'Ridiculous': Chris Christie slams Donald Trump's response to E. Jean Carroll verdict

Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie called out former President Donald Trump’s response after a federal jury found him liable in a civil case for sexually abusing and defaming E. Jean Carroll in the 1990s.

The jury said Trump should pay the writer $5 million in damages, though they found him liable for sexual abuse, not rape. Trump responded to the verdict on his Truth Social platform, saying he did not know who Carroll was and adding “hopefully justice will be served on appeal.”

Christie, in an interview with Fox News host Brian Kilmeade, called Trump’s response “ridiculous.”

“How many coincidences are we going to have here with Donald Trump?” Christie said.

“He just has random people he’s never met before who are able to convince a jury that he sexually abused them. I mean, this guy, it’s one person after another,” Christie added.

He also said Trump’s conduct “is unacceptable for somebody that we call a leader, and he wanted to take leadership again.”

Trump has declared his reelection bid for the White House, and Christie has been testing the waters for entering the 2024 race for the White House.

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“Do I think this is a silver bullet that ends Donald Trump’s candidacy? No. I just think it’s additional weight of evidence that people are going to look at and say, ‘if he’s this unlucky, Brian, if none of this has really happened, he’s this unlucky, we don’t want a guy that’s unlucky as president either,” Christie said.

Christie also referenced comments the former president made in the now infamous "Access Hollywood" audio tape, in which Trump said he could grab women by their genitalia. The tape surfaced during the 2016 election.

Trump appeared to stand by the Access Hollywood comments in a video deposition for the Carroll trial.

“He talked about it himself in the Access Hollywood tape,” Christie said. “I was there with him when the Access Hollywood tape came out, and let me tell you something, Brian, he was embarrassed. He was embarrassed then. He’s tried to change the whole history now, but he was embarrassed then.”

It’s not the first time in recent weeks that Christie has targeted Trump. He told conservative radio show host Hugh Hewitt Trump was too “afraid” to debate his fellow GOP candidates in the 2024 Republican primary after Trump suggested he might skip its debates.

“I’m leading by 40 points,” Trump told New-York based WABC. “People don’t debate when they have these massive leads.”

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Chris Christie slams Trump's response to E. Jean Carroll verdict