The liberal media has been having a field day accusing Donald Trump of acting like a Mafia boss in connection with allegations that he ordered aides to delete Mar-a-Lago surveillance tapes. We caught Morning Joe doing just that last week.
Appearing on CNN's State of the Union Sunday morning, Chris Christie piled on. Christie claimed that Trump's team that, allegedly, helped him hide documents and was ordered to delete surveillance tape were "the Corleones without experience." Adding insult to injury, Christie called Trump aide Walter Nauta the "Fredo" of the gang.
Hey, we thought "Fredo" was a moniker reserved for one of CNN's former own: Chris Cuomo!
And as you'll see, guest host Kasi Hunt couldn't stifle a snorting laugh, and fought for several ensuing seconds not to smile again!
In other noteworthy aspects of the interview:
- When Hunt suggested that the latest allegations of Trump ordering his aides to delete surveillance tape made out "a clear-cut case of obstruction of justice," Christie concurred: "It appears that way, Kasie, it's pretty brazen." Christie later added: "the government has made a very, very compelling case."
- Christie also disagreed with, and took a shot at, fellow GOP candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, who had appeared earlier in the show. Ramaswamy said that despite the latest allegations against Trump, he would not be swayed from his intent to pardon him, since a deletion of surveillance tapes only amounted to a "process crime." Christie pushed back: "You can't say there was no underlying potential crime here. This was the withholding of confidential, classified information from the government . . . This is not what a former president should be doing, and it's certainly not something that someone who wants to be president [looking at you, Vivek!] should be doing."
- Christie said that in the documents case, the prosecutors have a "very, very important cooperating witness" from inside the Trump organization. And Christie also predicted that former Trump chief of staff Mark Meadows would serve as a cooperating witness in the January 6th case.
Host Kasie Hunt being unable to stifle a laugh on CNN's State of the Union when Chris Christie calls the Trump team dealing with classified documents "the Corleones without experience" was sponsored in part by State Farm, and Procter & Gamble, maker of Gain.
Here's the transcript.
CNN
State of the Union
7/30/23
9:15 am EDTKASIE HUNT: Welcome back to State of the Union. I'm Kasie Hunt. As Republican presidential hopefuls descended on Iowa this weekend, there was one notable absence. The candidate who has called Donald Trump stupid, a loser, selfish, a failure, and, that's just the last couple of days. Republican presidential candidate and former New Jersey governor, Chris Christie, joins me now. Sir, it is always great to have you here on the program. So thank you for being here.
And you just heard your competitor, Vivek Ramaswamy say that he would still pardon Donald Trump, even after the special counsel charged him with seeking to destroy security footage in the classified documents case. Now, you in addition to being a governor, were a federal prosecutor. And I'd like to know, when you look at this new evidence, I mean, is there a clear-cut case of obstruction of justice here?
CHRIS CHRISTIE: It appears that way, Kasie. You know, you look at it, it's pretty brazen. These, these guys were, were acting like the, um, ha, the Corleones with no experience.
HUNT: [Snorts with laughter.]
CHRISTIE: I mean, the day after a. a grand jury subpoena is served, which includes the surveillance tapes, they do down to Mar-a-Lago, and Walt Nauta appears to be the Fredo of this family. They send him to go down there, and they send him to go and delete it. This is bad stuff.
And you know, you can't say there was no underlying potential crime here. This was the withholding of confidential, classified information from the government, after 18 months of asking Donald Trump to return it voluntarily. Not only did he not return it, he lied about having it. This is not the kind of thing we can do. I want you to think, Kasie, for a second, about the potential effect on our troops and our intelligence officers, by having this stuff just laying around and him willy-nilly showing it to whoever he feels like, to be a showoff on the back deck at Mar-a-Lago. Um, you know, this is not what a former president should be doing, and it's certainly not something that someone who wants to be president should be doing.
HUNT: Let's go to the criminal intent. This seems to suggest that Trump was aware -- I mean, his defense has been, well, I can declassify whatever I want. This seems to fly in the face of that defense.
CHRISTIE: Well, first of all, the I can declassify whatever I want defense is not a defense. You can declassify whatever you want when you're president. You can't do it by thinking about it, you can't do it by mind melding with the documents. There's a process you have to go through to declassify and he knows that. So there are no defenses in that regard here.
Look, he's presumed innocent, but the bottom line is the government has made a very, very compelling case. And remember something, usually the government only includes, at the most, about half of the evidence they have. And what's clear on the latest obstruction charges are, they have a cooperating witness. Trump employee number four looks like a very, very important cooperating witness. So we now have people inside the Trump organization, employed by Donald Trump who are testifying against him.
And I think the next one you're going to see is former chief of staff Mark Meadows in the January 6th case. And I wonder what Donald Trump will have to say about that.
