Donald Trump threatened to investigate Chris Christie, reviving a 2013 political scandal after the former New Jersey Governor criticized him during a Sunday interview on ABC News.
Hours after Christie appeared on This Week on Sunday, Trump fired back with a veiled threat against his former ally-turned-2024 GOP presidential rival, dredging up “Bridgegate.”
In 2013, Christie’s aides ordered the abrupt lane closures on the George Washington Bridge, causing massive traffic jams to allegedly punish a local Democratic mayor who refused to endorse him.
Christie was never charged and denies any knowledge of the incident. While two top aides were convicted of fraud and conspiracy, the Supreme Court overturned those convictions in 2020.
“I just watched Sloppy Chris Christie be interviewed on a ratings challenged ‘News’ Show, ‘This Week With George Slopadopolus,’ on ABC Fake News,” Trump wrote Sunday evening on Truth Social, before taking a jab at co-anchor Jonathan Karl’s hair.
“Do you remember the way he lied about the dangerous and deadly closure of the George Washington Bridge in order to stay out of prison, at the same time sacrificing people who worked for him, including a young mother, who spent years trying to fight off the vicious charges against her,” Trump continued.
“Chris refused to take responsibility for these criminal acts. For the sake of JUSTICE, perhaps we should start looking at that very serious situation again? NO ONE IS ABOVE THE LAW!”
During Sunday’s interview, Christie expressed concern about the administration’s handling of the Jeffrey Epstein case and the FBI’s raid on the home of former national security adviser John Bolton.
He shared skepticism about Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche’s questioning of Ghislaine Maxwell after the Justice Department released the transcript on Friday.
Maxwell, a convicted sex trafficker and Epstein’s former confidant, said that she did not hear from Epstein that Trump did anything inappropriate and offered a glowing review of Trump.
“She might as well have taken out Donald Trump, or President Trump, and said, ‘The man who can pardon me has never done anything wrong. The man who can pardon me has always been wonderful,’” Christie said.
In the wake of the recent FBI searches of Bolton’s Maryland home and Washington office, Christie also claimed that the president has been following through on his 2024 campaign promises to seek retribution against his political rivals.
“He told you he was going to do this, that he was going to have a Justice Department that acted as his personal legal representation, and that is what they’re doing,” Christie said.
It was not immediately clear what aspect of Christie’s appearance on This Week had led Trump to threaten him.
The clash comes as the president deepened his feud with Maryland’s Democratic Governor Wes Moore, threatening to cancel funding for the reconstruction of the Francis Scott Key Bridge, destroyed by a ship strike last year.
Trump indicated in another Truth Social post that disaster relief funding would be wielded as a political weapon against any state or local leaders who dared challenge him.
“I gave Wes Moore a lot of money to fix his demolished bridge,” Trump said on Sunday, which isn’t true. Trump wasn’t president in 2024, when full federal funding for the project was allocated during government funding negotiations.
“I will now have to rethink that decision???,” he continued.
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