New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie releases
a statement on today's
revelation that his deputy chief of staff ordered lane closures from Fort Lee to the George Washington Bridge as retribution against the town's Democratic mayor for not endorsing Christie's re-election:
What I've seen today for the first time is unacceptable. I am outraged and deeply saddened to learn that not only was I misled by a member of my staff, but this completely inappropriate and unsanctioned conduct was made without my knowledge. One thing is clear: this type of behavior is unacceptable and I will not tolerate it because the people of New Jersey deserve better. This behavior is not representative of me or my Administration in any way, and people will be held responsible for their actions.
So after months of denying that anything unacceptable happened, now Christie admits that something unacceptable did happen. But he had nothing to do with it—or so he says. It was somebody else's fault, because the buck stops over there. In other words, the one truly unacceptable thing for Chris Christie would be to held accountable for something that could hurt his political ambitions. What he's mad about is that this scandal was made public. Not that it happened.
1:47 PM PT: Chris Christie, one month ago:
"I have a lot of things to do. ... I know you guys are obsessed with this. I'm not, I'm really not. It's just -- it's not that big a deal just because press runs around and writes about it both here and nationally. I know why that is and so do you," Christie said at a news conference. "Let's not pretend that it's because of the gravity of the issue. It's because I am a national figure and anything like this will be written about a lot now. So, let's not pretend."
Far cry from today, eh? By the way, why hasn't he canned the aide who he says lied to him already? Isn't that a foregone conclusion? Why delay, even if only for a short bit?
1:50 PM PT: And on December 2, he was actually expressing anger that Fort Lee had three lanes:
“The fact that one town has three lanes dedicated to it, that kind of gets me sauced,’’ Christie said.
Apparently, however, that claim
simply wasn't true.
1:55 PM PT:
Dem running the investigation of Bridgegate says there are several thousand more documents that haven't been released yet.
— @RyanLizza