Chris Christie press conference on #bridgegate controversy
Update: “I had no knowledge or involvement in this issue – in its planning or execution.”
New Jersey Governor Chris Christie will hold a press conference this morning at 11:00am, where he is expected to comment on the Bridgegate controversy.
You can watch the press conference opening statement below. (Full transcript here)
On Christie's offer to visit today, Ft. Lee Mayor says: "I would rather he not waste the gas and wait a little bit."
— Jeff Zeleny (@jeffzeleny) January 9, 2014
The mayor of Ft. Lee doesn't want to meet to accept Christie's apology? Well, that's quite the gift to Christie.
— Drew McCoy (@_Drew_McCoy_) January 9, 2014
Christie's press conference is lasting longer than the GWBridge traffic jam.
— Larry Elder (@larryelder) January 9, 2014
.@GovChristie just did what Barack Obama has not done, and that is hold somebody accountable for a big screwup #IRS, DOJ, ACA, Benghazi
— Steve Doocy (@SteveDoocy) January 9, 2014
https://twitter.com/EWErickson/status/421315512501432320
https://twitter.com/ezraklein/status/421329173546688512
Christie: "I had no knowledge or involvement in this issue – in it's planning or execution."
— Toby Harnden (@tobyharnden) January 9, 2014
This is getting better politically speaking. Christie handling this very well.
— Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) January 9, 2014
https://twitter.com/lachlan/status/421316553276006400
Listening to Chris Christie. I am glad he is addressing this thoroughly .. Painful.
— Mika Brzezinski (@morningmika) January 9, 2014
Chris Christie: 'I am embarrassed and humiliated' http://t.co/7SiKZTa1gA
— National Journal (@nationaljournal) January 9, 2014
christie heading to Fort Lee to apologize to mayor and citizens. says "this is not the tone" he's set in NJ
— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) January 9, 2014
"I am ultimately responsible for what happens on my watch, the good and the bad" -Christie
— Katie Pavlich (@KatiePavlich) January 9, 2014
God, it's refreshing to hear a lawmaker not downplaying or dismissing wrongdoing.
— Jim Geraghty (@jimgeraghty) January 9, 2014
Christie: I'd never have joked about lane closures if I thought anyone on my staff had been involved. Calls actions "stupid, deceitful."
— Guy Benson (@guypbenson) January 9, 2014
Christie calls Kelly "stupid" and "deceitful" for her actions. The bus just hit her, then backed up over her. Then did it again.
— Chris Cillizza (@ChrisCillizza) January 9, 2014
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Comments
“I know nudnink” worked for Obama. Not for Christie?
While your question (may be) is snark – the same thought occurred to me.
Last night I’m watching “Kelly File” and this one liberal guy comes on and his whole meme was :
“Well, Christie fostered an atmostphere where this could happen, even IF he did not personally know.”
To which it immediately occurred to me : um, so did Obama, but when that happened, you kept saying “but, there is no proof that the President knew.”
So – which is it. Now, do not misuderstand, – I’m not excusing bad behavior with other bad behavior. In fact I agree both are bad. I think there should just be a single standard.
(Gasp!) A single standard?!?!?!? How horrible!!!!
Yeah, I agree fully with all of your comment. The only crime/sin a leftist could commit would be to support the TEA Party or vote for a Republican.
well, he and our SCOAMF are two of a kind…
well 3 or 4 of a kind, if you look at the size difference.
nice of the Jersey Blob to out himself fully as a typical Demonrat before the “inevitable” march to giving him the GOP nomination to lose on purpose.
Have we sunk so low that we laud a blowhard politician for tossing an employee under the bus on the way to “owning” up to doing something petty?
I don’t like Christie. Never have. Never will.
I don’t like Christie, either. But no way did he have anything to do with the plot to close the bridge. He’s not stupid. Now we see the rats trying desperately to make hay out of this well beyond the scope of the actual skullduggery by the staff actually involved. They’re always at the ready to point the finger at somebody who has done nothing while completely shrugging away serious matters they are directly responsible for.
I didn’t mind seeing a little tarnish on obastard-hugging, RINO Christie because I don’t want him to run, but once the hypocritical rats attacked with their phony outrage and indignation, I’m sickened by them once again and wish Christie the best of luck getting past this.
Christie could’ve been stupid enough to believe the rep he gained from his staged-for-YouTube videos would get him past this as an “I’m a tough mofo don’t eff with me” kind of guy, flipping the bird to the recalcitrant mayor of Fort Lee. Unfortunately, for Christie, a woman died. It is inconceivable that Christie didn’t know when not only is his staffer involved but the Port Authority is, too. You’re telling me that the PA guy receiving a request like this from the governor’s office didn’t go over the head of the staffer and ask the governor if he wanted this done?
I don’t believe it.
The PA guy is a Christie appointee and an old school buddy. It seems to me he acted out of a warped sense of loyalty to Christie. The suggestion to the PA guy (Wildstein) to create the traffic snarl with the bridge came from a senior Christie staffer. Why would she risk sending an email if Christie had asked Wildstein verbally to do this? To hang herself? Makes no sense. Occam’s Razor.
