Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie said 'of course' former President Donald Trump could have done more to prevent and end the January 6 Capitol attack.
Christie sat down for an interview on Axios on HBO, which aired Sunday, and talked about his falling out with Trump, who he had been friends with for 20 years.
'Well he said the election was stolen and it wasn't,' Christie said. 'Then January 6 happened as well.'
Christie said he was 'desperate' to reach Trump on the day of the attack and corresponded with Kellyanne Conway to strategize on how to get Trump to denounce the violence.
'I tried to call him… to give him advice on what I thought he needed to be doing to stop the violence,' Christie said during an hour-long interview with Axios' Mike Allen at his New Jersey home.
Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie said 'of course' former President Donald Trump could have done more to prevent and end the January 6 Capitol attack
Christie's book 'Republican Rescue: Saving the Party From Truth Deniers, Conspiracy Theorists, and the Dangerous Policies of Joe Biden' is coming out Tuesday
'I called Kellyanne Conway first,' he said in reference to the former senior counselor to Trump who had resigned four months prior. 'And I said to her: "Have you spoken to him?" And she said she had not. And she said: "I think we both need to call him." And I said: "Absolutely."'
'So I then called the president's secretary,' Christie continued. 'Couldn't get through. I then called his body guy. Didn't pick up. I then called the president's cell phone, and he didn't pick up.'
'I was desperate to try to get in touch with him, because I felt like what was happening was awful and was going to be a stain on his presidency, and I wanted him to be the guy to stand up and stop it,' he said.
Christie added: 'But he didn't take the call, and so I said what I would have said to him privately on the air on ABC.'
To Allen, Christie said he wasn't sure 1/6 would become a significant moment in American history.
'I'm less convinced of that. I think it's an important moment, but I wouldn't analogize it to 9/11 or Pearl Harbor,' Christie said. 'I think the significance is different than some people do, to me the significance is it showed the resilience of our democracy.'
Donald Trump called Chris Christie when they were both in the hospital being treated for coronavirus, asking the former New Jersey governor: 'Are you gonna say you got it from me?'
Christie noted how by 4 a.m. on January 7, members of Congress were back on the floor finishing up the certification of the presidential election.
During a donor event in Las Vegas earlier this month, Christie urged the Republican Party to move on from Trump and leave behind claims that the 2020 presidential election was rigged or stolen by Democrats.
'We
