Chris Christie asks why it took so long for voters to know about Biden docs scandal
Former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie suggested that Trump would be shredded by Democrats if he were in the same position President Biden is right now with his document scandal.
Former Gov. Chris Christie, R-N.J., condemned political hypocrisy Sunday during a discussion about the Biden classified documents scandal on ABC's "This Week."
Over the summer, former President Donald Trump was embroiled in a scandal when the FBI raided his Mar-a-Lago estate to allegedly retrieve classified documents. The tables turned last week with revelations President Biden appears to have mishandled classified documents himself.
Christie observed the "political problem" that emerged as a result.
"Why did they wait to tell us?" he asked. "They knew this before midterms — six days before. If you’re Joe Biden who says ‘I must be transparent, Donald Trump is not. He is irresponsible for having these in his home’ and meanwhile now he knows he’s got a bunch in his home."
Former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie speaking on ABC Sunday.
WHITE HOUSE WON'T SAY HOW MANY PEOPLE COULD HAVE ACCESSED CLASSIFIED BIDEN DOCUMENTS IN GARAGE
He added further that the more interesting question to ask would be, "Who made the decision to not tell the American people six days before an election? And if Donald Trump had not told the people six days before an election, what would the political conversation be about right now?"
ABC political director Rick Klein said Christie was right about the administration not being immediately transparent. "They had an opportunity to get in front of all of this either before the election or since then," he noted. "As it has come out — you talk about ‘drip, drip,’ to find every with every passing day there’s another batch of documents, adds to the suspicion around this."
He followed by observing, "Maybe there is an innocuous explanation. If there isn’t, then we’re talking about something that’s going to consume a presidency."
When asked about what Democrats are saying in private about the scandal, Klein said that some are cautious about making public statements either way.
A panel discusses the Biden documents revelations on Sunday's episode of "This Week With George Stephanopoulos."
"I’ve been hearing a lot of Democrats say, ‘Wait a second on Joe Biden, let’s see how this plays out.’" Klein said. "This is exactly the moment that he’d consider to launch that campaign for president, and the key thing about Biden is that he’s the guy who can win, potentially beating Trump all over again, and I’m hearing from more and more Democrats who say, ‘We have got to look at what the political fallout of this really is.’"
On the other hand, he noted that this could end up backfiring on Republicans if they "overreach."
Christie reiterated that Trump would be torched if he were in Biden's place.
"If you substituted President Trump for President Biden in the Biden situation, there would be lots of people on the Democratic side who would be jumping to the conclusion that Trump knew it, directed it, and should be held responsible for it," he noted. "I don’t hear that about Biden now. And here’s the problem, the problem is, he withheld this from the American people for six days prior to a midterm election, and I want to know why and who made that decision."
Then-presidential candidate Joe Biden is seen backing into what appears to be his Wilmington, Delaware, driveway in a 2020 campaign video. Biden admitted to keeping classified documents in his garage next to his Corvette. (Joe Biden 2020)
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Former Chair of the Democratic National Committee Donna Brazile argued that the behavior of Biden and Trump was completely different.
"From what I can see, and I can’t see everything, but what I can see is that they are cooperating with the Archives; they are cooperating with the Department of Justice," she said. "They’re not putting up red flags and red fences and acting like Mar-a-Lago, where you’re hiding everything, 11,000 documents — And Donald Trump had to — was forced, with a subpoena. So I don’t — I think it’s apples and oranges, the comparison."
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