Chris Christie Scrutinizes Romney's 'Gifts' Remarks: You Can't Be a Leader & Be Divisive

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie on Friday distanced himself from former presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s “gifts” remarks, making him the latest in a growing list of Republican leaders to do so.

“You can't expect to be a leader of all the people and be divisive,” said Gov. Christie when asked by the hosts of MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” whether he agreed with Gov. Bobby Jindal (R-La.), who was the first to push back against Romney’s comments.

“You have to talk about themes, policies that unite people. And play to their aspirations and their goals and their hopes for their family and their neighbors. And I always think this is scapegoating after elections. When you lose, you lost," said the New Jersey governor.

MSNBC host Joe Scarborough asked Christie whether he thinks it's time for Romney to move on.

"That's up to him," Gov. Christie responded. "Listen, Mitt Romney is a friend of mine. I understand he is very upset about having lost the election and very disappointed," adding that he's a "good man."

"Do I wish he hadn't said those things? Of course. But on the other hand, I'm not going to bury the guy for it," he added.

Romney during a conference call with top donors accused young voters, women, and minorities of voting for Barack Obama because he offered them “gifts,” TheBlaze reported yesterday.

“It’s a proven political strategy, which is give a bunch of money to a group and, guess what, they’ll vote for you," said Romney.

"What I would do if I were a Democrat running four years from now — I’d say dental care ought to be included in Obamacare,” Romney told donors," he added.

He continued:

What the president did is he gave them two things. One, he gave them a big gift on immigration with the DREAM Act amnesty program, which was obviously very, very popular with Hispanic voters, and then number two was Obamacare … For a home earning -- let’s say $30,000 a year -- free health care, which is worth about $10,000 a year, I mean it’s massive, it’s huge. So this -- he did two very popular things for the Hispanic community.

When asked about these comment, Gov. Bobby Jindal said that they were absolutely wrong” and that “we have got to stop dividing American voters.”

Follow Becket Adams (@BecketAdams) on Twitter

(H/T: National Journal). All photos courtesy the AP.