Christie: If Trump Doesn’t Have Confidence in Sessions, He Has To Act

STEPHANOPOULOS: Let me bring this now to Governor Christie, he just said for better or worse. You’ve got this — again, we’ve never seen anything like this between a president and an attorney general in public. We also now know that Special Counsel Robert Mueller is looking at these actions as part of an obstruction of justice case.

CHRISTIE: Well, listen, a few things. I would say you’re right that the public nature of it is a bit different. But you know that in the past there have been really frosty relations and animosity...

STEPHANOPOULOS: But they keep it private.

CHRISTIE: Right, but then it leaks out, George. How do you and I know about it. We know about it — whether it was between Janet Reno and President Clinton, whether it was between President Nixon and some of his attorneys general, some of which became public, some of which didn’t. These things...

STEPHANOPOULOS: Caused him a heap of trouble.

CHRISTIE: Of course. And in the end, I think what we have to look at in this piece of it is, is the work of the Justice Department going? Is it still happening? And I think you see with Robert Mueller’s investigation it’s proceeding apace. I mean, he’s working hard and he’s producing a lot of results. I think you see Chris Wray making real difference at the FBI and seemingly unmoved by any of this stuff.

I mean, I can tell you I look at the way Chris Wray conducts himself from day-to-day in this job with all the tumult that’s going on, Chris Wray doesn’t even look like he’s affected by any of it. And I think that’s the kind of leadership that we need to make sure that...

STEPHANOPOULOS: So, you would counsel Jeff Sessions to stay?

CHRISTIE: Listen, I would counsel Jeff Sessions to do what he said he was going to do awhile ago, which was he was going to stay as long as he thought he was serving the president, the Justice Department, and the country in the best way that it could be served.

But I also will say, as a former chief executive, the president has the right to do what he wants to do. And if the president has absolutely no confidence in the attorney general, then the president has to act, not just criticize, but act. And he has the right to do that. And as a chief executive — former chief executive, I wouldn’t deprive him of that right.

But in terms of Jeff Sessions’ own decision, he has got to decide am I being effective? And am I serving the country well and am I serving the people at the Department of Justice well, because it matters.

STEPHANOPOULOS: Chris Christie, Reince Priebus, thanks very much.

Mr. Secretary, thank you for joining us this morning.