Christie Knocks Down Argument On Fox That Trump’s Election Challenge Was Same as Gore: ‘He Conceded’
Republican presidential candidate and former governor of New Jersey, Chris Christie, knocked down a talking point on Fox News Tuesday regarding the latest indictment of former President Donald Trump in Georgia – the idea that Trump acted similarly to Al Gore by challenging his election loss.
The interview began with anchor Dana Perino asking Christie to weigh in on Trump’s statement from the night before decrying the latest indictment as election interference.
“Is there something to that?” Perino asked the former federal prosecutor.
“Nothing,” shot back Christie, adding:
If she had charged him three years ago, he would have said what a rush to judgment. There’s been no investigation. No one’s looked into this. And now they’re just charging me for political reasons. He wants to have his cake and eat it, too.
Bill Hemmer jumped in and asked Christie to weigh in on a key piece of evidence against Trump in the Fulton County indictment related to the then-president’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election in Georgia.
“Everyone lit their hair on fire when that phone call was recorded on behalf of Raffensperger. Right. It runs an hour and change. And the key line I went back and listened to this morning, Trump says, look, all I want to do is this I just want to find 11,780 votes now. And he says repeatedly, in my opinion, this is what we should do, in my opinion, etc… If he’s speaking his opinion, is there a crime in this conversation?” Hemmer asked.
Christie replied that something a “jury is going to decide, Bill.”
“What I would say to you is when you listen to the entire conversation, his problem is that he, and you combine it with all the other conversations that happened with Brian Kemp, with other officials in the legislature and state leaders in the legislature, he was attempting to do everything he can to get that result and putting pressure on that,” Christie said, alluding to the reason Georgia official decided to record the call in the first place.
“And Alan Dershowitz argued last night that they were doing the same thing on behalf of Al Gore in Florida and in Palm Beach County in the year 2000,” Hemmer challenged.
“Except when Al Gore lost his legal challenges. He conceded the election. Al Gore took it all the way to the United States Supreme Court, he availed himself of all the legal challenges, Bill. And then when the courts were done, Al Gore said, I still don’t agree with it, but the courts are done. I’m backing off,” Christie replied.
“Donald Trump has been much different and I said this to the president in December of 2020, the last time he and I spoke, I said, you availed yourself to the courts. There’s nothing left. You need to concede the election. And he said, I will never, ever, ever admit it. Well, look, if you’re going to continue to use the power of the presidency, which he was doing to put pressure on people, you’re going to put yourself in a very dangerous circumstance,” Christie argued, adding:
And let’s put it aside for a second from the criminal. We can’t normalize this conduct. I mean, this has never happened before in this country, ever, where you had a candidate for president, United States conduct himself in this way to disrespect the election process, in this way, to refuse to accept the verdict of the voters. And what does it say about his judgment, guys? What does it say about whether or not he’s fit to sit behind that desk?
Is this really, and by the way, here we are this morning, and I understand why we’re doing this. And I’m happy to talk about it because of my background. Yeah, but we’re not talking about what Joe Biden’s doing to this country. We’re not talking about the porous border. We’re not talking about the fact that health care’s a mess. Right.
The interview then pivoted to the upcoming GOP debate on Fox News and Christie’s electoral strategy.
Watch the full clip above via Fox News.
