Republican presidential candidate Chris Christie claimed in an interview on Sunday that former President Trump knows he lost the 2020 presidential election but his “ego” is preventing him from admitting his defeat publicly.
“The fact is that he doesn’t believe he won,” Christie said, referring to Trump, in an interview on ABC’s “This Week” with George Stephanopoulos. “He was concerned before the election that he was losing. And I know that because he said it to me directly.”
“So, he knows he didn’t win, but his ego, George, won’t permit him to believe that he’s the only person in America, outside the state of Delaware, to ever have lost to Joe Biden. And so his ego is running that,” the former New Jersey governor added.
Trump, who lost his reelection campaign in 2020 and is running again in 2024, still maintains in his public comments that he beat President Biden. The former president’s insistence in his 2020 victory has coincided with an increase in public distrust of election processes around the country, and many also say it was the motivating factor behind the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol.
Trump’s attempts to remain in power after losing the 2020 election are the subject of a special counsel investigation. They were also the subject of a probe by a select House committee during the previous Congress.
Christie, in his interview on ABC, was also asked about reports that Jared Kushner, the former president’s son-in-law who served in his administration, told a grand jury that he sincerely believed Trump thought he won the presidency in 2020.
“And am I surprised that Jared Kushner would say that? He doesn’t want to be disinvited to Thanksgiving, George, so he said what he needed to say,” Christie said.