Chris Christie defended his 2024 Presidential run against former President Donald Trump in a tense interview with Eric Bolling on Newsmax on Tuesday night. The former New Jersey governor has not shied away from acknowledging his criticisms of Trump and continued to do so throughout the interview.
The conversation began with Trump’s looming indictment from the Department of Justice in relation to the events of Jan. 6, on which Christie noted that he would wait to comment until he read it himself.
Bolling then asked whether Christie believed that Trump had an “interest in inciting the overthrow of the American government that day?”
“Quite frankly, I don’t think he cared one way or the other,” Christie responded. “I think what he wanted was to stay in office.”
“I don’t think he cared one way or the other what was going to happen,” Christie added.
Christie then claimed that if Trump truly cared about overthrowing the U.S. government he would have joined the rioters who breached the Capitol but instead, “He went nowhere near it.”
Christie argued that Trump was attempting to “stall the peaceful transition of power and he said as much later on when he said that it’s okay to suspend the Constitution.”
“You can’t take an oath,” Christie continued, “say you’re going to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution and then say it’s OK to suspend it.”
Bolling then pressed Christie to explain what his reasoning is behind his 2024 run invoking his poor polling numbers compared to the former president.
“Is it to take out Donald Trump or Chris Christie is sort of fulfilling some sort of, I don’t know, emotional void you’re looking for?” Bolling questioned.
“Eric, are you a psychiatrist today?” Christie quipped. “If you’re a psychiatrist, spend more time on the former president than you will on me.”
Watch Christie’s full interview on Newsmax in the video at the top of this file.