Unless there’s proof of what you suggest, which there isn’t thus far, it seems that those who believe Christie was at the bottom of the whole thing are wishful thinkers speaking from the emotions of their personal likes and dislikes.
“Think when we talk of horses that you see them, printing their proud hooves into the receiving earth; for it is your thoughts that must deck our kings.” (Henry V, Prologue)
You must be in the theater, man, cuz that’s a lot of suspension of disbelief you’ve got going there.
I’m a she, not a he, loved your quotation, but I have to repeat that there is no evidence that Christie knew this had been done.
I’m awfully glad we’re all refreshed … now, watch the Lame-Stream Media munch Christie-*ss while totally ignoring worse behavior by Demo-mutts.
Embrace the change of no-change.
I wouldn’t toss Christie a rope if he were drowning but it seems that people are bashing him for something he had nothing to do with. Like an adult, he’s jumping on it and holding people accountable, everything we wish Obama would do.
CrustyB I agree.
What a totally fake, made-up story Bridgeghazi is.
Time to dismantle the evil MSM – it’s for their own good since they’ll be much more productive digging ditches. That’s all their skill set is good for!
I cannot support any executive who apparently has no idea what his two top aides are doing. These weren’t two low level staffers in an office across town that meet Christie only at campaign dinners. These two are in the office next to Christie, with constant daily access and contact – top level advisors.
It’s like when Obama ‘doesn’t know’, meaning he’s either lying about knowing or ignorant of what he should know, both poisonous, damning choices, but one of them is true.
If this reveals Christie’s skill at assembling administrative talent, fine, but his political ascent ought to end at governor of New Jersey.
I think it centered on trust. Pols pick senior staff very carefully. As the relationship develops, trust grows. People for such positions are chosen so that their every move DOESN’T have to be watched.
I object to your calling it #bridgegate. The correct term is #bridgeghazi.
BTW, after reading the front-page headline in today’s WSJ (“Bridge Spat Emails Pose Questions for Christie.”) I googled for “pose questions for Christie” and got 13,300 hits. Doing the same for “pose questions for Obama” got 7.
Don’t like watching the media pull Republican puppet strings quite so easily.
the Jersey Blob is no Republican, and he’s certainly not a conservative.
watching the Demonrats shred one of their own is amusing.
It’s been pretty quiet on the ‘pub front regarding this little imbroglio. No ‘pubs are rushing to Christie’s defense. That ought to tell the boy something.
Maybe we’ll get lucky and he’ll switch parties. That would make 2016 Hillar-ious. Can you not just hear what ol’ Hill ‘n Bill would be saying to each other?
Reluctance to support fellow GOP-ers caught in a storm is a general GOP trait. The GOP uwritten plank is Risk Nothing.
Masterful performance. I predict he’ll come out of this stronger than before. I don’t care for him but he handles the media like no one in either party. If he’s lying, he’s the kind of liar that Americans like. And we really like our liars.
speak for yourself. I despise them. they should be glad we’re not living in the days of the french revolution. if it were up to me, their last hurrah would be while watching the crowd cheer their disembodied head.
(metaphorically speaking, of course)
….as proven many times by Hillary and Bubba.
I’m not a Christie fan, but the northeast GOP megadonors who are planning to make him the GOP nominee have to be pleased by that performance.
Christie’s done. Stick a fork in him.He wasn’t satisfied with winning reelection, he wanted a blowout against his challenger. He reluctantly supported Tea Party favorite Lonegan against Booker for senate when he should have appointed Lonegan to the empty seat. So now, because he wanted to position himself for POTUS and placed that above all else, he skewered himself. Christie supports amnesty, gun control, global warming, and big gov. That sounds like a dem to me!
Amen !!
All true and good points. But your fork is going to require some damn long tines to do any damage to that boy.
Way to accept responsibility for the actions of those you lead, numbnuts!
Didn’t see the presser and don’t care. Living in NJ is difficult enough every day, then to have yet another blowhard governor of whatever political stripe either authorize or turn away from subordinates who engineer a situation where literally millions of people have their days screwed up by a contrived “traffic study” to avenge some alleged lack of endorsement…still burns me up and I haven’t lived in NJ for nearly 20 years. This isn’t the end of this…Jersey is the state where citizens sent Flim-Flam Florio used toiled paper when he tried to tax it. I am not amused.
Christie’s political instincts are keen. People admire people who take responsibility, especially when they say “I am responsible for what my people do”, and especially when they fire the appointed sacrifices. He has a knack for turning hostile coverage into a net positive, politically.
People say that Christie isn’t a good conservative. I don’t think he’s any kind of conservative, good or bad. You wouldn’t call a giraffe a bad baboon.
What Christie is, is a good Republican and a good politician. He isn’t a RINO, and I think that term has outlived its usefulness after McCain was nominated. He is exactly what a contemporary Republican is supposed to be: far to the left of me and thee.
The question is, if there’s a two-way race in 2016 between Clinton and Christie, and it’s close, will you vote? I will, and I’ll tell you why. Christie sometimes gets it right. Clinton never does. Christie is a pragmatic (like Bill Clinton). Clinton is an ideologue. Clinton has socialist instincts. Christie has populist instincts. I can vote for the lesser of two evils and still feel disenfranchised.
