AP Photo/Meg Kinnard
- Chris Christie on Friday blasted former President Trump as a "con artist" who's "grifting" his supporters.
- Christie, a fellow GOP WH candidate, took issue with the money a Trump-affiliated PAC is using to pay legal fees.
- The ex-New Jersey governor argued that Trump's multiple indictments would imperil the GOP in 2024.
GOP presidential candidate and former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie on Friday once again derided former President Donald Trump, calling the ex-commander-in-chief a "con artist" who is "grifting" donors funding his 2024 campaign.
Christie, a one-time political ally of Trump and one of the first major Republican governors to endorse the former president's 2016 campaign, blasted Trump on CNN over a Washington Post report that the Save America PAC used a little over half of fundraising dollars from the first quarter to help pay the ex-president's mounting legal costs.
The former governor criticized the action as "ridiculous" and said that Trump's supporters were more than likely unaware of how their money was being spent.
"I don't think they're well aware because he's lied to them as typical for Donald Trump," Christie said on CNN. "First he said 1 percent of the money they gave would go toward his legal fees. I think most people would say, 'Ok, that's fine.' Then he said 10 percent of the money is going toward his legal fees."
"You really need this billionaire ... you really need to have people who are donating $10, $20, $50 to your campaign pay for your high-priced lawyers for indictments that you've all put on yourself by paying off a porn star, by holding back classified documents despite the fact that they've been asked for voluntarily for 18 months?" he continued. "I mean, this is ridiculous. And he is using these people in a way that I don't think that they completely know about."
Christie, who has been critical of Trump's handling of classified documents and his conduct during the Jan. 6, 2021 riot at the US Capitol, then needled the ex-president once again over what he said was deception in seeking funds for the 2024 race.
"People are giving to him and because they think it's going to help him get reelected president when all he's doing is grifting off these people," the former governor said of Trump. "He is a con artist, who is conning them out of their money, pretending he wants to be their president. Well, what he wants is a free ride for the legal defense he's getting for the criminal charges he personally faces."
Trump earlier this year was indicted by the Manhattan District Attorney's office over his involvement in a hush-money payment made to adult film actor Stormy Daniels in advance of the 2016 presidential election. In June, a federal grand jury indicted Trump over his handling of classified documents after leaving the White House in 2021. And the former president also faces potential charges in Georgia, where he has been the subject of a probe over alleged election interference in the 2020 presidential race.
Trump could also be criminally charged by federal prosecutors over his role in the Jan. 6 riots.
Christie last week dunked on Trump's assertion that the classified documents indictment was political in nature, blasting the former president as "a liar and a coward."
"He's not getting indicted for anyone other than because of his own conduct," he said during an appearance on CNN.