Top Chris Christie aide says she'll support Hillary Clinton

Some Republicans distance themselves from Trump

One of Chris Christie's former top aides, Maria Comella, said Tuesday that she won't be voting for Donald Trump, although her old boss is supporting the GOP nominee and running his presidential transition team.

President Obama challenges GOP to drop Trump

"I'm voting for Hillary Clinton in November and I'm voting for her because I don't believe it's enough to say you aren't for Donald Trump," she said in an email interview with CNN's Jamie Gangel. Comella, who worked for Christie through both of his gubernatorial campaigns, went on to say that "we are at a moment where silence isn't an option."

Comella said Trump's response to criticism by a Muslim American couple whose son was killed in the Iraq war didn't come as a shock to her, since throughout the election, Trump has been a "demagogue" who has been preying on "people's anxieties with loose information and salacious rhetoric, drumming up fear and hatred of the 'other.'"

On Tuesday, Christie, too, was also asked about Trump's remarks about the Khans -- he wouldn't weigh in on Trump, but the New Jersey governor flatly rejected the idea of attacking the grieving couple.

"My view on this is that Khans have a right to do whatever it is they want regarding the loss of their son," Christie said. "You're not going to find me being critical of Mr. and Mrs. Kahn no matter what, even if I may disagree with any one particular statement they might make."

Several Republican senators have also defended the Khans, including John McCain and Kelly Ayotte. New York Rep. Richard Hanna, who's retiring at the end of the term, became the first sitting congressman to say he'd vote for Hillary Clinton.

Christie also responded to the president's description of the GOP nominee as "unfit to serve as president, though.

"I think the president has disqualified himself from giving comments like this," Christie said. "He says that Hillary Clinton is the most qualified person in American history ever to be president. I believe Thomas Jefferson might object."

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