Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie appeared on Newsmax on Tuesday ahead of the first Republican presidential debate on Wednesday.
Speaking with "Eric Bolling The Balance," the host gave Christie two options for "pre debate" questions.
"I got two envelopes here," Bolling began. "Governor, I got the hard questions — debate prep — or the easy ones. Which one do you want?"
"Hard," Christie responded. "Being president isn't easy. Being president isn't easy, so it should be the hard."
"OK, let's start with a hard one. Was Jan. 6 a protest, or was it a threat to our democracy?"
"Jan. 6," Christie says, "by the actions of people on Capitol Hill, turned out to be a violent protest, and Donald Trump's actions were a threat to democracy that day."
"And so you know the actions by our leadership," Christie continues, "were uncalled for. He lied to the people on the Ellipse that day: Told them the election was stolen, when it was not; told them that Mike Pence could reverse the election results, when he could not; told them he was going to march up with them to Capitol Hill, and he did not. And so the threat to our democracy was by Donald Trump lying to folks, and what happened up there was a protest that turned violent."
When asked if there is a "two-tiered justice system" in the United States, Christie responded there was with respect to the treatment of Hunter Biden. But when asked about pardoning Trump with respect to the apparent politicization of the Department of Justice, Christie said he would remain agnostic.
"If I felt like a trial" for Trump "was unfair, then I would consider" pardoning him. "I would not automatically say because of what happened to Hunter Biden that someone else gets a pass. That's not the way you fix the justice system."
Christie, alongside a number of others vying for the Republican nomination, will appear for two hours on the debate stage tomorrow at 9 p.m. ET.
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Nick Koutsobinas ✉
Nick Koutsobinas, a Newsmax writer, has years of news reporting experience. A graduate from Missouri State University’s philosophy program, he focuses on exposing corruption and censorship.
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