That is the beginning of a great debate. And, another president ial promise broken. Have you, my friends, been foxconnd . The argument for that ahead. What do you say . Lets get after it. Id like to say, well, it cant be, but you never know these days. Did the president undermine the intelligence chief simply because they disagreed with him . Cnns sources say the president seethed this morning as he watched tv coverage of his intel chiefs contradicting him on capitol hill. At one point, were told, he singled out his director of National Intelligence, dan coats, a man he put there, singling out by name, appearing to be more frustrated with the graphics at the bottom of the screen than the actual assessments delivered by the group yesterday to the senate intel committee. More to come on that. That raging tweet that he put out about it. But first, we now know the russians are trying to interfere with muellers interference investigation. Talk about irony. In a new doj filing, the special counsel claims nonsensitive evidence from the probe that was handed over as part of a criminal case was then altered by russians to discredit the probe. He also says hes identified individuals and entities yet to be charged who are interfering with our government. This news comes as the chair of the Senate JudiciaryCommittee Takes aim at the special counsel for that raid on roger stone. Lindsey graham goes back and forth. Now hes helping the president. And demanding an fbi briefing. The president said in a new interview, he could think about asking the fbi to review its methods. With us to talk everything mueller an more is a man who says he laughed in the president s face when he told him muellers probe would end with the firing of Michael Flynn. He is former governor Chris Christie. Led the trump transition team. Writes all about it in his new tellall, let me finish. Governor, the book in my hand the whole time. Great to have you on primetime. Thanks for having me. Obviously, youre a big shot at abc news. Im happy to be there. Appreciate that. First thing off the bat, were going to get into this book in two segments tonight because youre a special guest. With confidence. The American People one of the questions is where we getting the best we can and should out of the white house . Reading your book, the question has to be no, the American People could be Getting Better then theyre getting. Fair assessment and why . Its a Fair Assessment in my view and was so much worse in the beginning of the administration in my view than the Postjohn Kelly era. Generally kelly brought discipline to the place, more structure. And attracted better folks when he got there. The beginning was a disaster. I write about it in the book. The transition we worked on for six months. 140 people working in office in washington. Volunteers from all across private sector and government folks who are working on things. Got thrown out two days after the election when i got thrown out. Its okay to throw me out, but they threw all the work out and worked off the back of an envelope for 71 days and it looked like they worked off the back of the envelope. Proofs in the performance. Putting people in that werent vetted. Getting thrown out in unprecedented fashion. Doing things weve anyone seen officials at that level do this kind of number. Chris, the day after the election, i practically threw my body in front of the president elect begging him not to appoint Michael FlynnNational Security adviser. Weve been arguing about this, he and i, from june to november. What did you know . I didnt know anything. I just watched him. What i said was the National Security adviser is supposed to be the person who is the conciliator between the state department, the defense department, and the intelligence agencies. Bring them together to bring consensus to the president on National Security issues. I said, this guys temperament is so illfit for that job, hes such a showboat, hes such a car wreck, that hes not right for this job. I begged the president not to do it. In the end, the president said to me the day after the election, you just dont like him. I said the, youre right, mr. President. You know why i dont like him . Hes going to get you in trouble. News of day. Is it surprising to you that russian operatives would try to manipulate evidence and information given by mueller in part of a case to try to screw with the probe . No. Do you believe that they tried to interfere in the election . Yes. Do you believe the intel chiefs . Yes. Why cant the president answer that question . Listen, i dont know, he and i had conversations about this over the course of time. I dont know the new head of the cia, miss haspel, but i do personally know senator coats and i know chris wray very well. And these are serious people who is put there by the president. All put there by the president. I recommended chris wray for president after james comey was fired. These are serious people who deserve to be listened to. Listen, are they right 100 of the time . Of course, not. No one is right 100 of the time. I will tell you when i believe when theres such an consensus among the Intelligence Community about certain facts, give deference to the facts unless theres startling evidence to contradict it. I havent seen any evidence contradicting it at this point. Do you think with the president its about him knowing better, he has some sources we dont know about, that that leads him to say, i know why they think that but this guy i have on the inside, i know better, because i know where they get their information. He doesnt have that level of sophistication. I think if it was that, he would say it knowing him. The president says whats on his mind. I dont think thats the case. I think that, unfortunately, because of all the things that happened in the runup to the election, and in the aftermath, the president had a gut distrust of the Intelligence Community, and one of the things i told him was that, you know, you got to let go of that, if you cant, you got to replace all the people that are there and bring new people in. He did. Hes now done that. Yet, it doesnt seem to be changing