A prominent ally of Donald Trump has urged him to drop his efforts to overturn his loss to Joe Biden in the US presidential election.
President Trump has refused to concede the election, making unsubstantiated claims of widespread electoral fraud.
Many Republicans have supported his legal efforts, although a small but growing number have broken ranks.
Voting in the US election ended on 3 November and Bidenis projected to beat president Trump 306 votes to 232 in the US electoral college when it meets to formally confirm the winner on 14 December. This is far above the 270 votes he needs.
Mr Biden is set to become president at an inauguration ceremony on 20 January. He is expected to name his first cabinet appointments on Tuesday, with long-time foreign policy adviser Antony Blinken reportedly set to become his secretary of state.
Speaking to ABC’s This Week programme on Sunday, Mr Christie, a former New Jersey governor, said: “Quite frankly, the conduct of the president’s legal team has been a national embarrassment.”
He said the Trump camp was often discussing election fraud “outside the courtroom, but when they go inside the courtroom they don’t plead fraud and they don’t argue fraud”.
“I have been a supporter of the president’s. I voted for him twice. But elections have consequences, and we cannot continue to act as if something happened here that didn’t happen.”
Mr Trump’s latest legal setback came on Saturday when a judge dismissed his attempt to have millions of postal votes in Pennsylvania invalidated.
In a scathing ruling, Judge Matthew Brann said his court had been presented with “strained legal arguments without merit and speculative accusations”.
The move paves the way for Pennsylvania to certify Mr Biden’s win on Monday. However, the Trump campaign is appealing against the ruling.
Mr Christie was the first governor to endorse Mr Trump as a presidential candidate back in 2016. He also helped prepare the US president for his debates with Mr Biden earlier this year.
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