One of his prominent Republican
presidential rivals.
The former New Jersey governor,
Chris Christie, is here with me
in The Situation Room.
Governor, thanks very much for coming in.
My pleasure, Wolf.
You're a former federal prosecutor,
a former U.S. attorney.
Give us your thoughts on the likelihood
the special counsel
could actually secure
a conviction of Trump.
Well, it's hard to say.
Well,
if we haven't seen the indictment yet
and I've tried to be very careful
about this
both on the classified documents
case and also now this one.
I want to see the indictment first.
The key
to what evidence he really has
and what the basis of all this
will be contained in an indictment.
My sense is
there'll be a speaking indictment,
as we call it, in the business,
which provides a lot of detail
so that you can really give folks a sense
of what the evidence is
that backs up the charges.
So I think it's all speculation
until we actually see
what the grand jury returns.
If they return something,
you assume they will. I do.
I don't think you said the target letter,
at least to my experience.
I never said to Target
or if I was not completely sure
that I had put enough
in front of the grand jury
for that to return an indictment.
We anticipate
it could be within the next few hours
or at least the next few days.
That's what's going on.
I want you to listen and watch
what Governor
Ron DeSantis
told CNN about Trump
receiving this target letter.
Listen to this.
This country is going down
the road of criminal lies
and political differences.
And I think that's wrong.
I do not want to see him.
I hope he doesn't get charged.
I don't think it will be good
for the country.
But at the same time, I've got
to focus on looking forward.
Would you trust
a President DeSantis
to go ahead and enforce the rule of law?
Look, based on what he just said there,
he gives you concerns, doesn't it?
I mean, look, no one's above the law.
And the fact is that
what's damaging to the country,
I think this is
where Ron is getting it wrong.
Is Donald Trump's conduct.
Nobody's complaining
about the last indictment.
A number of people in my party.
But you can't
complain about the indictment
and not acknowledge
that the conduct
where you lied to your lawyers, where you
show around classified documents
regarding our intelligence
activities, our military activities.
Wolf, what that does
is potentially put our troops at risk,
potentially put our intelligence
officers at risk
who are out there
doing dangerous things around the world.
It's hurting them when he does that.
And when I look, I absolutely believe
and I've said this before,
I think the Hillary Clinton case
should have been charged
If I were the U.S.
attorney investigating the case,
I would have charged it.
And I think what
Jim Comey and
Loretta Lynch did was wrong.
But you don't fix a broken justice system
by continuing to give people passes
based upon whatever
their political party is.
You do it by enforcing the law
without fear, favor or partizanship.
That's what we should be doing.
What we should be focused on here
is Donald Trump's conduct.
And whether or not, Wolf,
that context is appropriate
for somebody
to be sitting
behind the Resolute
Desk in the Oval Office I say it's not.
Should he drop out?
I don't think he should have
run in the first place. But guess what?
I don't care. I'm going to beat him.
I want you to listen to what
DeSantis said today.
He said it's suggested it's possible
the FBI or DOJ, Department of Justice,
could interfere with his campaign.
That was the gist of paraphrasing
the gist of what he said.
What do you make of that?
Well, I don't know what basis he has to
to draw that conclusion. Look,
we don't make our country better
by continuing to rumor monger things.
If Ron DeSantis is concerned
that there's something in his background
that would lead to DOJ
or the FBI to be looking at him,
that's probably something
he should talk to us all about as he's
seeking the presidency.
If there are some investigative steps
that he thinks were inappropriate
that have been taken
that we don't know about right now
by the FBI or DOJ against him
or members of his inner circle,
that he should reveal that.
Otherwise, stop
speculating about this stuff.
A CNN analysis
this is interesting
shows donations to Trump's campaign
actually spiked
around his indictments,
actually spiked around his indictments.
How much do you think
these legal troubles he's facing
actually boost his campaign?
Short term gain, long term pain
in the short term.
What it does is people
rally around their team, Wolf.
And we've seen this happen
many times before.
When there's a crisis,
you rally around your team.
And that's with a lot of folks
who have in support
of Donald Trump are doing.
But long term,
I think
if there are
additional indictments to come,
this is a lot of weight
for anybody
to be carrying around their neck.
As a general election candidate
for president, United States
or as a primary candidate.
And I think long term,
these charges are a real problem
for Donald Trump
because not the charges, Wolf,
because of the conduct.
The conduct is the problem.
And so I think in the short term, people
rally around the flag.
In the long term, I think it's going
be a problem.
Why do you listen to
what Trump said yesterday
in a radio interview,
said how his supporters would react
if he winds up going to jail?
Listen to this.
Is it something that concerns
you of, you know, the people
making sure
that they don't go out of their
right mind
if something like that happens,
if that, for example, they do
say Jackson says, okay, I'm
going to put Donald Trump in jail.
I think it's a very dangerous thing
to even talk about
because we do have a tremendously
passionate group of voters,
much more passion
than they had in 20, 20
and much more passion
than they had in 2016.
I think it would be very dangerous.
I worried.
Should law enforcement
be about the possibility of Trump
inciting more violence Well, look,
I think anytime you have the history
of what we saw
on January 6th,
law enforcement needs to learn from that
and make sure they're prepared
at any of these proceedings
regarding Donald Trump
or any of the people
who might be charged along with him,
that you might have some people
who might want to act out violently
because of it.
I don't think we should be here
worried about it, Wolf.
I spent years in law enforcement.
You don't prevent crime
by worrying about it.
You can prevent crime by acting.
And what they need to do is be prepared.
If they are,
then everyone will be safe and secure
and the justice system
will continue the way it should.
Let's hope that happens.
Governor, stand by.