Chris Christie tells Bill Maher that Republicans talk very differently about Donald Trump behind closed doors

Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie said that while many Republicans praise President Donald Trump while in public, some of those same figures criticize him in private, naming outspoken Trump ally Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., as one example.

During an appearance on “Overtime,” the online part of “Real Time with Bill Maher,” Friday, Christie was asked by Canadian Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland what “Republicans say to each other when we’re not listening about what’s happening in America right now.”

“Look, so many of my fellow party members, especially, come up to me because I say all this stuff out loud, and they — in the green room at ABC, they’ll say, ‘You’re so brave. That’s so great. I totally agree with you. [Trump’s] nuts.’ And then they go out on camera to be interviewed, and they go, ‘The greatest president since Abraham Lincoln,’” he replied. “And then they come back in the green room, and they say to me, ‘You know, I have to do that, but like I don’t really mean it.’ That’s what they say.”

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Following up on Christie’s claim, host Bill Maher asked the former governor which specific Republicans are engaged in this behavior.

“Bill, ‘Overtime’s’ not long enough to give you all the names, but I’ll give you one. Lindsey Graham,” he told Maher, drawing shocked reactions from both the panel and audience.

Fox News Digital reached out to Graham for comment, but did not immediately hear back. 

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Christie and Trump have had a complicated relationship over the past decade. Although he endorsed Trump after ending his own presidential campaign in 2016, their relationship soured after the president refused to concede the 2020 election to former President Joe Biden, and Christie later openly criticized Trump’s 2024 campaign.

While facing calls from fellow Republicans to drop out of the 2024 GOP presidential nomination race, Christie put out a campaign ad promoting the fact that he’s been the “only one” from his side of the aisle calling out Trump.

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“Some people say I should drop out of this race. Really? I’m the only one saying Donald Trump is a liar,” Christie said while speaking directly to the camera.

Christie’s campaign said the commercial was the first spot in what they tout as a seven-figure ad buy in New Hampshire, the state that held the first primary and second overall contest after Iowa’s caucuses in the GOP presidential nominating calendar.

Christie charged in the ad that Trump “pits Americans against each other,” adding that the then-former president’s Christmas message to anyone who disagrees with him was “rot in hell.”

Fox News Digital’s Paul Steinhauser contributed to this report.