Chris Christie: Any Credible AG Would Open a Special Counsel on Hunter Biden

Chris Christie, 2024 GOP presidential candidate and former Governor of New Jersey joined the Guy Benson Show to discuss the shocking crumbling of the Hunter Biden “sweetheart” plea deal. Christie and Guy also discussed the DeSantis campaign and the remarks by Governor DeSantis on RFK Jr.

Listen to the full interview below:

Full Transcript:

Guy Benson: With us now is Chris Christie, 2024 Republican presidential candidate and the former governor of New Jersey. Governor, welcome back.

Chris Christie: Thanks for having me back, Guy.

Guy Benson: I want to start with the wild scenes yesterday in Delaware at the federal courthouse with the expected very weak slap on the wrist plea deal for Hunter Biden, the president’s son falling apart at the seams in real time. Everyone has their theories on what exactly happened and why. You were a top federal prosecutor for years. How do you view what happened?

Chris Christie: Well, I’ve been saying it for three weeks. For three weeks I’ve been predicting that the judge would not approve this plea deal and and saying it publicly on a lot of different airwaves. Because as a federal prosecutor, I looked at what they were doing and it made absolutely no sense to me. You can’t give a guy a two count misdemeanor plea deal and dismissed his gun charge and give him immunity. For what? What’s the government getting in return? And that’s exactly if you look at what happened yesterday, exactly what the judge zeroed in on, she said, wait a second. Now, immunity going forward for everything. Why are we doing this? And and then that the government, having gotten caught in this ridiculous deal, said, oh, no, no, not immunity. And then Hunter Biden’s lawyers get up and say, well, it’s not. That’s the deal we made. And that was the end of that. This judge is very smart and experienced and she got it. And I saw it coming for three weeks. And so I have to tell you, I was not surprised yesterday when it happened because the deal never made any sense. And I’ve been predicting that it was going to not get approved. And that’s exactly what happened.

Guy Benson: Well, and you just said something really important. And we talked to Andy McCarthy on this show yesterday. He made a similar point. And I think a lot of people’s jaws dropped a little bit, which is the government got caught, meaning the prosecutors got caught having made a preposterous plea deal with Hunter Biden’s attorneys, basically an oral agreement that they worded on paper extremely vaguely. And it was so embarrassing what they had agreed on, apparently in private, that when asked about it publicly, the DOJ said, okay, actually, no, we don’t mean that In the Hunter. People said, hang on just a second. That’s exactly what we discussed. The way that you just described it is right. You asked the question, what was the government getting in return? What was the the people’s side, if you will, the Fed side of this deal? And the answer seems to be a mystery, which leads to one of the bigger points here, Governor, what was the DOJ doing? Were they effectively in cahoots in some ways with the defense team? And does not that entire arrangement potentially represent a massive conflict of interest, given the fact that the defendant here is named Biden and is the son of the president of the United States, and some of the allegations against the son have implications for the father. The whole thing just looks, I think, really bad and suspicious, even to some people who may not have been hard core Republicans following this story very closely for months.

Chris Christie: The short answer is yes. Now, let me explain. Look, I said all along that this was going to be a huge test of David Weiss, the Trump appointed U.S. attorney in Delaware, and and he failed the test miserably. And when the plea deal came out before yesterday, when it when when it was announced, I said, either this guy is lying and this was imposed upon him by superiors at the Justice Department or he is grossly incompetent. Either way, it doesn’t matter anymore. This plea will not get will not get confirmed by a judge. Now that we’re at that point by the conflict that’s always been there, to those of us who have done this work and who follow this stuff closely is now out in the public for everyone to see. The only alternative Merrick Garland has in order to preserve any shred of credibility, is to appoint a special counsel. That’s it. You can no longer say that David Weiss or anyone in the Justice Department can be trusted to conclude the investigation of this matter and to ultimately bring additional charges in this matter or bring this matter to a plea deal. They can’t be trusted.

Guy Benson: Especially given to that point, not just what happened yesterday and the apparent events that led up to it, but also the IRS whistleblower testimony under oath last week where those guys, including a Partizan Democrat, detailed all the investigative avenues that were explicitly shut off to them. They weren’t allowed to go there, especially anything involving Joe Biden that reeks in addition to everything else, which I think buttresses your point and also makes me maybe not totally surprised given the way the media operates, but I did see your exchange with Margaret Brennan on CBS Face the Nation this weekend, and she asked you a question, sort of channeling the conventional wisdom of most of the press and all of the Democrats, because they’re basically all Democrats, which is shouldn’t the Republicans just move on from this whole thing? And you said no, Republicans shouldn’t for all sorts of reasons. I just in a sane world, in a fair minded world, in a world in which Republicans and Democrats were treated even remotely similarly by the news media. In no way would a major news anchor ask a question like that or seemingly be rooting for an outcome like, hey, here’s a burgeoning scandal that’s expanding that we’re learning more about. Let’s just all move on. It’s. That would never, ever happen. That would never be the narrative for a Republican politician.

Chris Christie: No, it wouldn’t. And I’ll tell you, I think if you were watching it, you saw the look on my face with that question. I was like, Are you serious? Move on this thing. This is not even going to be a person. Forget it. And this is where guys like, you know, I’m in this conversation as the presidential candidate, as well as the former prosecutor. And it and it gives me an advantage because I’ve done this. I did it for seven years in the fifth largest office in the country, 130 political prosecutions against Republicans and Democrats. And we were 130. And, you know, we know how to do this the right way. And there is a right way to go after very prominent people who have committed crimes. And the way to do it is without fear or favor or partizanship. And this current DOJ has now proven. Through David Weiss, their U.S. attorney, that they can’t not do that as the Hunter Biden. And so they need to have a special counsel. And this is not this should not even be a question up for debate. This should be done by Merrick Garland. It should be done before the end of the week. This needs to get taken out of David Weiss’s hands before he tries to negotiate another plea deal. That will be ridiculous.

