Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) on Sunday suggested that planning that led up to the Jan. 6 riot "was driven from the top" by former President Donald Trump.
During a panel discussion on ABC's This Week program, host George Stephanopoulos noted that former Chief of Staff Mark Meadows had turned over a PowerPoint presentation to the Jan. 6 Committee. The slide show outlined plans for overturning the 2020 election.
"It may explain why the former president and his allies are working so hard not to cooperate," the host remarked.
"Well, look, all the things that you see were driven from the top," Christie admitted. "I mean, the president made it very clear that he did not want to concede the election, that he would not concede the election. And you had a bunch of people around him by the time he got to the end with very few exceptions that were C-team players at best -- on their best day."
"So C-team players get in there and they tell the boss what he wants to hear," he added.
Christie agreed that the Jan. 6 Committee "is doing important work."
But he argued that the committee would have "more credibility" if Republicans like Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) were allowed to participate despite their objections to the election results.
"It does affect to some extent in my party the credibility the committee has," he opined. "In the end, the facts are going to come out. But let's not kid ourselves, this was a driven-from-the-top process executed by C-team players and that's why it looks like a Keystone Cops operation because it was."
