Republican presidential candidate Chris Christie faced off against a Fox News host who suggested that the former governor was wrong to attack former President Donald Trump over his four indictments.
"I looked at a piece in Politico that concluded people go to see Christie because he tells them exactly what they want to hear about Trump," Fox News host Howard Kurtz told Christie in a Sunday interview. "He's not persuading anybody who's not already convinced."
"Yeah, how did those people get persuaded in the first place?" Christie shot back. "I mean, let's face it, Howie, this is a guy who's going to be sitting in a courtroom for all of March and most of April defending himself for trying to interfere with the peaceful transfer of power rather than making the case against Joe Biden."
Kurtz argued the charges against Trump were viewed as unfair by Republicans.
"But 60 percent of Republicans consistently say they don't buy these charges," the Fox News host observed. "They think it's partisan. They think it's weaponization of law enforcement. So, are you misjudging the current state of the GOP?"
"No, I think the questions are wrong," Christie replied. "Whether you think they're unfair or not, they are going to impact independent voters and soft Democrats in the general election. Both sets of people we need to win a general election as Republicans. And Donald Trump cannot win those people while he's under indictment of four cases."
Christie pointed to Trump's mishandling of classified documents and his failure to stop the riot on Jan. 6, 2021.
"He asked them to march up to Capitol Hill, said he would walk with them," the candidate recalled. "But Howie, you and I both know that if Donald Trump has a risk of breaking a fingernail, he's not going to take that risk. He sat in his office for three hours and watched the people that he had lied to and sent up to Capitol Hill desecrate Capitol Hill."
"And if you don't think that these charges and that conduct are going to be a major focus in the general election, if we nominate Donald Trump, you're kidding yourself. And we're going to lose," he added.
