Charles Stile, North Jersey Record
After munching down on meatloaf at a White House lunch on Valentine’s Day 2017, former Gov. Chris Christie had no intention of buttering up then-FBI Director James Comey, as President Donald Trump asked him to.
Christie thought the request was “nonsensical” and he “didn’t want to put Comey in the uncomfortable position of having to receive such a phone call,” according to special counsel Robert Mueller’s report, released Thursday.
But there may very well be another reason for Christie’s hesitancy: saving his own skin.
Like this? Click to receive free updates
Carrying out Trump’s charm offensive — Christie was told to tell Comey that Trump “really likes him” — could have put him at risk of complicity in a Trump effort to obstruct Comey’s investigation of former Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn and his contacts with Russian officials.
“Christie thought it would have been uncomfortable to pass on that message,” the Mueller report said.
Christie’s cameo moments in the sprawling report showcase his skills as a danger-avoiding political strategist, his instincts and savvy honed from training in the Republican political and legal establishment.
Christie, a political chess player despite his own explosive, bombastic behavior, was now in the role of tempering the impulses of a limited-attention-span president with no experience in government.
Christie was one of the few “adults in the room” — one of his stock phrases — in a chaotic, combative government filled with neophytes and led by a crank-In-chief who is described in the Mueller report as frantically trying to thwart the investigation.
And Christie, “the One Constituent,” who staggered out of Trenton, battered by the Bridgegate scandal, took care to keep his own neck out of trouble.
The notion that Christie didn’t heed Trump’s request because it might make Comey squirm is a bit of a stretch. Christie showed no hesitancy at publicly trashing his “old friend” Comey during the 2016 Republican National Convention over his handling of Hillary Clinton email probe.
