Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie urged President Trump to keep himself away from Sidney Powell and his former national security adviser, Michael Flynn.
Christie, a longtime ally of the president who has recently questioned him for floating unsubstantiated claims of widespread voter fraud, told the president he should distance himself from Powell and Flynn, in an interview with CNN on Sunday. Powell represented Flynn as he fought to change his guilty plea regarding charges that ensued during the Mueller investigation.
His comments came a day after reports surfaced that the two Trump loyalists privately encouraged him to continue fighting the election outcome. Christie began the interview by quoting President Ronald Reagan’s comment that “personnel is policy.”
“What he meant was that the people who surround you and what they do will help to determine policy. This is why someone like Michael Flynn never belongs anywhere near the White House, let alone inside the Oval Office and his lawyer, Sidney Powell,” Christie said, adding that he never thought Flynn should’ve been given the role of national security adviser dating back to the Trump transition in late 2016.
Administration officials have become increasingly concerned about Trump’s unwillingness to accept Joe Biden as president-elect, according to Axios. Officials say they became more worried after rumors about Trump’s interest in Flynn’s talk of martial law and an idea proposed of issuing an executive order to seize voting machines. The New York Times reported that the president has contemplated naming Powell a special counsel to investigate claims of voter fraud.
“I will tell that you he’s not fit to be giving advice to anyone,” Christie said. “And I think the best advice I can give to the president is, ‘Keep Michael Flynn and Sidney Powell out of the Oval Office, and then those really bad ideas will stay out of the Oval Office as well.’”
He reiterated his criticism that the campaign, the president, the GOP, and many conservative organizations have called the election rigged but have yet to back up those claims in court.
“We are now sitting here on Dec. 20, and I still have not seen the evidence, nor has any court seen the evidence,” he said. “In fact, every court that has looked at the evidence has not supported these cases. In fact, it’s thrown them out.”
Powell, who has operated closely with the Trump campaign since Election Day, has made a handful of sweeping and bold allegations of voter fraud and a conspiracy theory that ties in Hugo Chavez, Venezuela, the U.S. military, George Soros, and a vote-switching scheme that would implicate members of both political parties.
The campaign distanced itself from her at the time she made the wild allegations, but now, the president appears to have brought her back into the mix.
