Christie said in an MSNBC interview that while he respects Comey, it was ‘hard to tell’ if he is telling the truth. ‘I mean, you know, I want to hear Jim say it, ‘ he said.
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie said on Wednesday that President Donald Trump’s awkward exchanges described by fired FBI Director James Comey were ‘normal New York City conversation.’
‘They elected an outsider president, ‘ said Christie, who was a Trump surrogate during the campaign and briefly chaired his transition organization after the November election. ‘They elected someone who had never been inside government, and quite frankly hadn’t spent a lot of time interacting with government except at the local level.’
‘And so the idea of the way – the tradition of these agencies – it’s not something that he’s ever been steeped in, ‘ Christie said on MSNBC.
‘What you’re seeing is a president who is now, very publicly, learning about the way people react to what he considers to be normal New York City conversation.’
Comey submitted written testimony to the Senate Intelligence Committee on Wednesday, a day before he was scheduled to appear in a public hearing.
He wrote that following a January dinner with the new president, he had remembered Trump telling him: ‘I need loyalty, I expect loyalty.’
Weeks later in the Oval Office, Comey claims, Trump asked him to back off from investigating Michael Flynn, whom he had just fired from his role as national securty advisor.
‘He is a good guy and has been through a lot, ‘ Comey says Trump told him of Flynn. ‘I hope you can see your way clear to letting this go, to letting Flynn go. He is a good guy. I hope you can let this go.’
It’s unclear how Comey could remember those precise words without taking notes during the meeting.
But he also recalled that Trump had argued Flynn never had illicit contact with the Russian government, as he was suspected of doing.
Separately, Comey told the Senate committee that Trump had asked him for help publicizing the fact that the FBI was not investigating him personally.
‘We need to get that fact out, ‘ Comey says Trump told him, rendering the line as a clumsy attempt at collusion.
Christie said in his interview that while he respects Comey, it was ‘hard to tell’ if he is telling the truth.
‘I mean, you know, I want to hear Jim say it, ‘ he said.
‘I’m not going to presume anybody is lying. And quite frankly, in these kind of conversations everybody hears what they want to hear.’
The New Jersey governor also downplayed the significance of Thursday’s much-anticipated Comey testimony, saying his written statement – reportedly released a day early at his own request – had not yet been examined in public.
‘Right now all anybody’s hearing is what Jim has put out in his written testimony, ‘ Christie said. ‘None of it’s been subject to the scrutiny of people asking him questions. There’s lots of questions to be asked.’
But ‘after tomorrow Jim Comey’s testimony is going to be over, ‘ he insisted, ‘and we’re going to be on to the next thing. And the next thing after that, and the next thing after that.’
‘In the context of everything the president’s trying to accomplish and do here, let’s not go crazy about this. It is a moment.’
Host Nicolle Wallace said the president is likely to make things worse for himself on Thursday if he uses Twitter to rebut Comey in real time.
‘He’s going to tweet something idiotic tomorrow and ruin his own good «Chris Wray» news cycle, ‘ she said, referring to the professional lawman he nominated Wednesday to replace Comey.
‘We don’t know that, ‘ Christie shot back.
‘Really?’ wallace asked him. ‘You want to make a bet that he won’t tweet something inane tomorrow?’
