CLEVELAND — New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie put Hillary Clinton on trial Tuesday at the Republican National Convention, laying out a point-by-point case against her and asking the crowd to render a verdict.
On every charge that she mishandled her job as secretary of state or misled the American people, the crowd filling Quicken Loans Arena roared: “Guilty!”
Mr. Christie, a former federal prosecutor, said he was holding the mock trial because the Justice Department had declined to pursue criminal charges against Mrs. Clinton for her secret email setup as secretary of state and mishandling classified material.
“Since the Justice Department refuses to allow you to render a verdict, let’s present the case now, on the facts, against Hillary Clinton,” he said. “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 judgment.”
It capped two days of relentless attacks on Mrs. Clinton at the convention, and the exercise provoked a thunderous chant of “lock her up, lock her up,” which has become the Republican battle cry for 2016.
Mr. Christie’s case against Mrs. Clinton included:
• Her role pushing for the overthrow of Muammar Gaddafi in Libya, which led to the spread of the Islamic State;
• Her inaction against the kidnapping of hundreds of schoolgirls by Islamic terrorists in Nigeria;
• Her backing U.S. government spending fueled by debt to China;
• Her misjudging the situation in Syrian until civil war that left 400,000 dead;
• Her role initiating the Iran nuclear talks that Mr. Christie said “brought about the worst nuclear deal in history.”
“Finally, here at home, in one of her first decisions as Secretary of State, she set up a private e-mail server in her basement in violation of our national security,” he said. “Lets face it: Hillary Clinton cared more about protecting her own secrets than she did about protecting America’s secrets. Then she lied about it over and over again.”
Mr. Christie said that her record carelessness and deceit disqualified her form serving as the chief law enforcement officer of the United States.
“We didn’t disqualify Hillary Clinton to be President of the United States the facts of her life and career disqualifies her. We in this hall agree with all of this,” he said. “We cannot reward incompetence and deceit. We need to demand more than what Hillary Clinton offers for America.”
• S.A. Miller can be reached at smiller@washingtontimes.com.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.