Trump debate adviser turns tables on president's 'disease': 'You caused this problem'

The Republican insider who helped Donald Trump prepare for two debates in a row said on Wednesday that the president is the one causing a terrible "disease" to eat away at GOP lawmakers' electoral hopes.

Chris Christie, former GOP governor of New Jersey, appeared on MS NOW mid-week to discuss elections and voting. Specifically, he was asked about Trump claiming votes are "rigged" due to mail-in ballots.

Christie said, "Well, he thinks in one respect, guys that worked for him then, because we're still having folks who believe that argue about the 2020 election today, over five years later."

He then added, "And, you know, he also the other thing he did is kind of interesting, building off the point you were making, Joe, is that, you know, he says, well, write in votes and these late votes don't go his way. Let me tell you one of the reasons they don't go his way, because back in 2020, when mail-in voting became more broadly available because of Covid, he repeatedly said over and over again to his supporters, don't vote by mail. It's crooked, it's rigged, don't vote by mail. And I can tell you that myself and other people around him kept saying, don't say that. A lot of your voters are seniors who are going to be afraid to go out to the poll because they're afraid to catch Covid. And so if they won't vote by mail because you say it's crooked, and the only people who do vote by mail are people who are voting against you, those numbers are going to be even worse."

Christie further noted Wednesday, "And I think that's a disease that still hasn't been corrected inside the Republican party, that we still get smashed as republicans on mail-in voting in part, and I think large part because Donald Trump conditioned a large section of our voters to think that their votes wouldn't be counted. And so what I would say to him on that front is, doctor, heal thyself. You know, you caused a lot of this problem, and now you're trying to fix it by saying, doubling down on the idea that elections are going to be rigged and rigged, in part because of mail-in voting, which just, you know, doesn't match the facts."