Chris Christie: Trump administration departures go back to ‘how poorly the transition was run’

Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) said Sunday that President Trump’s “poorly” run transition team is the root of high turnover rates in the Trump administration. 

Christie’s comments came during a discussion on ABC’s “This Week” about the growing number of acting department officials in the Trump administration. 

Last week, Alexander Acosta announced he’d be stepping down as Labor secretary amid growing scrutiny over his role in negotiating a plea deal for Jeffrey Epstein, a financier accused of running a sex trafficking ring and abusing dozens of girls. 

“It all goes back to the transition and how poorly the transition was run,” Christie said on ABC. “These people were not vetted appropriately, and the president ended up watching them in action. They were vetted while they were doing the jobs, and they wound up being deficient, many of them.”{mosads}

Christie was the head of Trump’s transition team until he was ousted days after the president’s surprise victory. 

The team was then lead by Vice President Mike Pence who reportedly outsourced political vetting to the Republican National Committee. 

The Trump administration has seen frequent turnover in senior positions throughout the first half of Trump’s first term in office. 

“As I’ve been saying for 2 ½ years years now, this was predictable,” Christie said. “If you don’t run a  professional transition, you wind up with people who are not up to the job. And when you wind up with people who are not up to the job, you have to get rid of them when you see them not being able to do the job.”