Trump Threatens ‘Sloppy’ Chris Christie with ‘Bridgegate’ Probe After ABC Jab
President Donald Trump threatened to dredge up the “Bridgegate” scandal against former New Jersey governor Chris Christie after the past ally-turned-critic blasted FBI raids against ex-National Security Advisor John Bolton.
The president’s attack came hours after Christie appeared on ABC’s This Week to discuss the implications of the raid, days earlier, at Bolton’s home and office.
“Donald Trump sees himself as the person who gets to decide everything, and he doesn’t care about any separation,” Christie told host Jonathan Karl.
“In fact, he absolutely rejects the idea that there should be separation between criminal investigations and the politically elected leader of the United States.”
Trump fired back by reviving the 2013 “Bridgegate” saga, a traffic-jam scandal that dogged Christie’s governorship but never led to charges against him, and even dragged Karl’s hairline:
I just watched Sloppy Chris Christie be interviewed on a ratings challenged “News” Show, “This Week With George Slopadopolus,” on ABC Fake News (By the way, what the “hell” happened to Jonathan Karl’s hair? He looks absolutely terrible! It’s amazing what bad ratings, on a failed television show that was forced to pay me $16,000,000, can do to one’s appearance!). Can anyone believe anything that Sloppy Chris says? Do you remember the way he lied about the dangerous and deadly closure of the George Washington Bridge in order to stay out of prison, at the same time sacrificing people who worked for him, including a young mother, who spent years trying to fight off the vicious charges against her. Chris refused to take responsibility for these criminal acts. For the sake of JUSTICE, perhaps we should start looking at that very serious situation again? NO ONE IS ABOVE THE LAW! Thank you for your attention to this matter. President DJT
The “Bridgegate” scandal, engineered by Christie aides to punish a Democratic mayor, crippled his 2016 presidential hopes, though he was never charged. The Supreme Court ultimately overturned the convictions of his associates in 2020.
Trump praised the decision at the time as “a complete and total exoneration.”
Christie, once Trump’s debate coach and transition chief, has since become one of his fiercest Republican detractors. Their rupture deepened after Christie condemned Trump’s refusal to concede the 2020 election.
The animosity is further complicated by family history: as U.S. attorney, Christie oversaw the prosecution of Charles Kushner, the father of Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner.
