Chris Christie town hall: Christie slams ex-president as poll shows slight bump in favorability

Former Representative Adam Kinzinger tweeted that listening to Chris Christie talk about Donald Trump was “therapeutic.”

“Listening to Chris Christie tell truth is therapeutic. Trump is a clown,” Mr Kinzinger tweeted on Monday night during the CNN town hall.

Mr Christie laid into Mr Trump, calling him a “loser” and explaining that the former president would be detrimental to Americans if he were elected again.

Chris Christie is one of the few well-known Republicans willing to admit that Donald Trump lost the 2020 election.

During his CNN town hall on Monday, the former New Jersey governor continued to call out Mr Trump’s conspiracies on the subject, telling the audience members, “There’s no evidence.”

Chris Christie warned people that if Donald Trump were to obtain a second presidential term he would act selfishly and use it to get revenge on people he believes wronged him.

“I am convinced that if he goes back to the White House that the next four years will be about him settling scores with everybody who he thinks wasn’t perfectly nice to him,” Mr Christie said during the town hall.

The former New Jersey governor described Mr Trump as “angry” and “completely self-centered.”

Mr Christie added: “If you’re lucky enough to become the president of the United States, every day you should wake up thinking about what to do for the people of this country not what scores you need to settle for yourself.”

It’s a rare thing to see politicians say they’re not sure what to do, but that’s just what happened on Monday evening when the father of a victim of the Las Vegas mass shooting asked Chris Christie what he would do to tackle America’s epidemic of mass shootings,

The Republican candidate said his current ability to make a difference at this moment “wholly inadequate.”

“I’m mad because I don’t have a great answer,” the former New Jersey governor said. “I wish I did.”

Mr Christie added that “there’s not a lot more left to do” on the federal level, and called his past support for an assault weapons ban “naïvete.”

The 2024 candidate called for more of a focus on mental health and better policing.

The former New Jersey governor claimed that Mr Trump – who he compared to “Voldemort” – wanted to blame him for supposedly being the “Patient Zero” of a Covid-19 superspreader event.

The two men contracted the virus in 2020, with Mr Christie ending up in the ICU.

While allegedly seeking to pin the blame for the outbreak on Mr Christie, in reality, Mr Trump sought the former governor’s assurance that he would not blame him for infecting those present at a debate preparation session, Mr Christie said.

Mr Trump had tested positive for the virus on the morning of the session but did not disclose it.

Chris Christie hammered Donald Trump over his latest criminal indictment.

“The conduct in there is awful,” the former New Jersey governor said during a CNN town hall on Monday. “That’s obstruction of justice if it’s true.”

Mr Christie said he thinks there are probably even worse revelations in store about Mr Trump’s conduct.

“There will guaranteed be a lot more. When you’re a prosecutor, you don’t put every card on the table before the trial,” Mr Christie said.

Chris Christie urged Republicans who are defending Donald Trump to stop going after the Department of Justice and start holding Mr Trump accountable during his town hall on CNN.

“We’re here and we’re in a situation where there are people in my own party who are blaming DOJ. How about, blame him?” Mr Christie said.

Several MAGA-aligned Republicans like Marjorie Taylor Greene and Kari Lake have viciously defended Mr Trump despite the federal indictment charging Mr Trump with 37 counts related to the retention of national defence information.

“He did it. He took documents he wasn’t supposed to take, he kept them when they asked him back for them, they got a grand jury subpoena, he refused to comply, they raided his home finally because he refused to comply – all those things were brought on himself as was this indictment,” Mr Christie added