Joining us now
perhaps the most FULL-THROATED critic,
the former president has on this subject
among his Republican
primary opponents, former
New Jersey Governor Chris
Christie, who, of course, I should remind
everyone will be
joining Anderson
Monday night
for a CNN town hall, which
I will be eagerly watching
Governor Christie,
thanks so much for joining us
and popping in to give you a reaction
on this important day.
Last night
you said no one's above the law,
but you wanted to wait
and read the indictment
before reacting which,
you know, frankly,
seems like a responsible thing to do.
Now you've read it.
What do you think
Oh, Jake, look,
you know, for the folks
who may not remember this,
I did this for seven years as U.S.
attorney in New Jersey,
the fifth largest U.S.
attorney's office
out of the 93 in the country
bought 130
political corruption prosecutions
against Republicans and Democrats
and didn't lose one.
So I know how this stuff works.
And the fact is that
these these facts are are devastating.
You know, you have a president who,
according to the indictment,
directed the packing of those boxes
in terms of what to take, directed
where they should go tomorrow.
Largo directed where they went while
they were inside Mar a Lago,
directed them to move to Bedminster
during the summer
when he would spend
his summers in New Jersey.
And and then when requests came,
starting in May of 2021
informal requests,
he continued to stonewall them
and not return the documents.
Then when a subpoena came,
asks his lawyers, Jake,
whether or not
we even have to respond to it.
We have to play ball,
you know,
and then
try to get them to lie on his behalf.
And when they
when he knew
they wouldn't
and his own lawyer
had to make recordings to protect himself
when either they wouldn't,
he directed his folks to hide boxes
from his own lawyer
in order
not to turn these documents
over to the government.
Look, you know,
people are going to argue about
who should
and who should not have been indicted
and who should be tried.
But let me say this.
The bigger issue for our country is,
is this the type of conduct
that we want
from someone
who wants to be president
of the United States?
To take national security documents
involving warfare and our nuclear program
to keep them in their in their home
when they're not allowed to do so,
exposing them to a potential bully
being seen by any number of people
and then actually showing them to people
showing off.
This is irresponsible conduct.
And look at the time
when Hillary Clinton was not charged.
I argued against that.
I think she should have been charged.
I think that was a mistake.
And during the Russia investigation,
I was one of the people who spoke out
and said,
I don't think Donald Trump
anything to do with it.
I was involved with the campaign
and I didn't think there was anything
to the Russian collusion
as it applied to Donald Trump.
So I spoken out against those things
when I think they were wrong.
But just because they were wrong
doesn't justify
the conduct that he engaged in.
And I think we have to focus
on the conduct, Jake.
And the conduct is bad
and it is bad for anybody in this country
to do it.
But it's particularly awful
for someone who has been president
and who aspires to be president again.
So as a former U.S.
attorney,
does this look like a case that you would
theoretically have brought
had you been assigned
You know, I don't know
all the facts, Jake,
but I'll tell you this.
It's a very,
very evidence filled indictment.
What you can tell,
there's a trained person reading this is
they have tape recordings.
They have electronic
text messages and emails,
and they have the testimony
of dozens of people who were right around
Donald Trump in Mar-A-Lago
and in Bedminster over time.
Those are all the elements
of the things
you need to bring a case like this.
And so what I would say
is that it looks like these prosecutors
and their partners
at the FBI thoroughly investigated this.
And it looks like the only two people
who did not cooperate
with the government
are Donald Trump and not.
And I think that's why
they're on the wrong side of the V,
as we say in the business
and have been charged in this case,
Republican officials, whether candidates
or elected officials,
seem to be falling into into
three groups. One is
those who are just being quiet
that's most of them.
Then there is those
who are vociferously defending
Donald Trump.
And then there's a small group of you
and the governor, Asa
Hutchinson, and Mitt Romney.
Adam Kinzinger.
This afternoon, House
Speaker McCarthy said that
this indictment will disrupt the nation.
He says that it calls into question
equal justice for all.
Congressman Andy
Biggs
says that we've reached
a, quote, warfare phase.
What do you make of the rhetoric?
And what do you make of the fact
that you and
you in such
a small group of people
willing to call out
this alleged lawlessness?
I think the group will get larger,
Jake,
as everyone gets an opportunity
to absorb the facts.
Look, I agree
with Speaker McCarthy in this respect.
The indictment will disrupt the nation.
But let me ask you a question.
Who's responsible for that?
The conduct
that Donald Trump engaged
in was completely self-inflicted
in May or June or July
or August of 20, 21.
He could have just returned
the documents.
And in fact,
if you look at the indictment,
even the documents that he did return
is subject to the subpoena in 20, 20 to
those documents.
He wasn't charged on any of them.
So even if he had given all the documents
back in response to the subpoena
as he was legally required to do,
we wouldn't be here today.
So everyone wants to blame
the prosecutors.
And look,
I think the prosecution, DOJ is at fault
for not charging Hillary Clinton.
It's at fault for what happened
in the Russia investigation
because it undercut people's
faith and confidence in the system.
But each case has to be
looked at on its own merits.
And the facts that are laid out here
are damning in terms
of Donald Trump's conduct.
And that's what I think we as a party
should be looking at.
Do we really believe that someone
who engaged in this type of conduct
is going to be the best person
to put up against Joe Biden?
That's the question.
We should be asking.
Congress has the ability
to have oversight
over the Department of Justice,
and I encourage them to do it
vigorously and fairly
and ask all the questions
they need to ask of the leadership
of the Department of Justice.
That's what we should be doing.
But what we should also be doing
is holding to account
people who are in positions
of responsibility
and saying,
if you act badly,
there has to be penalties for that.
There has to be a cost to be paid.
And he could have avoided all of this
if he had just returned the documents
at any point,
if he hadn't taken them
in the first place.
But once he took them,
if he had returned them at any time
between January of 20, 21
and August of 20, 22,
he wouldn't be here tonight
and the country wouldn't be here.
He has contributed mightily
to subjecting the country
to the pain
that we're going to go through
over the course
of the next number of months because
of what's going on.