Guy Benson: Unless that’s what he and Garland and their boss Joe Biden, want, which goes to the crux of one of the big, big problems in all of this. Meanwhile, Governor Christie on the other side of the aisle, the Republican side, the far and away frontrunner in the race, Donald Trump, who is up 30, 40 points in most of the polling. He has all sorts of legal issues on his plate. And I know many Republican voters think it’s all illegitimate and unfair. Others view some of the hot water as legitimate and earned, but other elements not fair. That’s sort of where I fall. We’re not exactly sure at the end of the summer, let’s say, how many indictments we will see active against Donald Trump. Would it be three? Would it be four plus some of these other cases? It’s just going to be a very full dance card one way or another with all of these things going on and swirling heading into a primary season and then possibly trial starting in a general election season. Governor, as you look at all of that, your views on Donald Trump are quite clear. And you’ve you’ve been making and sounding those alarms for quite a while now. But on that particular question… and we talked to Nikki Haley about this earlier in the week. She said it’s just too much. This is a problem. This is concerning to her. Voters in a general election will have some of these concerns. She’s worried about viability being Joe Biden, all of that. What is your analysis of the effect, the political effect of any combination of these various indictments moving forward?

Chris Christie: There will be at least three. We don’t know about what will happen in Atlanta, but the problem is that it’s not just the fact that he’s indicted, and that will mean that he, unlike the gene, the the he the case, he got up in New York City against Gene with Gene Carroll. Where’s the civil case? And you can opt whether to show up or not. I want people listening to understand this. The frontrunner for our nomination at the moment. By the time we get to some time next week, I suspect. He’ll be out on bail. In three different jurisdictions. Out on bail. Which means that he could be required by the government to appear. At any time by the order of a judge in a courtroom or proceeding and ultimately a trial. How in the hell. Is that person going to run and win for president? He is out on bail, Guy. And so, you know, in addition, the underlying conduct. In my view, is beneath the office of the presidency, whether it was indicted or not. And so you look at all this in combination, and that’s what I believe this race is going to begin to change as the summer is over and people start to focus on politics. I’ve traveled around. I’ve gone to New Hampshire and South Carolina. And I need to tell you, people are on vacation, Guy. They’re not focused on this race. And those polls indicate the obvious, which is Donald Trump is the former two time nominee of our party. But let’s remember something. In most polls you see, he is still only getting in the mid to upper forties. This is an incumbent president running for reelection. And more than half of the party has already decided they will not vote for him. How is that going to get any better? When he’s out on bail in three jurisdictions and getting ready to face criminal trial, where forget the Manhattan case, which I think is a political joke. But it’s certainly in the classified documents case, which is also an obstruction case. He is facing real jail time if he goes to trial and loses. How are we doing this?

Guy Benson: I want to ask you a few more questions here. We’ve got a debate coming up next month on Fox. August 23rd, I think I’ll be out there in Milwaukee. I know you will, because you’ve qualified. You’re one of six campaigns who have qualified under those rules so far. Do you think Trump will actually show up? I know everyone running against him wants him to show up because that’s in your interests and he’s the frontrunner. And I agree. Anyone who’s running should really audition for the job and shouldn’t take anything for granted and has to make the case to the voters and all of that. But there are some smart people arguing politically it’d be malpractice for him to do it because he’s up by such a large margin. What do you think about that?

Chris Christie: I think he’ll show up and I think he’ll show up because of two reasons. One, he thinks he is a fabulous debater and that he will beat any of us in a 90 minute debate. And secondly…

Guy Benson: Is he wrong, by the way, because he he tended to do pretty well last time, and at least in the eyes of a lot of voters in 2016, 2015, he outperformed expectations a lot.

Chris Christie: He’s not what first of all, the expectations should be very high for him now. You know, absent the miserable performances he put in against Joe Biden in the fall of 2020, his 2016 debate performances in the primary and in two of the three general election debates were very good. And so, you know, I think he should be going into the debate as a favorite. And secondly, guy, he owes it to the Republican National Committee who has worked hard to put all this together. And for Republican primary voters, to stand on the stage allows them to compare him by the other candidates who have qualified for the debate by showing a requisite level of support, both in terms of donors and poll numbers and defend his record in the past and his plans for the future, that which are also your voters if you’re going to run.

Guy Benson: Last question. In an interview yesterday, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis was asked if he would consider putting RFK Jr on his ticket as a running mate. He said no. RFK disagrees with Republicans on far too many issues. But he suggested it might be interesting to put RFK in charge of CDC or FDA. I know that raised a lot of eyebrows, to put it mildly. I wonder what you think of that.

Chris Christie: If the DeSantis campaign truly want to have a reboot. They should give the governor a week or ten days off. Because anybody in the Republican Party running for president who would suggest that Robert F Kennedy Jr. should have anything to do with a Republican administration, and in my view, with any administration at all, needs to take some time off. I think he must be under a lot of stress. Things aren’t going well. He’s trying too hard. He couldn’t possibly have been thinking rationally with that, with that idea. And so I’m I’m just stunned by it. I assume that he just needs a little time off to take a deep breath and relax a little bit, because that was flat out nuts.

Guy Benson: A lot to chew on here. Chris Christie is running for president, the former governor of New Jersey. Our guest here on the Guy Benson Show. Governor, always appreciate it. Talk again soon.

Chris Christie: Guy. Have a great rest of your weekend. And I look forward as always listening.