Former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie said during an interview over the weekend that President Joe Biden would have probably rather have been criminally charged in Special Counsel Robert Hur’s investigation rather than have Hur’s report come out and say that he was effectively not competent to stand trial.
Christie made the remarks during a Sunday interview with Kristen Welker on NBC News’ “Meet The Press” while talking about Hur’s report, which said that Biden willfully retained classified material but charges could not be brought because Biden had serious memory problems.
“Former Attorney General Eric Holder said this about the report, ‘Way too many gratuitous remarks and it’s flatly inconsistent with longstanding DOJ traditions,'” Welker said. “Did this report cross any lines for you?”
“I don’t think so,” Christie responded. “And, look, I did this, as you know, for seven years as the U.S. attorney in the fifth-largest office in the country. The fact is they had to give the reasons why they weren’t prosecuting when you start off the report by saying that he ‘willfully and knowingly retained classified documents.’ Well, that’s a violation of the law.”
“So the question, then, for the prosecutor is, ‘Then why aren’t you bringing charges?'” Christie continued. “And he gave two reasons essentially. One was President Biden’s memory, lack of memory, his condition, and secondly, was that President Biden cooperated. Once documents were discovered, he let them go in and do whatever they needed to do to get those documents, retrieve them, as opposed to what President Trump did.”
When asked if he agreed with former President Donald Trump’s claim that Biden not being prosecuted was proof of a two-tiered justice system, Christie responded: “No, because in fact if there was a two-tiered system of justice, what would have happened would have been they just would have announced that they weren’t prosecuting him and they wouldn’t have given any of the reasons.”
“I have to tell you the truth: In one respect I think the Biden White House would have been happier if he had been charged than for that report to have come out in the midst of a reelection campaign,” Christie said. “The fact is: When you’re questioning what 70-some percent of the American people are already questioning – whether Joe Biden is too old for the job – and now you have an independent counsel, a special counsel, appointed by his own justice department, concluding that he couldn’t bring a trial for that reason, that’s much more damaging, politically, than whether people would have agreed or disagreed with him being charged.”
“And, look, in the end, this is the problem,” he concluded. “Both of these candidates are people who are being questioned for their competence and being questioned for their character. And that’s a problem for the American people.”
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