"It's done, he's going to be convicted": Christie says Mark Meadows poses "deadly" threat to Trump

"You don't give Meadows immunity unless the evidence he has is unimpeachable," says Christie, a former prosecutor

By Tatyana Tandanpolie

Staff Writer

Published October 31, 2023 12:32PM (EDT)

White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows listens during a cabinet meeting in the East Room of the White House on May 19, 2020 in Washington, DC. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)
White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows listens during a cabinet meeting in the East Room of the White House on May 19, 2020 in Washington, DC. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)

"It's over" for Donald Trump, who knows "he's going to be convicted" in his criminal cases, fellow 2024 Republican presidential candidate Chris Christie declared Tuesday on MSNBC, blaming the former president's recent flubs on the campaign trail — struggling to remember Joe Biden's name and forgetting which city he's stopping in — on the stress of his intensifying legal battles. The former New Jersey Governor and ex-U.S. attorney appeared on the Tuesday edition of MSNBC's "Morning Joe" to talk Trump's legal woes, telling the hosts that former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows likely adds to the former president's worries after securing an immunity deal with federal prosecutors. 

"I think it's the stress of what he knows is coming in his criminal problems, and I think this week, because a lot of that was from the last week. That's all post-Mark Meadows," Christie said. "Everyone watching needs to understand, from somebody who did this work for seven years, you don't give Mark Meadows immunity unless the evidence he has is unimpeachable." He then described what Trump will likely face when Meadows takes the stand in the federal election subversion case's March 2024 trial. "He's going to be sitting in a courtroom in Washington, D.C., with Mark Meadows 20 feet away from him, saying, 'He committed crimes in front of me, on my watch,'" Christie predicted. "Look, this is a guy who was velcroed to Trump's hip for the entire 2020 campaign and all the post-campaign nonsense, so this is deadly. It's done, he's going to be convicted – it's over," Christie added later, noting that he doesn't believe Trump will be able to delay the trial based on his impression of the presiding district court judge, who reinstated a gag order against Trump on Sunday, and the lack of co-defendants in the case.