it which is a concern for him because if youre the president of the United States, theres going to be a moment, probably a number of moments where youre going to have to rely on intelligence chiefs to be able to direct you. If you dont trust them, that becomes impossible to do. Do you understand why the people who worked in those positions in the past call on a day like today and say, i have to tell you, this tweet is not just some bs thing to dismiss of more trump talk, this kind of thing is a threat to us. Not that hes going to do something even more absurd, but that it sends messages, it sends messages to allies, it hurts our confidence with other people. This hurts us. Listen, on that part, chris, i think they overreact because i think the world has adjusted to the twitter feed of the president. I dont think i think in the beginning, the world reacted like they would normally react to a president ial statement. I think they now understand the president uses this for a variety of reasons. Some politically rhetorical. Some defensive. Some offensive. But to say that, like, everything that he says there turns out to be a threat, i think people have decided that theyre going to wait to see his actions and see if his actions are married to the words. On that point, i think they overreact a little. I understand, listen, they dont like him and i know why they dont like him because hes attacked them, and he doesnt like them because he believes they werent honest brokers in the preelection period. Theyre all his people now. Now im talking about the folks you said who were calling in. Right. His people, now, thats a different story. I think his people are conditioned now to these type of things. I can tell you this much, i havent spoken to my friend, chris wray, but ive known him now for 15 years. None of that stuffs going to bother him. Hes going to say to the people of the fbi, im your leader, im going to stand up for whats right for the fbi, im going to defend the institution, do your work, let me handle the rest. He just doesnt expect to have to defend it from the president. Usually its from outside opponents or someone like me. Thats true. If you watched chris during those hearings, hes unflappable. Hes a pro. He seemed fine. Its a weird adversary. It is different. Let me ask you this. Heres the big question. If there is no crime, if there is nothing to hide, why do so many around and including the president lie about russiarelated things . Well, listen, on the president , i cant answer that directly. You must. I cant. Let me let me first answer the people around how do you not know . Hold on. Well, because i dont know everything. Id right to believe i know everything, but i dont. This is what i can say about the people around him who have been charged and some convicted or pled. I learned when i was prosecutor that bad people and stupid people lie all the time for no explicable reason. Right . You think that there are bad and stupid people around the president . Oh, there have been. I mean, Paul Manafort, bad guy. Michael flynn, ive already said, bad guy. George papadopoulos, bad guy. So you circle through the list of folks, rick gates, bad guy. I mean, so theres no debating that any longer. Other than papadopoulos, all picked including roger stone by the president , and you say bad or stupid, look, i am all about respecting the presidency, no matter how much heat i get for that because of what the man in the office does on a daily basis. But what category does he fall under . Because he has lied gratuitously about these things. I understand the argument that goes on perpetually between the white house and certain aspects of the media and whatever. I dont think i understand why it happens. I dont think thats useful. I think in the end, i want to look at the president and the president s actions, and when you look at his actions, theyre not nearly as drastic as his words. And that goes in concert with the person that i know. And hes a salesman. Hes been a salesman his whole life. And he uses overblown rhetoric at times to make a sale or to defend something that hes doing. I always in the years ive known donald trump, i listen to his words, but i Pay Attention to his actions. Ill take that on policy, but when it comes to you have anything to do with russia and any kind of business . No, no, no. Youre lying. Thats a problem. Trump tower, did you know anything about this meeting . No, no, i didnt know anything. Did you anything to do with no, i had nothing to do with it. Yes, you did. Youre lying. Why . Thats the kind of thing that matters. When you were governor, if we couldnt take your word about things that mattered, its part of your job, part of your trust. President s dont do that much. They say a lot. Theres no question, i dont know if i agree with that last part. Lets skip over it. Theres no question that your veracity, that your integrity, is an important of leadership. Theres no doubt about that. Now, theres a large sector of this country, not a majority, but a plurality, that believes the president and supports him and trusts him. His maybe a third. Well, like, a plurality, id say. Now, his generous saying a third. His judgment, now, is going to have to go into play in this next two years to decide whether hes satisfied with just that measure of the electorate. Or whether he wants to try to win those other people over. I told him when he won the election, i said, listen, you didnt win the election. Hillary clinton lost it. Because shes this bad candidate, in my opinion. And i said, so that doesnt matter. When i won for governor in 09, i didnt win. Jon corzine lost. The people rejected him. I was the seemingly reasonable alternative standing there, i got 48 of the vote. Said the next four years are going to be about you and that next election is going to be about you, so build in these next four years to do what i did. 41 to 61 in a blue state. He has to do that now. Hes got two years left to do it and has to decide what do i need to do to get there . Lets go to break because the book is all about whats going to help him or hurt him in getting where he needs to be. So stay with me. Well