WASHINGTON — Rick Perry and Chris Christie were two of the four Republican governors Hillary Clinton lambasted over voting restrictions last week — and they didn’t like it.
Both Texas’s Perry and New Jersey’s Christie, who are among the GOP’s pool of likely 2016 presidential contenders, shot back at Clinton in interviews Sunday.
“I think it’s way outside the norm of ridiculous, if you want to know the truth of the matter, to call out the people of the state of Texas, because that’s what she did,” Perry told CNN’s Dana Bash on “State of the Union.”
In a speech at Texas Southern University last week, Clinton took swings by name at Perry, Christie, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker for state policies like voter identification requirements and limited early voting opportunities.
The Democratic frontrunner called for every U.S. citizen to be automatically registered to vote upon turning 18. She said early voting should be offered for a minimum of 20 days, with night and weekend hours.
Perry said it’s already “pretty easy” to vote.
“I don’t think she’s playing to the Americans who believe that the sanctity of the vote is important and you need a photo ID to be able to vote,” he said.
Christie, meanwhile, was characteristically blunt in answering to Clinton’s criticism.
“She doesn’t know what she’s talking about,” he said in an interview on CBS’s “Face the Nation.”
He said early voting is already available in New Jersey, but he doesn’t want to “expand it and increase the opportunities for fraud.”
“Maybe that’s what Mrs. Clinton wants to do. I don’t know. But the fact is that the folks in New Jersey have plenty of an opportunity to vote,” he said.
Christie also took a shot at Clinton for a campaign that has seen her only occasionally interact with the press.
“Maybe, you know, if she took some questions some places and learned some things, maybe she wouldn’t make such ridiculous statements,” he said.
Clinton did find a defender in New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, who said on CBS that “efforts made by Republicans to repress voter involvement” need to be addressed.
“We have a democracy problem in this country. We have declining voter turnout,” he said. “Secretary Clinton put forward a notion we need a national strategy to energize voting again, to get people involved.”
