Chris Christie Prosecutes Hillary at GOP Convention

We may never get the satisfaction of seeing Hillary Clinton in a prison cell (or even stabbing trash on the freeway), but New Jersey Governor Chris Christie tried to alleviate our disappointment Tuesday night with a blistering account of Secretary Clinton’s many professional failures. FBI Director James Comey said that no “reasonable prosecutor” would take the Clinton case, but Christie – a former federal prosecutor himself – was more than happy to put her on trial before the American public.

“Since the Justice Department refuses to allow you to render a verdict, let’s present the case now, on the facts, against Hillary Clinton,” said Christie on the second night of the Republican National Convention. “She was America’s chief diplomat. Look around at the violence and danger in our world today. Every region of the world has been infected with her flawed judgement.”

Christie took the assembled delegates on a tour of that world, dropping references to the worst aspects of the Clinton/Obama foreign policy nightmare. He accused her of leaving Libya in ruins, of opposing efforts to list Boko Haram as a designated terrorist group, of praising Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad, of acquiescing to China, and of guiding the initial negotiations that led to Obama’s disastrous Iran nuclear deal.

But Christie concluded by returning to his original promise – to show the American people that Hillary Clinton should have faced federal charges for her reckless stewardship over national secrets.

“She said there was no marked classified information on her server,” Christie intoned. “The FBI director said that was untrue. She said that she did not email any classified information. The FBI director said that was untrue. She said all work-related emails were sent back to the State Department. The FBI director said that was untrue.”

Not that the delegates in Cleveland needed any convincing, but Christie had the Quicken Loans arena shaking with a chorus of thousands rendering their verdict: “Guilty!” Those chants occasionally gave way to the crowd’s sentence for Clinton: “Lock her up!”

On Morning Joe, Christie explained why he used his speech in the way that he did.

“Last night I really needed to make the case slowly and methodically, factually, against Hillary Clinton,” he said Wednesday. “The problem is people in my party often get so angry about her that they yell and they scream and they use divisive language that doesn’t get to the core of my problem with her.”

That core, he said, was that she had not proven herself worthy of the office she was seeking.

“Not based on past scandals,” he noted, “but upon the very resume that she uses as proof that she deserves to be president.”

Christie’s “prosecution” won’t put Hillary behind bars, but it let the average voter know how unwise it would be to put her in the White House.