Republican presidential candidate Chris Christie on Monday envisioned a scenario in which Donald Trump won’t actually be able to vote for himself if he becomes the GOP’s nominee in the 2024 election.
Fox Business’ Neil Cavuto suggested to ex-Trump ally Christie that the former president may be a convicted felon by the time the election comes around. Trump faces 91 charges across four criminal cases, in which he has pleaded not guilty.
“How about this?” Christie replied. “He’s going to go on trial the day before Super Tuesday. I believe he’s going to be convicted in that Jan. 6 trial [related to the 2021 Capitol riot] in Washington, D.C., predominantly because Mark Meadows, as you know, has signed an agreement, his former chief of staff, one of the founders of the Freedom Caucus [a group of hard-line House conservatives], is going to testify against him. He’s going to be convicted. Imagine this, if he’s our nominee, he won’t be able to vote for himself.”
“But, he can be president,” Cavuto said.
“Yes,” Christie acknowledged.
Cavuto noted how Trump’s indictments hadn’t harmed his standing in the polls and asked if a conviction would.
“I think a conviction is different for two reasons,” Christie said. “One, it won’t be a liberal prosecutor talking about him anymore. It will be his former chief of staff saying he ... committed crimes because you wouldn’t need immunity if you hadn’t committed crimes, and that Donald Trump committed crimes on his watch. That’s very different for conservative voters to hear that from Mark Meadows than to hear it from [Justice Department special counsel] Jack Smith.”
He continued: “Secondly, this is a jury of your peers convicting you. Not, again, the two-tiered system of justice that a lot of people are concerned about. I think it will be very different. The question’s going to be, is there going to be somebody who’s willing to stand up to him until that moment, so that it’s not decided? And, that’s why I said recently, I’m in this through the [GOP nominating] convention.”
Cavuto suggested that Trump supporters wouldn’t go flocking to Christie, should the former president for whatever reason drop out of the race.
It’s “hard to imagine, but they like [incumbent President] Joe Biden less than they like me,” said Christie.