To put it in another perspective, if we had to vote today between Obama and Biden for president, I’d vote for Biden without hesitation, because he couldn’t do nearly as much damage as Obama, lacking Obama’s media defense team, viciousness and nihilism.
“if there’s a two-way race in 2016 between Clinton and Christie, and it’s close, will you vote?”
Sure I would vote, but it’s hard to see how I would vote for Clinton or Christie. I might vote for whichever kook the libertarians are running, like I did in 2000, 2004, and 2008. I don’t like libertarians, either, but at least they don’t have a chance of winning.
Then I will not vote. On National Security Christie, like Clinton, will be advised by Muslims. He is the guy with radical Islamist pals who wants them on the Jersey courts and wants to advance their interests. I’m not voting for another RINO who despises Conservatives like me.
Most certainly no Krissy Creme fan myself, however, we must call out the MSM and the GOP establishment both on this.
While this issue is most certainly news worthy the Lame Stream Media is having multiple orgasms over this … just shows the blatant hypocrisy in their reporting. While any scandal to do with Maobummer are “Fake Scandals” it is clear if you are paying attention to this the Communist News Networks of the world are giving this more air time in the last day than all of the Obama scandals combined.
Personally I hope Mr. Fat and Furious doesn’t survive this, but at the same time the media needs to be questioned LOUDLY on the hypocrisy at every opportunity.
If Krissy Creme survives this then it effectively negates the Hitlery Benghazi controversy and the Lame Stream Media will run with that.
As far as the Karl Rovers of the world and the establishment GOP goes, weren’t they the ones complaining about “Tea Party” candidates that weren’t electable due to gaffs and other baggage? Unelectable candidates in their mind.
Even Romney passed on the fat guy as their VP committee knew he had too much baggage.
I agree. The big scandal here is media behavior. Bridgeghazi is important, but a lesser matter.
Tell that to the dead woman and her family.
If the PA guy and Christie’s staff hadn’t gotten her, obastard’s death panels would have. She was 91.
Oops, I should have included an /sarc tag in my post above.
So let’s see, Christie uses the power of his office to “punish his enemies,” then claims he didn’t know about it (until, what? he saw it on the news?), then conservatives rally behind him? Not me. Sorry, he’s vile, and his regressive nastiness is exactly like Obama’s (only for now only on a state scale; God help us if he won the WH). If I don’t approve of Obama doing it, I darned sure don’t approve of a so-called Republican doing it.
We either have principles or we don’t.
I haven’t seen any conservatives rally behind Christie. Anything BUT that. But a lot of conservatives object to the hyper-attention to this matter from the media handmaidens of the ‘rat party. They’re trying to spin straw into gold again.
“As governor, I am ultimately responsible for what happens in my office, therefore I have selected two underlings to take the fall for it, both of whom to be rehired if and when I reach the White House, and after you’ve all forgotten this tedious episode.”
I don’t get all the faux outrage from the left and some on the right on this. When compared to typical New Jersey politics, this is actually pretty tame.
Any ‘faux’ outrage emits from opportunistic Dems looking to cynically score political points. Real outrage might emit from any Christie supporters who’d afforded him more principle than he possesses. What emits from the right is not outrage, faux or genuine, but disappointment in yet another self-sabotaging GOP-er, this one a short-lister for the 2016 nomination.
As for the roughness of NJ politics, list the states or cities where politics is all milk, honey, sweetness, and unicorns. NJ is no more or less rough than anywhere else.
The Christie problem isn’t about NJ, it’s the menace he poses if he successfully moves to the national scene.
Bully/inept/etc. means little to me. Christie is pro-amnesty, anti-gun rights, and pro-global warming taxes, long before this bridge thing.
Melt down Obama and 300 lbs of vanilla fudge in a vat, let it cool, and you get Chris Christie.
Chris Christie makes Eliot Spitzer look like George Washington.
[…] so Big Media relishes an attack on a fat juicy Republican scandal. Christie haters after “bridgegate” hate him even more with even greater intensity. Christie supporters take a step back away from […]
Right. Why hasn’t Ann Coulter, one of CC’s biggest cheerleaders, weighed in?
Ask any conservative south of the Mason-Dixon what he/she thinks of Christie and stand back for safety. This was true before the bridge affair.
No matter how it started, Christie is the boss and should take responsibility.
He did. He fired those he failed to supervise properly. He now has a clear path to the White House – by joining the Democrat Party.
Seriously…. if Christie came out and said he couldn’t stomach being a Republican anymore because of the party’s uncooperative intransigence and especially because of those damned Tea Partiers, that he was switching to the Democrat Party, he would immediately become their top candidate for 2016, usurping the Inevitable One right out of the gate.
Exactly what ‘responsibility’ has Christie taken for this?
What penalty has he accepted by being ‘in charge’ when this happened on his watch?
It just seems to me that it’s a hollow mea-culpa.
“I’m sorry, my underlings did it!” doesn’t have the ring of taking responsibility.
And this from someone (me) who kinda likes the guy!
Oh well, at least he was more contrite than King Obama.