Christie says Trump was too ‘coward’ on Jan. 6 to join supporters on Capitol Hill

Republican presidential candidate Chris Christie on Sunday called former President Trump a “coward” for sending his supporters to the Capitol on Jan. 6 while he went back to the White House.

In an interview on CNN’s “State of the Union,” the former New Jersey governor detailed what he characterized as lies Trump told his supporters leading up to the attack on the Capitol. Christie said he knew Trump would not join his supporters, despite telling them he would march with them from the Ellipse to the Capitol on Jan. 6. 

“’[Trump] asked them then to march up to Capitol Hill to stop what was going on up there. He said he would march with them, but as I told you, Dana, I knew that if Donald Trump had a risk of breaking a fingernail, he’s such a coward that he wouldn’t go up to Capitol Hill,” Christie told CNN’s Dana Bash.

“So he went back to the safety of the White House and sent those folks up there to do what they did, which was to create, many of them, violent conduct up on Capitol Hill,” he added.

Christie, a former Trump ally and now a frequent critic, has gone after Trump for what he characterizes as deceitful and selfish behavior. Trump is the frontrunner in the 2024 Republican presidential primary. 

Testimony from the House select committee investigating the attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6 suggested the former president had intended to join his supporters after his speech on the Ellipse on the morning of Jan. 6, but the Secret Service prevented him from doing so, which, according to testimony, infuriated Trump.