Transcript: Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie on "Face the Nation," June 18, 2023

The following is a transcript of an interview with former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, a 2024 Republican candidate for president, that aired on "Face the Nation" on June 18, 2023.

ROBERT COSTA: We now turn to the 2024 presidential campaign and former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie. He is in Bay Head, New Jersey. Good morning. Governor, have some Republicans, especially those in Congress, been too quick to rally behind Trump this week without knowing the full scope of the evidence in the records case?

CHRIS CHRISTIE Look, if you read that indictment, and as you recall Bob, I did this work for seven years at the United States attorney in New Jersey, the fifth largest office in the country. I did 130 political corruption prosecutions, Republicans and Democrats, without a defeat. So I know how to do this work, and that indictment lays out some very, very disturbing facts about not only the president- the former president, keeping all these documents and national security documents that he had no right to keep on to the Presidential Records Act, or any other law. But worse, instructing his lawyers to lie and to obstruct the government from getting those documents back. There's some very disturbing conduct in there, including the showing of these documents to other people, that were not cleared to be able to see them. So I think that we've got to have a full trial here, and a fair one. The president- the former president is presumed innocent until proven guilty, but the conduct in there, Bob, is deeply disturbing. And what I'm concerned about is, look, we need change at the Department of Justice. And if I'm President, you can be guaranteed that we'll put an attorney general in there who will lead without fear or favor and clear out anyone who does show partisanship. But that's a different issue than the conduct that Donald Trump engaged in. And in my view, that's not the conduct that we should have from someone who wants to be President of the United States again. 

ROBERT COSTA: Governor, you just said you'd make some changes at the Department of Justice. Some of your rivals in the race have said that the Justice Department, in their view, was weaponizing this investigation, targeting former President Trump. You know the FBI director for years Chris Wray. Are your rivals wrong when they talk about the DOJ becoming weaponized?

CHRISTIE: Look, I think the DOJ under Eric Holder became weaponized, and the fact of the matter is when you look at what he did, as his time as Attorney General, both against Republicans and in refusing, along with Loretta Lynch, later on to prosecute Hillary Clinton--

ROBERT COSTA: But what about now, Governor? 

CHRISTIE: Well, I'll get to it, Bob. And I think now what we're looking at is, people seeing things as being inequitable. That if you don't prosecute Hillary Clinton, and you choose to prosecute Donald Trump, that that raises real questions in Republicans minds, and it should. But it does not change the conduct. We would not be here if Donald Trump had simply returned the documents, the dozens of times the government asked him to return them, the times that the grand jury served a subpoena for them. He waited, waited, and waited, defied the government and then wound up having his- his house raided. And when they did, they found over a hundred more classified documents after he had told everybody months earlier he had returned everything. That conduct is indefensible, in my view, and if it's true, as alleged in the indictment, he is in severe legal trouble. 

ROBERT COSTA: Indefensible. Disturbing your words about this alleged conduct in the Republican Party, right now, not only at a crossroads politically, but historically?

CHRISTIE: Look, I said this when I announced for president, we have been at a crossroads in numbers of times in- in our nation's history, 1776, 1861, 1941, 1961, and 1981. And all those years, we had presidents like George Washington, like Abraham Lincoln, like FDR, like JFK, and like Ronald Reagan, who had a choice between going small and going big, and doing big things for America. We need a president who once again is not looking at this small stuff in the rearview mirror, who's constantly whining and complaining and moaning about how things are unfair. What we need as a party, and as a country, is a president who will go big, lead America to big achievements and big goals again, and there's nobody, Bob, who can do big better than me.

ROBERT COSTA: How will history see your own role with Trump?

CHRISTIE: Look, I made it very clear in 2016 I did not want Hillary Clinton to be president of the United States and I think that was the right decision. And my hope back in 2016, was that I can make Donald Trump a better candidate, and if he won, a better president. I tried, and I was wrong. I couldn't make him a better president. And he failed over and over again. All you need to look at is the fact that he said he would build a wall, he didn't build the wall. And in fact, he said he would make Mexico pay for it, we haven't gotten our first peso. He said he would balance the budget in four years. He left the biggest deficit of any president in recent American history. He said that he would bring only the best and brightest people into government. Yet you watch him as he belittles everyone who disagreed with him that he brought in. People like Rex Tillerson, former CEO of ExxonMobil, who he said was the embodiment of the American dream, and when Rex Tillerson disagreed with him, Bob, he called them lazy as hell and dumb as a rock. Now, which one was it? Was he right when he called them all those things? Which means he didn't pick the very best people? Or was he right when he said it was the embodiment of the American dream, and because Rex Tillerson disagreed with him, the petulant child came out in Donald Trump, and when you disagree with him, you get called names. Look, Bob, if we're on Father's Day today, and I want to talk to every father out there. If your child acted like this, you'd send them to his room. You wouldn't send them to the White House. 

ROBERT COSTA: This is a race for the White House. You're not the only one running against former President Trump. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is ahead of you in the polls, does DeSantis have what it takes to become the leading Trump alternative?

CHRISTIE: Well, we're gonna find out. I don't know Governor DeSantis all that well. I trust I'll get to know him much better over the course of this campaign. But I'll say this, Bob, and people can see this if if they go to our website at chrischristie.com, they'll see that in the last two polls in New Hampshire, we are now solidly in third place after one week in the race, and only four points behind Governor DeSantis who is in second place. So this is a race to be the Trump alternative. In New Hampshire, I'm now within four points of Ron DeSantis in our first week in. And so if people want to see me make these arguments on the debate stage, we got to meet those RNC rules of 40,000 donors, go to chrischristie.com –

COSTA: Understood

CHRISTIE: Donate $1 so you can see me make these arguments right on the stage. 

COSTA:

If you make the stage and you ultimately win the presidency, you're gonna have to deal with foreign policy. Right now, Tony Blinken, the Secretary of State meeting with Chinese officials. Do you believe it's the right decision by the Biden administration to engage with China in this way?

CHRISTIE: Bob, I think the problem has been the entire Biden administration has been filled with mishaps towards China. First, let's start with Ukraine, where Joe Biden said a small incursion wouldn't be a problem. He sent a signal to Russia and China that a war in Ukraine would be okay. China is now funding it because we gave them the signal it was okay, and Russia is killing innocent Ukrainian citizens who only want their freedom. He has made mistakes in terms of not being tougher against China on the stealing of our intellectual property, letting spy balloons fly over our country unharassed. Whatever he's doing today is a day late and a dollar short, Bob. He should have been- being much more direct with China right from the beginning. And I think people who know me know that there will be no confusion on the part of President Xi when I'm President of the United States, about what American policy is, and that every day we will be fighting to make America the winner in this competition against China. 

COSTA: Governor Christie, we'll see you on the campaign trail soon. We appreciate you being here and Face the Nation will be right back. Don't go away.