chris cristi barrett nomination white house
© Chip Somodevilla/Getty ImageFormer Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey at the White Rose Garden for the nomination of Judge Amy Coney Barrett
Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie expressed remorse for not taking additional precautions to prevent himself from contracting COVID-19 during his time at the White House.

The former Republican presidential candidate said he was wrong not to wear a mask while he was at the White House and said that he didn't do so because he felt like he was in "a safe zone," according to the New York Times. These remarks came days after he was released from the hospital, where he checked himself in after he was one of many people in the president's circle to contract the coronavirus.

He was at the White House to assist President Trump in preparation for the first presidential debate and was there for the ceremony in which Judge Amy Coney Barrett was nominated to the Supreme Court.

"I believed when I entered the White House grounds, that I had entered a safe zone, due to the testing that I and many others underwent every day," Christie said in a statement.

Christie was one of more than a dozen people in the president's orbit to contract COVID-19 as it spread throughout the White House. Members of the first family, White House staffers, White House reporters, and members of Congress who spent time at the White House tested positive for the virus. Some believe that the Barrett nominating ceremony was a "superspreader" event given there was little social distancing and few people wearing masks, although everyone was tested upon arrival that day.

"I was wrong. I was wrong not to wear a mask at the Amy Coney Barrett announcement and I was wrong not to wear a mask at my multiple debate prep sessions with the president and the rest of the team," he added in the statement.

"I was put in the third row, and what they told us was that everybody in the first three rows had been tested that day and tested negative," Christie said in an interview with the New York Times, adding that he "shouldn't have relied on that."

While the president returned from his coronavirus diagnosis saying that he felt better than he had in years, Christie has taken a different stance, saying that the virus is "something to take very seriously. The ramifications are wildly random and potentially deadly."