Chris Christie: Donald Trump is a ‘con artist,’ conning people out of their money

 

Donald Trump continuing to

campaign, raising money for his 2024

presidential bid off of his possible

third indictment.

But according to a Washington Post

review of FEC reports, a lot of the money

the Trump has been raising for

his campaign

is actually going to his legal bills.

And Trump

opponent Chris Christie tweeting,

I quote, him,

Grifting is a Trump family tradition

and the latest scam is his campaign.

The self-proclaimed

billionaire is swindling

50% of his campaign donations

to pay for his personal legal fees

We don't need a con artist.

We need a leader who can beat Biden.

And joining me now is 20, 24 GOP

presidential candidate

and of course, the former

governor of New Jersey, Chris Christie.

And I also should say, governor,

in the spirit of full transparency,

I will note

you are my husband's

second cousin

for anyone

interested in our family treats.

So let me start off by

by asking here off of what you tweeted.

Do you believe that Trump supporters

would not give money to his campaign

if they knew

he was using it for his legal fees?

Or do you think maybe they're well aware

and they're happy with it,

they want him to use his money

to fight his legal battles?

Well, I don't think they're well aware, Erin,

because he's lied to them as typical

for Donald Trump.

First,

he said 1% of the money they gave

would go towards his legal fees.

I think most people would say,

okay, that's fine.

Then he said

10% of

the money

is going towards his legal fees.

Well, here's my problem.

When he gets to 50% of the money,

you really need

this billionaire

a guy who says,

according to a recent New York

Times story,

that he's made $1,000,000,000

since he left the White House.

Now, I don't know if that's true or not,

but that's what he says.

You really need to have people

who are donating ten, 20, $50

to your campaign

pay for your High-Priced lawyers

for indictments

that you all brought on yourself

by paying off a porn star,

by holding back classified documents,

despite the fact that they've been asked

for voluntarily for 18 months.

I mean, this is ridiculous.

And he is using these people

in a way that I don't think

that they completely know about.

And you know,

people set up a legal defense

fund, Donald.

And if people wanted to give to that,

they will.

But people are giving to him, Erin,

because they think it's going to help him

get reelected president

when all he's doing

is grifting off these people.

He is a con artist

who is conning them out of their money,

pretending he

wants to be their president.

Well, what if what he wants

is a free ride

for the legal defense he's

getting for the criminal charges

he personally faces?

Now, we found out on one of these cases

you mentioned the Mar a Lago

classified documents case.

Governor and Eileen Cannon, the judge

there ruled today

that that case

will begin on May 20th, now May 20th.

By then, most of the GOP primaries

will be over

by the way in

2016 Trump and clinch

the GOP nomination by May.

So May is is late in the election cycle.

What do you think about the timing

Well look I can't make a judgment on

you know what the judge is seeing

what's going to take time to do this

case the right way.

As you know Aaron I was a U.S.

attorney for seven years,

a federal prosecutor.

And you know classified documents

cases will take a long time to get ready.

So I'm not going to argue with what

the judge did.

But who cares?

We don't need as Republicans

to know necessarily

what even the result is.

What we know is if Donald Trump winds up

clinching the nomination

by May of 20, 24,

then our candidate for president

in our party

will be sitting in a courtroom in Florida

for weeks, yet being accused of crimes

that could expose him

to 30 years in prison.

I mean,

do you really think that's the person

who is going to beat Joe Biden?

Republicans need to wake up to the fact

that Donald Trump's in this for himself.

He always has been.

And now with this trial date,

the right thing to do

would be to step aside.

He won't do that.

So you know what, Erin?

I'm going to push him aside.

I spoke to the former

Republican Congressman

Fred Upton the other day.

You know him.

He told us he's

contributed to your campaign, too.

But then Governor

he went on to tell me this

Trump is using

this to raise more money,

is stronger than ever before.

He's got all the wind out of the balloon

from any of the other dozen

or so candidates. That are out there.

They they can't get a breakthrough.

And it's it's really sort of over in

terms of his

is winning the Republican nomination.

He says it's over.

What do you say to that?

Well, first of all, I appreciate Fred

donating to my campaign

even after he says it's over.

That's really very nice of him.

But what I would tell you is

I think Fred, respectfully, is wrong.

Erin,

we've been in this race for six weeks.

We have gone from zero

to 10% in New Hampshire,

a half a point behind Ron DeSantis.

We're in third place to Santos

and second,

we have just got going here

and telling the truth

to the American people.

And the American people

need to hear the truth

that Donald Trump

is not fit to be president

of the United States

or fit to be

the nominee of the Republican Party.

And he's done it to himself

and he's let us down.

He didn't repeal and replace Obamacare.

He built 52 miles of wall in four

years, Erin.

He said he's gonna build the whole wall.

