Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, 60, continues to prejudice the government’s case against 77-year-old President Donald Trump, saying he’s guilty of obstruction of justice. Christie joined a crowded GOP field running for the 2024 nomination, continues to hammer away at Trump, forgetting his own past indiscretions in the Sept. 9, 2013 Bridgegate scandal, where he ordered two of the tree lanes on the George Washington Bridge closed to punish Fort Lee Mayor Mark Sokolich for not supporting his reelection as New Jersey governor. While Christie himself was not charged, leaving his underlings to take the rap, there’s no question in anyone’s minds that Christie ordered the bridge closure. Now Christie is welcomed on liberal talk shows, this time CBS New “Morning Show” to denounce Trump. Christie thinks his attacks on Trump get him votes.
Christie’s chances of winning the GOP nomination are about the same as 2016 when he ran against Trump and quit the race after South Carolina. Christies has no reason to believe his second go around will be any different, despite being the most vociferous anti-Trump GOP attack dog. Christie told CBS Morning host Gayle King that Trump should have played less golf and spent more time going through boxes at his Mar-a-Lago estate. Yucking it up with Democrat-friendly press could backfire on Christie who has a vendetta against Trump for not appointing him in 2016 Attorney General. Christie was in the middle of the Bridgegate scandal as was radioactive at the time, leaving any Cabinet appointment unrealistic. Trump should have “skipped a couple of rounds of gold” to go through the hundreds of boxes shipped from the White House to Mar-a-Lago.
Christie jumped all over Trump’s June 19 interview with Fox News Bret Baier who asked Trump why he didn’t go through the boxes at his Mar-a-Lago residence. “He said the reason he didn’t give the documents back was because he was just so very busy, and he didn’t have the time to respond to a grand jury subpoena because he needed to get his golf shirts and pants out the box,” Christie told King. “I mean, does anybody in American believe this,” Christie asked. Well, Christie just gave Trump the perfect excuse that makes perfect sense to anyone that’s move recently and doesn’t go through all the boxes. Trump contention that he was too busy to go through endless numbers of boxes hastily packed and shipped to Mar-a-Lago makes perfect sense. Why would any voter think otherwise that the billionaire real estate mogul and former reality TV star would go through any boxes?
Christie actually made Trump’s defense all the more plausible to a future jury, that he simply didn’t know what was in the boxes and was too busy to comb through the contents. “Look, I think the problems is going to be, for him over time, is that people are just not going to buy it,” Christie said, not asking why voters should believe him when asked about the 2013 Bridgegate scandal. Christie insists he knew nothing about his underlings closing down lanes on the George Washington Bridge. Do voters really believe that, since he was governor? Yet Christie thinks voters think Trump didn’t go through untold numbers of boxes containing worthless old junk and documents. “And when you think about how many days of golf he’s played since he left office, maybe he could have skipprf a couple of rounds of golf and gone through the boxes to respond to a subpoena from a grand jury,” Christie told King.
Trump told Bret Baier he “was very busy,” unable to comb through throngs of boxes packed with worthless junk from the White House. What seems farfetched about that? Anyone who’s gone through a move knows that going through boxes is a low priority. Special Counsel Jack Smith made a point that some 300 classified docs found by the FBI during its Aug. 8, 2022 raid on Mar-a-Lago threatened U.S. national security. If that’s not hype, then what is? Combing through the docs, the FBI was hard-pressed to find anything significant that could be stretched to say threatened U.S. national security. Smith seeks to get Trump on a technicality, not convince anyone that any of the docs found at Mar-a-Lagon had any national security significance. Christie wants to hype Smith’s docs case, knowing that a jury might not see it the same way. No one thinks Trump would go through stored boxes.
Saying Trump was guilty of obstruction of justice, Christie has prejudiced Smith’s case against Trump, denying the former president the presumption of innocence. If Smith’s case goes to trial, he’s going to spend a lot of time explaining how the case against Trump was not a political witch-hunt. DOJ officials announced today a plea bargain with Biden’s 53-year-old, drug addict son Hunter. No indictment, no charges only a convenient plea deal. When it comes to Trump, Atty. Gen. Merrick Garland threw the book at him. Where’s the justice when the DOJ decides to ignore Hunter’s crimes but make them up against Trump. When former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton deleted 33,000 emails from her server, the DOJ and FBI looked the other way. Only Trump gets the full hammer of American justice, all because it’s about knocking him out of the 2024 race.
About the Author
John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news. He’s editor of OnlineColumnist.com and author of Dodging The Bullet and Operation Charisma.
