Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie criticized Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis in an interview Wednesday, calling his fellow GOP presidential candidate a “rumormonger” over statements the governor made suggesting he was concerned the FBI could interfere with his campaign.
“Look, we don’t make our country better by continuing to rumormonger things,” Christie said in a CNN interview.
“If there’s some investigative steps that he thinks were inappropriate that have been taken that we don’t know about right now by the FBI or [Department of Justice] against him or members of his inner circle, then he should reveal that. Otherwise, stop speculating about this stuff,” he added.
DeSantis raised concerns this week that the FBI or Justice Department (DOJ) could interfere in his campaign.
He also criticized the DOJ investigations into former President Trump, including the special counsel probe into the 2020 election for which Trump received a target letter this week.
“No one’s above the law,” Christie said. “And the fact is that what’s damaging to the country — and I think this is where Ron is getting it wrong — is Donald Trump’s conduct. Everybody was complaining about the last indictment, a number of people in my party. But you can’t complain about the indictment and not acknowledge the conduct, where you lie to your lawyers, where you show around classified documents regarding our intelligence activities, our military activities.
“You don’t fix a broken justice system by continuing to give people passes based upon whatever their political party is,” he said. “You do it by enforcing the law without fear, favor or partisanship. That’s what we should be doing.”
Christie, a former prosecutor, also said that he believes charges against Trump are likely in the special counsel’s 2020 election investigation, which is looking at Trump’s conduct during the Jan. 6 insurrection.
“I don’t think you send a target letter — at least in my experience, I never sent the target letter if I was not completely sure that I had put enough in front of the grand jury for them to return an indictment,” he said.
Christie has received about 3 percent support in national national polling averages. He placed fourth in a New Hampshire primary poll released Tuesday, showing 6 percent support.
He’s cast himself as a GOP candidate very willing to take on Trump in the primary fight.