Former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie said last week his attacks on Donald Trump will work where others have failed because it will be the first time that the public has heard someone “prosecute the case” against the former president.

Christie, a former federal prosecutor, made the remarks during an interview last week on PBS’s “Firing Line with Margaret Hoover.” When asked how his broadsides could weaken the former president, especially given that attacks usually strengthen Trump’s poll numbers, Christie said that Trump’s supporters have “never” seen “anybody prosecute the case against him, a fellow Republican prosecute the case against him.”

“They’ve never had a Republican come out and really directly make the case in the context of a campaign on the facts against his record,” he said. “Margaret, he said he was going to repeal and replace Obamacare. He didn’t do it, even with a Republican Congress. He said he was going to build a wall across the entire border and Mexico was going to pay for it. He not only didn’t build the wall, we haven’t gotten our first peso from Mexico. He said he was going to balance the budget in four years. He left with the highest deficit of any president in modern history. He said he was going to retire the national debt in eight years. He’s added trillions to the national debt.”

Christie acknowledged that there were good things that Trump accomplished while in office.

“The tax cut was good,” he said. “Some of his regulatory reform was good. The Abraham Accords in the Middle East were good. But other than that, on the main core things he promised our Republican base, he failed. No one’s prosecuted that case.”

Christie said that he will know if his method of going after the president is working if he is raising money and if his poll numbers are going up.

“I think that there is a large part of our party that quietly, in a whispered tone, has had enough,” he said.

Christie said that Trump has disqualified himself from being president by claiming the 2020 election was stolen, the events of January 6, and the situation over the classified documents.

Christie hinted that he will not support Trump for president if Trump wins the nomination, even though he would have to pledge his support for the eventual nominee if he wants to end up on the Republican primary debate stage—assuming he meets the polling the donation criteria.

“I plan to do whatever I have to do to save my party and save my country. And to do that, I’ve got to be on the debate stage,” he said. “So they want me to sign a piece of paper? I’ll sign the piece of paper the same way Donald Trump signed it in 2016 and then got on the debate stage and nine of us raised our hands to reaffirm the pledge we had signed, and he refused to. And no one kicked him off the stage after that. No one prevented him from being in another debate. So I’m happy to rest on that precedent.”

WATCH:

A section of Interstate 95 in Philadelphia collapsed on Sunday when a tanker truck carrying a petroleum-based product caught fire beneath an overpass, according to officials.

Despite the traffic snarl, and reports of explosions, there were no reports of injuries as of press time.

Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, a Democrat, said efforts were underway to identify any individual or individuals who may be caught in at least one trapped vehicle, per local media. 

🚨#UPDATE: Watch as drone video shows the Major collapse of the northbound lanes of I-95, as police has closed both directions According to one reporter they are still Hearing loud blasts or bangs underneath where the tanker is pic.twitter.com/ArFad85bq7

— R A W S A L E R T S (@rawsalerts) June 11, 2023

Authorities blocked off a two-mile radius around the area, according to CBS Philadelphia. Officials urged commuters to take alternate routes or consider different forms of transportation.

“For now, please avoid the area and follow the direction of the first responders on the scene,” Shapiro said.

Shapiro said the northbound side of I-95 completely collapsed and could take “some number of months” to rebuild, local media reported.

Brad Rudolph, a Pennsylvania Department of Transportation spokesman, reportedly said a truck was driving on an offramp when a crash or other incident caused the fire.

“That structure quickly collapsed with the heat of the fire as big as it was,” he said. “And then the southbound structure was also shut down because it was compromised by the fire as well.”

Rudolph said authorities are still investigating the cause of the crash that led to the inferno and collapse.

“It seems like it was a vehicle accident,” Rudolph added. “That ramp can be tricky if you’re going at a high rate of speed.”

Several explosions were heard in the area, which Philadelphia Fire Department battalion chief Derek Bowmer attributed to fuel runoff or gas lines that could have been compromised by the accident, per the Associated Press.

I-95 is CLOSED in BOTH directions between Cottman and Academy due to an earlier tanker truck fire under I-95. The fire has caused major structural damage to the highway, so expect it to be closed for a very long time.#PhillyTraffic pic.twitter.com/m1IcTTVDyV

— TTWN Philadelphia (@TotalTrafficPHL) June 11, 2023

Dominick Mireles, the director of the Philadelphia Office of Emergency Management, warned of possible “environmental impacts” in the nearby Delaware River, according to The New York Times.

U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg said he has been keeping tabs on the situation.

“Closely monitoring the fire and collapse on I-95 in Pennsylvania. I‘ve been in touch with [Federal Highway Administration] and spoke with Gov. Shapiro to offer any assistance that USDOT can provide to help with recovery and reconstruction,” Buttigieg said in a tweet.