Christie responds to Trump fundraising boost amid legal battles

 One of his prominent Republican

presidential rivals.

The former New Jersey governor,

Chris Christie, is here with me

in The Situation Room.

Governor, thanks very much for coming in.

My pleasure, Wolf.

You're a former federal prosecutor,

a former U.S. attorney.

Give us your thoughts on the likelihood

the special counsel

could actually secure

a conviction of Trump.

Well, it's hard to say.

Well,

if we haven't seen the indictment yet

and I've tried to be very careful

about this

both on the classified documents

case and also now this one.

I want to see the indictment first.

The key

to what evidence he really has

and what the basis of all this

will be contained in an indictment.

My sense is

there'll be a speaking indictment,

as we call it, in the business,

which provides a lot of detail

so that you can really give folks a sense

of what the evidence is

that backs up the charges.

So I think it's all speculation

until we actually see

what the grand jury returns.

If they return something,

you assume they will. I do.

I don't think you said the target letter,

at least to my experience.

I never said to Target

or if I was not completely sure

that I had put enough

in front of the grand jury

for that to return an indictment.

We anticipate

it could be within the next few hours

or at least the next few days.

That's what's going on.

I want you to listen and watch

what Governor

Ron DeSantis

told CNN about Trump

receiving this target letter.

Listen to this.

This country is going down

the road of criminal lies

and political differences.

And I think that's wrong.

I do not want to see him.

I hope he doesn't get charged.

I don't think it will be good

for the country.

But at the same time, I've got

to focus on looking forward.

Would you trust

a President DeSantis

to go ahead and enforce the rule of law?

Look, based on what he just said there,

he gives you concerns, doesn't it?

I mean, look, no one's above the law.

And the fact is that

what's damaging to the country,

I think this is

where Ron is getting it wrong.

Is Donald Trump's conduct.

Nobody's complaining

about the last indictment.

A number of people in my party.

But you can't

complain about the indictment

and not acknowledge

that the conduct

where you lied to your lawyers, where you

show around classified documents

regarding our intelligence

activities, our military activities.

Wolf, what that does

is potentially put our troops at risk,

potentially put our intelligence

officers at risk

who are out there

doing dangerous things around the world.

It's hurting them when he does that.

And when I look, I absolutely believe

and I've said this before,

I think the Hillary Clinton case

should have been charged

If I were the U.S.

attorney investigating the case,

I would have charged it.

And I think what

Jim Comey and

Loretta Lynch did was wrong.

But you don't fix a broken justice system

by continuing to give people passes

based upon whatever

their political party is.

You do it by enforcing the law

without fear, favor or partizanship.

That's what we should be doing.

What we should be focused on here

is Donald Trump's conduct.

And whether or not, Wolf,

that context is appropriate

for somebody

to be sitting

behind the Resolute

Desk in the Oval Office I say it's not.

Should he drop out?

I don't think he should have

run in the first place. But guess what?

I don't care. I'm going to beat him.

I want you to listen to what

DeSantis said today.

He said it's suggested it's possible

the FBI or DOJ, Department of Justice,

could interfere with his campaign.

That was the gist of paraphrasing

the gist of what he said.

What do you make of that?

Well, I don't know what basis he has to

to draw that conclusion. Look,

we don't make our country better

by continuing to rumor monger things.

If Ron DeSantis is concerned

that there's something in his background

that would lead to DOJ

or the FBI to be looking at him,

that's probably something

he should talk to us all about as he's

seeking the presidency.

If there are some investigative steps

that he thinks were inappropriate

that have been taken

that we don't know about right now

by the FBI or DOJ against him

or members of his inner circle,

that he should reveal that.

Otherwise, stop

speculating about this stuff.

A CNN analysis

this is interesting

shows donations to Trump's campaign

actually spiked

around his indictments,

actually spiked around his indictments.

How much do you think

these legal troubles he's facing

actually boost his campaign?

Short term gain, long term pain

in the short term.

What it does is people

rally around their team, Wolf.

And we've seen this happen

many times before.

When there's a crisis,

you rally around your team.

And that's with a lot of folks

who have in support

of Donald Trump are doing.

But long term,

I think

if there are

additional indictments to come,

this is a lot of weight

for anybody

to be carrying around their neck.

As a general election candidate

for president, United States

or as a primary candidate.

And I think long term,

these charges are a real problem

for Donald Trump

because not the charges, Wolf,

because of the conduct.

The conduct is the problem.

And so I think in the short term, people

rally around the flag.

In the long term, I think it's going

be a problem.

Why do you listen to

what Trump said yesterday

in a radio interview,

said how his supporters would react

if he winds up going to jail?

Listen to this.

Is it something that concerns

you of, you know, the people

making sure

that they don't go out of their

right mind

if something like that happens,

if that, for example, they do

say Jackson says, okay, I'm

going to put Donald Trump in jail.

I think it's a very dangerous thing

to even talk about

because we do have a tremendously

passionate group of voters,

much more passion

than they had in 20, 20

and much more passion

than they had in 2016.

I think it would be very dangerous.

I worried.

Should law enforcement

be about the possibility of Trump

inciting more violence Well, look,

I think anytime you have the history

of what we saw

on January 6th,

law enforcement needs to learn from that

and make sure they're prepared

at any of these proceedings

regarding Donald Trump

or any of the people

who might be charged along with him,

that you might have some people

who might want to act out violently

because of it.

I don't think we should be here

worried about it, Wolf.

I spent years in law enforcement.

You don't prevent crime

by worrying about it.

You can prevent crime by acting.

And what they need to do is be prepared.

If they are,

then everyone will be safe and secure

and the justice system

will continue the way it should.

Let's hope that happens.

Governor, stand by.