New reporting indicates that former President Donald Trump was using some of his illegal boxes of classified documents to try to get revenge on Joint Chiefs Chairman Mark Milley, with whom he bitterly fought in the waning days of his presidency.
But that's not the only reason, argues former GOP New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, a former federal prosecutor and 2024 candidate for president, on CNN Wednesday evening. In Christie's view, Trump also kept the documents so he could play pretend that he was still in the White House.
"I don't think we've gotten your reaction to the audio of Trump talking to people about classified documents that didn't have security clearances," said anchor Kaitlan Collins. "What went through your mind?"
"Sounds just like him," said Christie, who in earlier years was a Trump ally and even briefly ran his transition team in 2016. "The thing that struck me the most is that is what Donald Trump is like most of the time, constantly rationalizing his own bad behavior, justifying what he's doing at the very moment that he's doing it, even when he knows it's wrong, and showing off. He's the consummate show-off. And I think that's what that tape was, him showing off."
"People ask me, going all the way back to the time of the raid last year of Mar-a-Lago, why would he keep these documents?" Christie continued. "People are like, is he going to give them to a foreign government or sell them to somebody or blackmail people? You don't understand Donald Trump. It's just to show off. He wants to continue to act like he's president. He can't live with the fact that he's not. So, that's why he kept those documents. It seems childish and stupid, and it is, but that's the reason why in my view."
"You compared it to a child sticking their hand into a cookie jar," Collins pressed him.
"Yeah," said Christie. "I mean, look, he knows it's wrong, and he acknowledged that on the tape that you all got," said Christie. "You know, he says, look, this is classified. It's secret. You know, I could have declassified it when I was president, but I didn't. And now I can't have this. I can't show it to you. Well, you know, he knows these things are wrong, but he is like that child who tests the parent constantly, you know? And that is what is just so maddening about this. None of this had to happen."
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Chris Christie says Trump hoarded documents to pretend he was still presidentyoutu.be
