Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie said Trump has failed to provide any evidence of fraud, that his legal team was in shambles and that it’s time to put the country first.
“If you have got the evidence of fraud, present it,” Christie said on ABC, where he is a contributor. He decried efforts by the President’s lawyers to smear Republican governors who have not gone along with the President’s false claims of voter malfeasance.
“Quite frankly, the conduct of the President’s legal team has been a national embarrassment,” he said, singling out Trump attorney Sidney Powell’s accusations against Georgia GOP Gov. Brian Kemp.
“This is outrageous conduct by any lawyer,” Christie said Sunday, noting Trump’s attorneys have levied wild accusations in public but have not, so far, raised them in court, where there are consequences for providing false information.
“They allege fraud outside the courtroom, but when they go inside the courtroom, they don’t plead fraud and they don’t argue fraud,” he said.
“Listen,” Christie concluded, “I have been a supporter of the President’s. I voted for him twice, but elections have consequences, and we cannot continue to act as if something happened here that didn’t happen.”
“If you are unwilling to come forward and present the evidence, it must mean the evidence doesn’t exist,” he went on. “The country is what has to matter the most. As much as I’m a strong Republican and I love my party, it’s the country that has to come first.”
“I agree with the campaign’s statement that I am not part of the campaign’s legal team,” Powell said in a statement later Sunday night. “I never signed a retainer agreement or sent the President or the campaign a bill for my expenses or fees. My intent has always been to expose all the fraud I could find and let the chips fall where they may–whether it be upon Republicans or Democrats,” she added, vowing to file an “epic” lawsuit this week.
‘We’re beginning to look like we’re a banana republic’
Maryland’s Republican Gov. Larry Hogan also sharply criticized Trump’s efforts on Sunday, telling CNN’s Jake Tapper on “State of the Union” that he’s “embarrassed that more people in the party aren’t speaking up” about what he called the “bizarre” moves.
Republican Rep. Fred Upton of Michigan also stressed the need for a smooth transition process on Sunday, saying that the absence of one injects unnecessary uncertainty into the incoming administration.
“By not allowing the security briefings, the health briefings, the normal transition from one president to the next only brings about more uncertainty and threatens that peaceful transition that would otherwise — that would certainly undermine, then, the next administration,” he told CNN’s Dana Bash on “Inside Politics.”
“When you slow it down, when you fail to certify the results, when you add all this uncertainty, it only makes it very problematic, then, for the next administration to start with their feet hitting the ground,” Upton said.
This story has been updated with additional developments Sunday.
Jeremy Diamond and Michael Warren contributed to this report.
