Christie: Trump rhetoric about stolen election led to Jan. 6 attack

Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) said the Jan. 6 Capitol riot was a result of former President Trump’s lies about the 2020 election being stolen, CNN reported. 

“I think everything that he was saying from election night forward incited people to that level of anger,” Christie told CNN in his episode of the “Being…” series as the former governor mulls his own run for president in 2024. 

“I think people minimize what happened on the 6th by pointing to the speech that he gave on the Ellipse on the 6th,” he added.

When asked by host Dana Bash if Trump was responsible for the events that took place on Jan. 6, he said, “I don’t think they would’ve gone there if they thought the election had been fair.”

Christie has been urging Republicans to move on from their fight against the results of the 2020 presidential election, saying that “no matter where you stand” on the outcome of the previous election, “it is over.” 

“And every minute that we spend talking about 2020, while we’re wasting time doing that, Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer are laying ruin to this country,” Christie said earlier this month.

Trump hit back at Christie for saying the GOP must move on from 2020 during a recent speech, saying last week, “Everybody remembers that Chris left New Jersey with a less than 9% approval rating — a record low, and they didn’t want to hear this from him!”

Christie previously said he would not wait to see if Trump runs for reelection in 2024 before making his own plans for the next presidential election cycle.

His new book, “Republican Rescue: Saving the Party From Truth Deniers, Conspiracy Theorists, and the Dangerous Policies of Joe Biden,” is out Tuesday.

Christie has been a close ally and adviser to Trump in recent years and coached him in debates during the 2020 campaign against President Biden. 

He told “Axios on HBO” in an interview that aired Sunday he was “desperate to try to get in touch with” Trump to try to stop the violence on Jan. 6 but wasn’t able to reach the president. He said he foresaw the incident as becoming “a stain on his presidency.”