Christie blasts Clinton for roping off media, says ‘she wants to keep everybody away’

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Christie blasts 'outrageous' Clinton press rope line in NH

2016 GOP hopeful says Democrat frontrunner 'better be careful' about campaign tactics

Republican presidential candidate Chris Christie blasted Hillary Clinton on Monday for roping off media members during a weekend parade in New Hampshire.

"It's outrageous. I mean, I've never seen a political candidate who wants to have such little contact with people," the New Jersey governor told Fox News.

The July 4th parade in Gorham, N.H., was meant to be a meet-and-greet of sorts with potential voters. Reporters were granted access to Clinton initially but later blocked off by ropes. Campaign aides held ropes on all sides of the Democratic presidential front-runner, supposedly keeping the media at bay out of concern for crowd control.

Christie, however, said the actions were reflective of Clinton's attitude and urged the media to stand up.

"She wants to keep everybody away from her. This is part of the problem with Secretary Clinton," Christie said. "I think the press needs to fight back."

He suggested a double-standard was at play, too. "The media wouldn't allow this to happen with any Republican candidates. If we tried to put a rope line around the media when we were at our parade in Wolfeboro, New Hampshire, Saturday, there would have been a riot right then. Why not for Mrs. Clinton?"

Christie, who last week formally entered the 2016 White House race, also criticized fellow Republicans in his interview. Christie said he didn't support Donald Trump's controversial comments in which he described some Mexican illegal immigrants as violent criminals. Christie also had choice words for Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, who said he didn't support "Republican on Republican violence" when asked about the remarks.

"I find it ironic that Ted Cruz is giving lectures on Republican on Republican violence; the guy who put together a group that was sponsoring primary ads against Senator Lamar Alexander, is giving the rest of us lectures on Republican on Republican violence," Christie said. "With all due respect I don't need to be lectured by Ted Cruz." He added that, "It's a competition ... and there's going to be differences of opinion."