Hillary Clinton has been on the attack over Donald Trump's recent hire of Breitbart's Steve Bannon, his overt racism and cozying up to white supremacists. This, of course, has had the right wing and our corporate media apoplectic, with cries of feigned outrage over how "both sides" are now down in the mud and with Trump surrogates taking to the airways to pretend that his recent condescending attempts at minority outreach are sincere.

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie made an appearance on ABC's This Week and was asked about this by host Martha Raddatz, and here's how Christie tried to defend Trump's insulting remarks:

RADDATZ: OK, let's -- let's turn to the subject of race. As part of his outreach to black voters, Trump has described life for African-Americans as marked by poverty, crime, and violence. The vast majority of African-Americans do not live like that and many found those words offensive.

Do you find that an appropriate outreach?

CHRISTIE: I think that when you have any folks in our population who live under the threat of violence, who live under the threat of crime, who don't have the opportunity that others have because the schools in our urban areas are a dreaded failure, because of the positions that Hillary Clinton has taken and the people who support her, that I think any candidate should speak out to say that that type of thing is unacceptable. And I think what Donald is saying is that it's unacceptable to him that members of the African-American community -- and I'm sure he will say this about other communities as well -- who live in violence, who are subject of that, or who do not have the educational opportunities that every child in this country should have so they can reach their fullest potential, that that's unacceptable.

And what he's saying is that a Trump presidency will address those kind of things head on without caving into the special interests like the teachers union, which Mrs. Clinton has completely sold out to. Reversed her position on charter schools, reversed her position on changing the way our urban education is run, because she has sold out to the teachers union.

RADDATZ: So you had no problem…

CHRISTIE: Donald Trump won't do that.

RADDATZ: … with Donald Trump’s language on that? On the reach out to the minority community.

CHRISTIE: Listen, what…

RADDATZ: No problem at all?

CHRISTIE: I like -- no, listen, my view on it is that you have to look at what the message is. And the message is that if anybody lives in those circumstances in this country, that's something that the government should be working to try to change.

And Donald Trump is not going to give in to the special interests in this country, like the teachers' union, who say that substandard education in our urban areas can only be fixed by giving it more money and that that’s all they’re going to do about it and not change the underlying problems that we have on violence.

We need to support our police officers and make sure that community policing becomes something that becomes the standard across the country.

These are the things Donald Trump has talked about.

Yes, let's bust some of those dirty f**ing hippie thug teachers' unions and bring in more charter schools so we can put more of the money meant to go to public schools into some CEO's pocket. I'm surprised he didn't manage to work in an attack on Black Lives Matter while he was at it.

Christie also attempted to defend Trump's godawful tweet following the death of Dwyane Wade’s cousin in Chicago.

RADDATZ: Speaking of violence, there was another tragic shooting in Chicago on Friday; the cousin of NBA star, Dwyane Wade, caught in the crossfire and killed while pushing a stroller.

And this is what Trump tweeted.

He said, "Dwyane Wade’s cousin was just shot and killed, walking her baby in Chicago. Just what I have been saying: African-Americans will vote Trump."

Four hours later he tweeted his condolences.

But is that an appropriate way to say, "Vote Trump"?

CHRISTIE: Listen, if people want safer streets, they want police supported, then they should vote for Donald Trump because that’s what he’ll do. He’ll appoint an attorney general, who will send very clear messages about how law enforcement is to be pursued in this country.

And, quite frankly, we have seen liberal policies in cities like Chicago, like New York and others, have led to increased crime.

And, Martha, the fact of the matter is, we need to have a very clear message. We haven’t had that from the current president. And you’ve seen the violence in his home city of Chicago. This is just another example.

(CROSSTALK)

RADDATZ: He also called this --

CHRISTIE: You all focus on process. But you all focus on process, Martha, instead of the message.

The message is that that type of thing happening. Let’s focus on what happened.

What happened was the murder, the murder of this person pushing a stroller, it's unacceptable in an American city to continue to have this level of violence and the level of violence in Chicago is unacceptable.

That’s what Donald Trump has said and that’s what he’ll change when he’s President of the United States.

He's sending a message alright, and we're all hearing it loud and clear. Christie wrapped things up by basically saying "I know you are, but what am I?" in response to his buddy Trump calling Hillary Clinton a bigot:

RADDATZ: Governor Christie, he also called Hillary Clinton a bigot this week.

Do you believe that Hillary Clinton is a bigot?

CHRISTIE: I’ll tell you this, this type of discourse in the campaign is just unwarranted. But it was started by Ms. Clinton. Ms. Clinton has started the idea of calling Donald Trump those types of names.

And the fact is that, once you are the person -- and Ms. Clinton is the person who injected this type of commentary into this race -- once you inject that type of commentary into this race, you can’t then sit back and start complaining about it or have some of your handmaidens in the media complain about it.

The fact is that she’s been the person who started this type of conversation in the campaign. She should be ashamed of herself.