SALEM, N.H. — Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie blasted former President Donald Trump over the handful of federal indictments Mr. Trump is currently facing.
Mr. Christie referenced Mr. Trump‘s visit to a Windham, New Hampshire, high school gymnasium Tuesday night, when the former president bragged to his supporters about his legal battles with the Justice Department.
“Part of what he says that I love the most now is ‘I’m getting indicted for you. If it wasn’t me, they’d be going after you.’ Have you ever heard a bigger pile of crap in your life?” Mr. Christie asked.
The former governor said Mr. Trump’s claims of solidarity with his audience were absurd.
“Far as I can tell, and please correct me if I’m wrong, none of the people in this audience tonight have paid off a porn star to keep quiet about the fact that she had sex with him while he was married so that the country and his wife didn’t find out about it prior to the 2016 election,” he said.
Mr. Christie asked his town hall attendees whether any of them had taken classified documents out of the White House and refused to return them back for 18 months later when the government asked for them “quietly” and “politely.”
He asked his audience whether they then “lie to your lawyers and tell them you had shown them all the documents when you had one of your buddies hiding the documents in another part of Mar-a-Lago.”
Mr. Christie noted his pre-electoral career and the experience it give him in fingering Mr. Trump’s pattern of behavior.
“I’m from New Jersey, and I was a prosecutor. I’m somewhat familiar with organized crime. This caper looks like it was performed by the stupid Corleone,” he said.
Mr. Christie excoriated Mr. Trump over persuading his supporters to go to the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, and protest the certification of 2020 presidential election, which led to a riot on the grounds and inside the building itself.
“Of course, in typical Donald Trump fashion, he didn’t go. Do you remember that line in the speech? Let’s march up to Capitol Hill, and I’ll go with you,” he said.
“Let me tell you something, I’ve known him for 22 years, if there’s a risk that he will break a fingernail. He’s not taking that risk,” Mr. Christie said.
A federal grand jury last week indicted Mr. Trump on four criminal charges stemming from his efforts to reverse the results of the 2020 presidential election and the events surrounding the riot on the U.S. Capitol.
The four-count, 45-page indictment accuses Mr. Trump of conspiracy to defraud the United States, to obstruct an official proceeding, to obstruct an official proceeding, and conspiracy against the rights of citizens.
The indictment is the third for the former president.
He was indicted in June on 37 federal criminal counts related to his handling of classified materials.
In April, the Manhattan district attorney charged him with falsifying business records in connection with hush-money payments to two women who said they had extramarital affairs with Mr. Trump.
He has pleaded not guilty to all charges in all three cases.
Mr. Trump also expects charges in Georgia.
Fulton County District Attorney Fani T. Willis has hinted that she could charge Mr. Trump and his allies with attempting to overturn Georgia’s 2020 presidential election.
Mr. Christie also accused Mr. Trump of breaking his promise and not repealing and replacing Obamacare as a result of not fostering a good relationship of Sen. John McCain, Arizona Republican, whose vote he ultimately needed to pass legislation to repeal President Obama’s Affordable Care Act, but failed to get.
“He couldn’t shut his mouth and stop picking on John McCain. Over and over, he’d say he wasn’t a war hero. Donald Trump couldn’t spend seven minutes in the Hanoi Hilton,” he said of the North Vietnamese prison camp where McCain was held for more than five years and endured repeated torture.
Mr. Christie, whom New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu introduced at the Derry-Salem Elks Lodge, was heckled by two Trump supporters who stood in the parking lot with a Trump 2020 banner throughout the three-hour event.
One of them had a megaphone repeating Mr. Trump‘s name and oinking like a pig.
At one point in the evening, Mr. Christie finally acknowledged his mocking.
“What he’s got out there is a Trump 2020 sign. I’m all for it. Keep him in 2020. Get him the hell out of 2024,” he said.
Although he is moving up in the New Hampshire polls, Mr. Christie is struggling to get a foothold nationally and is still far behind Mr. Trump in the Granite State.
He is counting on the first Republican debate on Aug. 26 to help pull him ahead.
Mr. Trump has not agreed to participate in this debate, and Mr. Christie continues to bait him, calling him a “coward” if he fails to show.
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