On Tuesday morning, former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, who is also a Republican primary opponent to Donald Trump for the 2024 election, strongly criticized Trump for his recent Fox News interview with Bret Baier. Christie, a former federal prosecutor, argued that Trump openly admitted to obstructing justice during the interview by discussing his retention of classified documents.
Speaking on CBS Mornings, Christie described Trump’s decision to discuss the 37-criminal-count indictment against him on Fox as a “horrible political and legal strategy.” He highlighted Trump’s explanation for not returning the documents, stating that Trump claimed he was too busy and needed to retrieve his golf attire from a box. Christie expressed disbelief, questioning if anyone in America would genuinely believe such a justification.
Anchor Tony Dokoupil responded by saying, “Apparently so.”
Christie noted that he believed the problem for Trump would be that people would ultimately not buy his explanations. He pointed out the significant amount of time Trump had spent playing golf since leaving office, suggesting that he could have spared some rounds to address a grand jury subpoena.
The conversation turned to Trump’s defense that the documents in question were newspaper articles rather than classified documents. Christie, drawing on his experience as a former prosecutor, dismissed Trump’s defense, stating that he had never heard of a newspaper article being classified since they are already public by nature.
Christie continued by stating that Trump’s own conduct was his greatest obstacle and that none of the current situation would have occurred if he had simply returned the documents.
Gayle King inquired about Trump’s voters, asking if they were losing faith in him. Christie responded that it would take time for that to happen, emphasizing the need for repetition. He noted that the American people had been exposed to Trump’s falsehoods for years without sufficient organized opposition within their own party.
““Yes. Look, I think the problem is going to be for him over time is that people are just not going to buy it. And when you think about how many days of golf he’s played since he left office, maybe he could have skipped a couple of rounds of golf and gone through the boxes to respond to a subpoena from a grand jury,” Christie replied, adding:
Look, the problem for Donald Trump in all of this is his own conduct. He’s his own worst enemy. None of this would have happened to him or to the country if he had just returned the documents.
