Christie said the president needs to seek forgiveness from the American people. | AP Photo Christie calls Trump's 'both sides' remarks 'just wrong,' says he should apologize to nation

President Donald Trump was wrong to draw a “moral equivalency” between the white supremacist groups that marched in Charlottesville, Virginia, and the protesters who opposed their hate-filled message, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie said Monday.

“The president’s comments about ‘both sides’ were a mistake, and they shouldn’t have been said,” Christie, one of Trump’s most loyal supporters, said in his first public comments about the incident.


The governor, one of the first big-name Republicans to endorse Trump last year, joined a growing list of GOP lawmakers, business executives and military leaders who have distanced themselves from the president’s remarks.

While Christie said he knows “the president is not a racist,” he said that does not excuse the remarks Trump made in the days after the deadly unrest in Charlottesville.

"The statement is just wrong,” Christie told reporters at an unrelated news conference. “There are not good people on the neo-Nazi side. There is not a moral equivalence between those who oppose neo-Nazism, those who oppose white supremacy, those who oppose fascism, and those who engage in it and support it. There’s not a moral equivalency there.”

That response likely marks the bluntest criticism the governor has leveled at the president.

Christie, who returned Friday from a 10-day family vacation in Italy, said he had not spoken to the president since the remarks, in which Trump said “both sides” were to blame for the violent clashes on Aug. 12 that left one dead and more than a dozen injured. The president also said there were “very fine people” on both sides.

Christie said the president needs to seek forgiveness from the American people. Trump, he said, should not see an apology as a sign of weakness.

“He’s got to learn. And I don’t think that shows weakness. I think that shows strength — your willingness to learn,” Christie said. “I’m hopeful that he will grow in the job and continue to get better. I still have confidence in that and, unless proven otherwise, I will continue to.”

Katherine Landergan contributed to this report.