April Ryan on MSNBC Says Chris Christie Positioned Himself ‘Perfect Way’ To Be Trump Alternative While ‘Knocking the Teapot Over’

MSNBC contributor April Ryan said Sunday that Republican Chris Christie has put himself in a perfect position to be the alternative to Donald Trump in the GOP primary, but does face “a challenge.”

The Grio’s Washington bureau chief was a guest on MSNBC’s Symone on Sunday, and told host Symone Sanders that Christie is in an ideal spot of his own making, but that the debates and Trump’s support and sympathy in the GOP could prove a problem for him.

The discussion about Trump touched on his commanding lead in primary polling at the national level, but Sanders pointed out that delegates are won by the state. In state polling, she noted, there is some movement.

Sanders used Christie for an example, prompting Ryan’s reply. But Ryan noted that Trump is being viewed “as a martyr” by many in the party, as strategist Karl Rove predicted to her last year.

SANDERS: You know, you win an election state by state, delegate by delegate. And Chris Christie’s numbers in New Hampshire, for example, they have, you know, ticked up. So what do you think, April?

RYAN: So let me say this. Chris Christie has positioned himself in the perfect way to be that person who is the alternative to Donald Trump, as he’s knocking the teapot over on all this information that we’re getting. Okay. But at the same time, Chris Christie faces a challenge. Could he be on that debate stage to go up against Donald Trump, who will probably talk about him in all of his glory as he’s done with every other candidate that he’s gone on the stage with? But at the end of the day, Donald Trump is viewed by so many — And I talked to Karl Rove last year, October, September, October last year, and he was right. He said, if Donald Trump gets indicted, people will view him as a martyr. And that is what Donald Trump is banking on right now. Because what happened first for a lot of things that dealt with sex or what have you, we’re not going to get into that, we already know.

SANDERS: We’re not going to get in detail this Father’s Day, April. The kids are watching.

RYAN: Yes, yes. Fathers know about that, too. But we can move on. So anyway, but at the end of the day, many people were looking for the substantive issues out of Georgia with all of those calls that he was on, where he asked specifically to have the the numbers changed, if you will. He said it twice, cut twice on tape. People were looking for that, more so first, then everything else that we have. And now, you know, the the issue of is it a witch hunt or is it not? That’s there. And Republicans are feeling sorry for him, even though many say he should not be president, but they feel sorry for him believing it’s a witch hunt.

SANDERS: I would say it is just justice.

Watch the clip above, via MSNBC.