Former New Jersey Gov. and GOP presidential candidate Chris Christie tells Newsmax that former President Donald Trump should be considered innocent until proved otherwise in a court of law just like anyone else upon news Tuesday that Trump received a letter that he is a target of special counsel Jack Smith's probe of the events of January 6, 2021.
But, Christie said Tuesday on "Eric Bolling The Balance," Trump should not be running for the nation's highest office again because he failed to uphold the Constitution on that day.
"He should be charged if in fact there is evidence that he's committed a crime that's provable beyond a reasonable doubt in front of a jury of his peers," Christie said. "Until then, he has the presumption of innocence."
Christie tweeted earlier Tuesday, saying, "As a former prosecutor, I want to see any potential indictment before I talk about the case against Donald Trump. That said, let me be clear: his conduct on January 6th proves he doesn't care about our country and our Constitution."
Referencing that tweet, Christie told Bolling, "that is specifically about what I know, which is that he sat in the White House for hours while the attack was going on in the Capitol and did absolutely nothing — despite the fact that many people, myself included, were personally asking him to put out a statement asking people not to be violent. Yet, he sat there for hours and did nothing."
Bolling argued that Trump did eventually put out a statement for people not to be violent and to go home, but Christie said, "Those all came very, very late in the game after this thing was going on for hours." He noted that then-Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, staffer Kellyanne Conway, and his own daughter Ivanka Trump begged him to "act, and act quickly. He did not do that."
Asked whether the target letter and likely indictment are politically motivated, Christie said that "unlike all the other candidates in this race on either side, who want to immediately jump when they hear a target letter to either criticize the president based upon those things or defend him ... since I'm the only one in this race who has done this work, I can tell you, you don't know anything until you actually see the indictment."
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