Christie on Trump rift: ‘I didn’t leave Donald Trump … he left me’

Former New Jersey governor and 2024 Republican presidential candidate Chris Christie said it wasn’t his decision to stop supporting and helping former President Donald Trump in an interview on CNN Tuesday. 

“I didn’t leave Donald Trump … he left me. When he stood there on election night 2020 behind the seal of the president in the East Room of the White House and said the election had been stolen when he had absolutely no evidence to support that,” Christie said in an interview with Christiane Amanpour. “We know now, that was a complete lie.”

Christie said he supported Trump because he thought Trump would be a “better president” than former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. However, he also said he has “always been critical” of the former president when he “thought he made mistakes.”

“In 2020, after the election, and on election night, I broke with him permanently,” Christie continued. “And I’m running in this race because I do not believe that America needs the type of leader who puts themselves before the country.”

Christie’s comments come a week after Trump was indicted in Washington following an investigation into efforts to overturn the 2020 election.

Christie on Sunday pushed back against Trump’s arguments that jurors in a trial related to the indictment, who would be Washington residents, wouldn’t be fair to him due to what the former president claims are their left-wing political leanings. 

“My view is, yes, I believe jurors can be fair. I believe in the American people. And I believe in the fact that jurors will listen fairly and impartially,” Christie told CNN’s Dana Bash in an interview on “State of the Union.”