Former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie (R) tore into Donald Trump, his 2024 GOP primary opponent, on Tuesday morning. Christie argued that Trump openly admitted to obstruction of justice the night before during a Fox News interview with Bret Baier related to his retention of classified documents.

Christie, a former federal prosecutor, spoke about the interview on CBS Mornings and declared Trump going on Fox to discuss the 37-criminal-count indictment against him was a “horrible political and legal strategy.”

“Last night he said the reason he didn’t give the documents back was because he’s just so very busy and he didn’t have time to respond to a grand jury subpoena because he needed to get his golf shirts and pants out of the box. I mean, does anybody in America believe this?” Christie added.

“Apparently so,” replied anchor Tony Dokoupil.

“Yes. Look, I think the problem is going to be for him over time is that people are just not going to buy it. And when you think about how many days of golf he’s played since he left office, maybe he could have skipped a couple of rounds of golf and gone through the boxes to respond to a subpoena from a grand jury,” Christie replied, adding:

Look, the problem for Donald Trump in all of this is his own conduct. He’s his own worst enemy. None of this would have happened to him or to the country if he had just returned the documents.

“What about the reference, governor, these were newspaper articles. These weren’t even documents. These were newspaper articles. As a former prosecutor, what do you make of that?” asked Gayle King.

“I’ve never heard about a newspaper article being declassified. I don’t think you classified newspaper articles, because by definition they’re already public,” Christie replied, quickly dismissing Trump’s odd defense from the night before.

“So, look, I think he knows he’s in trouble,” Christie continued, adding:

And last night, I think the worst moment for him was talking about the fact that he just didn’t have time to go through these boxes. Well, in response to the grand jury subpoena, yet he told the government and had his lawyer certify that he had returned all of the documents that were responsive to the subpoena. That is obstruction of justice. And it appears to me last night as a former prosecutor, that he had he admitted obstruction of justice on the air last night to Bret Baier. I can tell you this, his lawyers this morning are jumping out of whatever window they’re near.

“But are his voters jumping out of the window? Because that’s the question,” followed up Dokoupil.

“That will come in time. Tony, look, there needs to be a repetition to this. You know, the American people have been hearing his lies about this for years and years and years, and there has not been an organized opposition against him inside our own party,” Christie replied.

Watch the full clip above via CBS.

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