Mexico is going to pay for it.

We don't have our first peso.

And if he goes at that pace

in the next term,

he'll need 110 years as president

to build the whole wall.

You mentioned Ron DeSantis

when you were comparing your numbers

in New Hampshire today.

He says he's pushing for legal action

against Bud Light's parent company.

Obviously,

this is in the wake of the conservative

backlash to

Bud Light using a transgender influence

or write in their ads.

In a letter obtained by CNN.

And DeSantis writes,

Governor, the company breached

legal duties owed to its shareholders

when it decided to associate

with what he calls

radical social ideologies.

Do you agree with him

I don't

for this reason,

Governor, to say

that this is showing himself every day.

And I think this is

why his campaign is falling apart.

He's showing himself every day

to be a big government Republican.

I didn't think

there were any big government

Republicans around,

but apparently there he is.

He thinks government

is the solution to every problem.

Let me clue, Governor,

to census in on something.

You know,

the Bud

Light situation was dealt with

by the consumers.

They didn't need government

to tell them what was right or wrong

or good or bad

or what they like their didn't like

and they didn't need government action

to do it.

The American people decided

they didn't like Bud Light

advertising campaign on social media,

so they stopped buying Bud Light.

And that's the way to do this.

I thought, you know,

I swear

I watched governor of the census

and sometimes

I really think he's

a big government liberal

because I always grew up

knowing that

liberals were

the ones who wanted to get the government

in the middle of every argument

because they thought

government could resolve them better.

You know what?

I put my trust in the American people

and their ability

to be able to send messages

when they want to.

And I think Bud Light has gotten

a very strong message

from the American people,

given all the Bud Light

I see in shelves

in liquor stores at the Jersey Shore.

So when I ask you about

Senator Scott as well,

because you're obviously

in his home state tonight,

I know you're going to be hosting

a town hall as soon as

we're done talking,

but here

it comes to favorability overall.

People who know Senator Scott like him.

46% of a favorable view.

Your numbers

on that front on the same comparable

same exact poll.

Quinnipiac are 15%.

Do you see Senator Scott

as a formidable competitor?

Of course,

Tim Scott's a formidable competitor.

Anybody who knows him knows a few things,

that he's a good, decent, honest person.

And that he has put forward

a lot of really valuable public service

for the American people

and for the people of South Carolina,

both in the House of Representatives

and the Senate.

So I make

I make no mystery

about the fact that I like Tim Scott,

and I think he is a formidable candidate.

There's no doubt about that.

I think I'm a better one.

And now the Republican Party

voters are going to decide that.

And in July of the year

before the election,

I remember something thereand

in July of 2015,

Jeb Bush was the runaway frontrunner.

And so and Scott Walker was number two.

So we got a lot of work to do here.

But I'm a Tim Scott state

I'm a fan of Tim's.

There always has been.

I like him a great deal,

and I don't have anything bad

to say about Tim Scott.

We disagree on some things,

but just as Republicans

should not the way Donald Trump does it

by, you know, mocking, making fun of

and degrading it.

And I'll tell you one thing,

neither me or Tim Scott has ever said.

We never said it would be okay

to suspend the Constitution

of the United States. Donald Trump has.

And the oath of the presidency

is to preserve, protect and defend,

not suspend.

And that, quite frankly,

disqualifies him.

One question here

I want to ask you about f kennedy jr.

He was on Capitol Hill yesterday.

Governor as a guest of republicans

testifying at a hearing that they called

about governor sponsorship.

He denied saying things

that he actually has said many times.

Here's one example, Governor.

I've never been to any vaccine.

Everybody in this room

probably believes that I happen

because that's the prevailing narrative.

I have never told the public

avoid vaccination.

I see somebody on a hiking trail

with a guy and a little baby.

And I don't know

So that's just one example.

And then, of course,

as you know, Governor, he previously said

at a fundraiser, actually,

and I quote him,

COVID 19 is targeted to attack Caucasians

and black people,

the people who are most

immune are Ashkenazi Jews

and the Chinese.

And so he said that last week

at the hearing yesterday.

Then he claimed this

I'm under oath

in my entire life.

I have never uttered a phrase

that was either racist or anti-Semitic.

Governor, the GOP gave him a big

platform yesterday

and it helped him significantly.

A PAC backing him

says they raised $5 million

during the hearing yesterday.

5 million bucks just flowing in

as he was saying those things.

Are you disappointed

that Republicans in Congress gave

Kennedy that platform

I look, I'm

more disappointed, Erin

and Robert Kennedy

for saying the things that he's saying.

I think it's very, very disappointing.

And I think it's, quite frankly,

diminishes the great legacy

that his uncle

and his father left

for this country of public service.

And so I'm focused on

Robert Kennedy and his comments,

which I think were divisive.