Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie emphasized the importance of federal prosecutions remaining impartial and nonpartisan, but he stopped short of defending former President Donald Trump as he faces a slew of criminal charges stemming from four separate indictments.
“We need an attorney general who will do three things with every matter that comes before him or her: To prosecute matters without fear, without favor, without partisanship,” Christie told radio host Erick Erickson during the annual Gathering conference on Saturday.
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However, the GOP presidential hopeful refrained from defending Trump amid his slate of criminal investigations, noting the federal government has a role to be “more aggressive” in prosecuting such crimes. Christie pointed to the Fulton County investigation into Trump’s efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election in Georgia, arguing the United States attorney in Atlanta “should be all over this” and participating in the legal process.
“This is multi-jurisdictional in terms of the people who are perpetrating these acts,” Christie said. “This is what the federal prosecuting system was made to deal with.”
“We haven't had a president, in my view, since 2008, who's actually known what they're doing,” he added. And it matters. It's not fun time anymore. We've got to elect somebody who knows how to use the levers of government to get things done and who is unafraid of confront the other side and then cooperate with the other side. Because if we don't do both, we'll continue in stalemate.”
Christie’s comments came during the appearance at the annual conservative conference aimed at allowing GOP candidates to share their platforms with Republican voters. The meeting comes just days before candidates are slated to appear shoulder-to-shoulder on stage in Milwaukee for the first GOP primary debate, offering the presidential hopefuls a chance to separate themselves from the rest of the crowded field.
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Christie's appearance also comes as the former governor has experienced a recent bump in the polls, placing him in second place in New Hampshire after overtaking Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL), according to a recent Emerson College poll. The numbers still put him 40 points behind Trump, who continues to dominate the GOP primary field.
More than half (54.4%) of Republican voters say they would back Trump in the GOP primaries, according to national data compiled by FiveThirtyEight. DeSantis comes in at a distant second at 15.4%, followed by Vivek Ramaswamy (7.9%), former Vice President Mike Pence (5.1%), and Nikki Haley (3.7%).