TRENTON — Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin called out Gov. Chris Christie today saying he made a "rookie mistake" when criticizing Republican presidential candidate New Gingrich over the weekend.

"You know, sometimes if your candidate loses in just one step along this path, as was the case when (Mitt )Romney lost to Newt the other night, and of course, Romney is Chris Christie’s guy," Palin said in an interview on Fox Business News.

"Well, you kind of get your panties in a wad and you may say things that you regret later. And I think that that’s what Chris Christie did," she said.

Christie, who has been out on the campaign trail for former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, called Gingrich an "embarrassment for the party" while on "Meet the Press" on NBC over the weekend.

He went on to talk about how Gingrich was run out as Speaker of the House and fined $300,000 for ethics violations.

"New Gingrich has embarrassed the party over time — whether he’ll do it again in the future, I don’t know," Christie said.

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After losing the New Hampshire primary and coming in fourth in the Iowa Caucus, Gingrich beat Romney Saturday in the South Carolina primary, garnering 40 percent of the vote to Romney’s 28 percent.

Palin, a recent Gingrich supporter, responded in an interview that aired last night on Fox Business Network, saying Christie made a "rookie mistake" and "played right into the media’s hands."

"Here’s a host that asked Chris does Newt embarrass the party," Palin said in an advance transcript. "I think he asked him twice, and there Chris played right into it and, you know, spewed that about, yeah, Newt embarrassing the party."

Palin went on to criticize Christie’s use of a State Police helicopter last year to shuttle between his son’s baseball game and a meeting with Iowa fund-raisers.

"I think if Chris were asked about some of his, you know, past actions, taking a state helicopter to his kid’s baseball game, some people may say, well, that sort of embarrassed your party, Chris," Palin said. "And he would then be on the receiving end of a comment that maybe he wished that somebody kept as an inside thought."

"He’s been in office a year or two, is all, and might think that he — he’ll learn that the media — they goad you," she said. "They want you to say things like that in order to boost ratings and make it more of a reality show-type scenario."

Christie communications director Maria Comella declined to comment on what Palin said about the governor late today.

Christie has kept his distance from Palin. During his 2009 campaign, Christie and his allies made it clear they did not want her on the campaign trail.

A year after his victory, Christie was asked by television talk show host Jimmy Fallon if he thought Palin could be president.

His answer: "Who knows, Jimmy? It’s an amazing world."

Earlier today, Christie continued his criticism of Gingrich amid reaction from the former speaker’s camp that it was disappointed with the negative tone of Romney’s surrogates.

"The fact of the matter is," said Christie, "the speaker for the last 10 years has been an influence peddler in Washington, D.C. That’s what he’s been and he’s been paid tens of millions of dollars to be an influence peddler".