New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) on Sunday appeared to defend the Trump administration after reports emerged that the FBI rejected a request by the White House to publicly knock down news coverage about communications between Trump campaign associates and Russians.

"These are all people who have never been in government before. And so they're going to need to learn these things. And I don't think you get the learning curve just by winning the election," Christie said during an interview on CNN's "State of the Union."

"You develop experiences over time which tell you that. I can guarantee this: I don't think the chief of staff will ever have that kind of conversation with the FBI, with an FBI personnel again, nor should he."

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Christie went on to say that White House chief of staff Reince Priebus has "great integrity," adding that he doesn't think he did anything wrong.

"But I do think that it's something that perception matters and we got to try it differently," he said.

CNN reported that Priebus reached out to FBI Director James Comey and Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, asking them to talk to reporters on background to dispute the stories about communications between Trump associates and Russia that ran in The New York Times and CNN.

Comey reportedly rejected the request because the alleged communications are the subject of an investigation.

The discussions between the FBI and the White House could run aground of longstanding rules restrictions of contact regarding pending investigations.

The president's top spokesman on Friday dismissed the news report, saying "what you guys have done is indefensible and inaccurate."