In a new interview conducted over the weekend, former New Jersey governor Chris Christie opined that President Joe Biden probably would have preferred to be criminally charged in Special Counsel Robert Hur’s investigation rather than have his incompetence to stand trial deemed in Hur’s report be made public.
Christie uttered the statement on NBC News’ “Meet The Press” on Sunday, in an interview with Kristen Welker, as they discussed Hur’s report. The report alleged that Biden intentionally retained classified information, but charges could not be filed against him due to severe memory issues.
“Former Attorney General Eric Holder said this about the report, ‘Way too many gratuitous remarks and it’s flatly inconsistent with longstanding DOJ traditions.’ Did this report cross any lines for you?” Welker asked Christie.
“I don’t think so. And, look, I did this, as you know, for seven years as the U.S. attorney in the fifth-largest office in the country. The fact is they had to give the reasons why they weren’t prosecuting when you start off the report by saying that he ‘willfully and knowingly retained classified documents.’ Well, that’s a violation of the law.” Christie responded.
“So the question, then, for the prosecutor is, ‘Then why aren’t you bringing charges?’ And he gave two reasons essentially. One was President Biden’s memory, lack of memory, his condition, and secondly, was that President Biden cooperated. Once documents were discovered, he let them go in and do whatever they needed to do to get those documents, retrieve them, as opposed to what President Trump did.” he continued.
Christie responded as follows when asked if he concurred with former President Donald Trump’s assertion that the fact that Biden was not prosecuted demonstrated a two-tiered justice system.
“No, because in fact if there was a two-tiered system of justice, what would have happened would have been they just would have announced that they weren’t prosecuting him and they wouldn’t have given any of the reasons.” Christie remarked.
“I have to tell you the truth: In one respect I think the Biden White House would have been happier if he had been charged than for that report to have come out in the midst of a reelection campaign. The fact is: When you’re questioning what 70-some percent of the American people are already questioning – whether Joe Biden is too old for the job – and now you have an independent counsel, a special counsel, appointed by his own justice department, concluding that he couldn’t bring a trial for that reason, that’s much more damaging, politically, than whether people would have agreed or disagreed with him being charged.” he concluded.
[READ MORE: RFK Apologizes For Controversial Ad]
