Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie said Friday that House Republicans botched this week’s public hearing with former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen.
Christie said on Fox News that Republicans were able to establish that Cohen is a known liar who has twisted the truth as he testifies. But he said Republicans didn’t take the next step of defending Trump from Cohen’s charges that the president himself is a “liar” and a “con man.”
“Frankly, I wish that our Republicans in Congress would have defended the president substantively,” he said.
“We need as Republicans … need to defend the president on the substance,” Christie added. “That’s what we need to be doing, and they dropped the ball on the president and I’m sure he wasn’t very happen about it in Vietnam.”
[Opinion: For GOP, attacking Michael Cohen’s credibility is a double-edged sword]
Christie gave two examples of how Republicans could have drawn from elements of Cohen’s testimony to defend Trump. First, he noted that Cohen acknowledged Trump wanted to pay hush money to porn star Stormy Daniels in part because of the campaign, but also to protect Melania Trump from hearing about their alleged affair.
Secondly, Christie noted that Cohen told Congress that Trump never explicitly directed him to lie to Congress about the timing of a possible Trump Tower deal in Russia, and instead said he was reading a “signal” from Trump that he should.
Christie said Republicans should have picked up on those points to defend Trump.
“That’s what Republicans should have been saying. ‘So Mr. Cohen, the president never directed you to lie to anybody. So Mr. Cohen, the president was concerned about his wife, in fact so concerned that you lied to his wife about it,'” Christie said.
“That’s the kind of stuff we should have been defending him on,” Christie added, noting that it wasn’t enough to simply show Cohen is a liar. “Once two or three congressmen establish Cohen is a liar, enough. We get it, he’s a liar.”