go to break. When we come back, Chris Christie and a book thats going to be another one of these must reads. Let me finish is going to be a starting point for a lot of people about making their decision for 2020. Stay with us. Well be right back. Give dry skin the elbow. New age perfect hydra nutrition moisturizer from loreal. An ultranourishing cream enriched with manuka honey extract. Age perfect relieves dry skin and leaves it hydrated, toned and more elastic. New hydra nutrition moisturizer from loreal. New hydra nutrition moisturizer not long ago, ronda started here. And then, more jobs began to appear. These techs in a lab. This builder in a hardhat. The welders and electricians who do all of that. The diner staffed up cause they all needed lunch. Teachers. Doctors. Jobs grew a bunch. What started with one job spread all around. Because each job in energy creates many more in this town. Energy lives here. Now im gonna tell my momma that im a traveller im gonna follow the sun now im gonna tell my momma that im a traveller transitions™ light under control™ hey, who are you . Oh, hey jeff, im a car thief. What . im here to steal your car because, well, thats my job. What . What . . What . laughing what . . What . what . [crash] what . haha, it happens. And if youve got cutrate car insurance, paying for this could feel like getting robbed twice. So get allstate. And be better protected from mayhem. Like me. All right. Were very fortunate to have Chris Christie here with us tonight. The book he has is called let me finish. Well put it up there. My copy is all dog eared. You see it right here. There is a lot in this book that we need here. And im obviously no bookseller, but why do they do what they do in this house . Who is around the president . Whos giving him good counsel . Who isnt . And what does that mean for the rest of us in the future . Theres a lot of that right in this book by Chris Christie. We have the man, himself. Great. So you said before we went to the break, youve got to separate what the president says from what he does more than with most politicians. Yep. Okay. May not like it, but lets accept it. Who is giving him good advice . We ask this all the time. How did they let him tweet this . Why would they let him say this . Why would they let him recently with the putin stuff . Right. Who lets him take the interpreters notes . Who lets him go with this guy alone . Who lets him say that in helsinki . Whats the answer . I look, divide it into two ways, chris. Two different approaches. Ive known donald trump for 17 years. The idea of letting him do something is something that maybe works with other politicians, even worked with someone with a strong personality like me. It doesnt work with him. In fact, when you try to force him to do something, or not do something, he almost reflexively does the opposite. So idea of who lets him do these things, ive said to people plenty of times, hes 72 years old. Hes simply not changing who he is. But everybody, even you, you know, strong guy, my brother, strong guy, you have people around you who when they say, gov, not only are you wrong, but this is going to be a step in a hole that youre not going to climb out. Thats right. You stop. We do. You think. You get angry. You walk away. You come back. Youre like, what do we do . That never seems to happen. Sometimes it does. For instance, you see what he said on syria then obviously john bolton and mike pompeo and others got to him and now hes walked that back a bit. Same thing on afghanistan. Hes walked it back a bit. There is evidence of him doing that at times, chris. And i think that he does do it at times on issues that i think are vitally important in our National Security. But let me get to who gives him good advice and who doesnt, right . That is important. I believe in the old adage, garbage in, garbage out. In the beginning he had a group of people around him like steve bannon, rick dearborn, like omarosa. What the hell was somebody like omarosa doing in the white house . We were going to have the best. We didnt because jared kushner, rick dearborn, and steve bannon decided it was more important for them to have control than it was for the president to get a wellprepared transition. What did they know . Like, who among them has ever done anything impressive in. Governmental life . None of them. And thats what i said to the president elect at the time. And i think thats one of the reasons they got rid of me was because they didnt want to have somebody who had been an executive in government, was an executive in government at that time, who had run two transitions of his own, who could call bs on a lot of the stuff and the people they were suggesting. I mean, thats we talk about the transition. You know, our top pick for recommendation for him for secretary of health and human services, alex azar. Now, he ultimately picks him, but we go through the mess of tom price. We should have never gone through that mess. He picks Rex Tillerson who is a very competent, qualified executive, but he didnt know him. You cant pick a secretary of you who doesnt know you and you dont know them. They put that name in front of him because it was impressive. Part of the farce was, i know all the big shots, my friends, theyll all come and help me. Thats the salesman rhetoric. He knows wilbur ross. He knows steven mnuchin. A quality guy and one of the good people that gives him advice on a regular basis. And one of the moderating forces on him. Kellyanne conway, for all the abuse she takes because she comes out in public, comes on your shows and she gives. She does, too. Shes one of the people in the private moments in the white house who gives the president very good advice. No question, people undersell her at their own peril. They do. Theyve done it over and over again. Im telling you, its a short list. John kelly was very good for what he did in that period of time and gave him some very good advice. But, you know, theres a lot of folks around there who only cared about themselves and put their selfinterests ahead of the interests of the country and it is, of course, the president s got to be acc