Republican presidential candidate and former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie aggressively went after former President Donald Trump during two interviews on Sunday morning.
Christie, who is also a former federal prosecutor, told ABC News’ “This Week” that he believes Trump will show up to the first Republican primary debate next month because “he’d be enormously frustrated sitting back in Bedminster and watching what I’m going to do to him on that stage in absentia.”
“If you want to be the nominee, you need to defend your record,” Christie said. “And he has a record of four years as president where he didn’t deliver on a lot of issues that Republicans cared deeply about. He didn’t repeal and replace Obamacare like he said he would, even though he had a Republican Congress. He said he was going to balance the budget, he added $6 trillion to the national debt. He said he was going to build the wall in Mexico. He built 47 miles of new wall. You know, George, at that pace in four years, he’d need 110 years as president to be able to finish the wall.”
Christie said his path to winning the primary is going straight through the former president, adding that there is no alternative lane to run in.
Christie later appeared on CNN’s “State of the Union” with host Jake Tapper where he also strongly criticized the former president.
Tapper asked Christie about Trump telling his supporters that he was “being indicted” for them, “Better me than you, right?”
“He’s a liar and a coward,” Christie said. “He’s not getting indicted for anyone other than because of his own conduct. There’s no other of the 200 million Americans he spoke about who illegally retained classified national secrets after being asked politely, quietly, and professionally for 18 months to voluntarily turn them back over after he left the White House.”
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“Look, he’s indicted because of his outrageous conduct, and that’s why he’s been indicted,” he continued. “He now has the opportunity to go to court and make the government proves that case beyond a reasonable doubt. But now he says he doesn’t want to have a trial until after the election in 2024. I don’t think he’s doing that for us either.”
Christie added that he thinks Trump should resolve the criminal cases he faces before people vote so that voters have more information before Election Day.
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