israel, which has returned fire and struck multiple Hezbollah targets. The U.S. has labeled Hezbollah, like Hamas, a terrorist organization.

The Israel Defense Forces said Sunday that nine rockets were fired from Lebanon into Israel, but Israel’s air defense intercepted five of them. It also confirmed it was striking the launch site in Lebanon as retaliation.