bridge gate day too it's now been about 48 hours in chris Christie is stepping
up to explain his role
he says he was really involved but he's trying to apologize trying to get some
of the heat off for themself
now for those are you were not familiar with the basic facts the bridge Katie
and I why people care about this let me catch up really fast
so affectively last year I had
there was mark SoCal its a Fort Lee New Jersey he's a democratic mayor Fort Lee
he declined to endorse chris Christie in his reelection bid for new jersey
governor
now I as we're gonna show you didn't really matter whether endorsed in or not
but
eighteens up chris Christie and possibly we might find out chris Christie himself
decided to take some former political vengeance
on mark's ok allege and so they shutdown are coupled lanes on the bridge over
Fort Lee
this cause massive traffic problems that caused emergency vehicles have a pop at
problems getting to people needed them
and the time this would be on the first day of school so obviously it's a
problem for the kids
as well now I David Weinstein is a close supporter of chris Christie he's the guy
who actually up ordered
those lanes to be shut down and then bill Baroni another
a supporter of chris Christie said that the reason that it happened
was that they were doing a traffic study he has also
resigned now so the people under chris Christie have been just falling to the
wayside
another close aide of chris Christie I was fired or chose to resign today
I as there's increasing scrutiny over this now the problem is that
emails came out showing that these aids and chris Christie were enthusiastically
celebrating the fact that they were able to shut down the bridge
and cause harm presumably poorly in possibly specifically to Mark's ok
allege
now we have to say that at this point there is no firm evidence or proof
saying that chris Christie ordered it or knew about it
although there is some information that might lead you to
to believe that we'll be covering that right now so first in his press
conference today
chris Christie answering a lot of questions about what what what happened
and one of the things that he said struck me as a little bit odd
he was asked if the scandal is gonna go beyond the bridge closure is a possible
there was anything else that was done
as a form of political revenge and this is what he said
I don't have any evidence before me as we speak that went beyond this incident
but I can tell you that I know for sure but I can tell you that I know for sure
after every aspect
everything now have to be much more circumspect to that prior to yesterday
believe that if I look someone in the eye who I worked with
and trusted and asked them that I wouldn't honest answer
maybe that was naive but that's what I believed so now I'm going in digging in
asking more questions but I can't make a warranty on that
I wall what I did there for weeks ago I wound up being wrong
now what I find to be interesting about that is the particular words that he
used he says
I don't have any evidence before me as we speak
that it went beyond this incident which seems to be I'm trying to say will look
there's no paper on the podium that shows that we did other things toward
democratic opponents
and it might be that eventually something will come out he's trying to
head that off by saying
maybe maybe other political revenge and
here's another reason that I believe that he might be concealing something
he is still sticking to an excuse for what happened an explanation for what
happened it was discredited
over a month ago he says what I was told
was that it was a traffic study in there was no evidence to the contrary until
yesterday
delivering that line today there still may have been a traffic study that now
has political overtones to it
but now unfortunately for the governor
we knew a month ago that there was no traffic study but he is still trying
that line announcing that that's what he thought was happening
back in December December December 9 specifically
3 Port Authority official said there was no traffic study being conducted while
access lanes from Fort Lee on the George Washington Bridge or closed in September
so that's what they said last month and yet chris Christie is still saying that
that's all I knew man I was involved
and look the goings-on at the Port Authority I wouldn't expect that most
governors would know
but this has been a scandal for almost two months now you don't think that
chris Christie is following up on that
trying to figure out what the media is buying what they're not buying
what port authority officials have said in public in testimony
no course he knows about that incident with the fact that he still using that
excuse
tells me that he doesn't want to admit that maybe he knew more than he is
aiming to right now
and also there was an odd question was asked to them I'm it was about how this
is affecting him
and he said that he's had two nights that were sleepless to sleepless nights
that he's just been mulling over this is how horrible it is that this happened
and yet he also said the first he heard about the emails
was yesterday morning sofa he only found out about it yesterday why did he have
to sleepless nights it might've been a Freudian slip indicating that at the
very least other members wouldn't have is
administration told him look these emails got hacked or take and how they
found out about it
and so heads up this is gonna be a huge problem it could be that he slipped in
either case may be set to any meant one
or maybe is indicating the actually knew about this before he's admitting to
at least at this point and so look it seems like this could be a big problem
for chris Christie and certainly people are talking about it's all over the
media at
most to the media as all get to on one-party bridge key in particular might
her chris Christie beyond just this month it might even her is long-term
political chances are becoming president
lawrence O'Donnell was talking about one particular part a bit there's a
91-year-old woman who needed help
and the emergency response vehicles took much longer to get to our
than they would have if not for the bridge closures now this woman
eventually died
and while we don't know at this point that her death was was specifically
because I've the delay
that this political revenge caused it certainly doesn't look good for
for the governor so lawrence O'Donnell is an interesting idea about how he
thinks
other Republicans and possibly democrats we use this one when chris Christie runs
for president rituals I spent some time today we have been able to do it but to
get the name of the 91-year-old woman
I who was delayed medical treatment that day
because at this a traffic jam and up
and eventually died and we don't know whether she died because the delay in
treatment
I love but that but in politics that's not the way they play this time
in politics she won we have her name
is going to become the willie horton of chris Christie's
presidential campaign his opponents are going to Penn
that name on him this woman is dead
because I've action taken by the yesterday
now up we'll have to see if Republicans and Democrats choose to do that as
lawrence O'Donnell says there we don't yet know the identity of the 91-year-old
woman we don't have her name we don't have a picture but
if that information comes out and I think it's likely that at some point it
will
is certainly possible that I'll be there will be used and
political campaigns now if you're not familiar with the work willie horton i
ads i'd from over twenty years ago it was used to show that dukakis was was
soft on crime that he was furloughing these criminals
and the the face in that ad became a symbol for the entire campaign
now is this at the same level as that I don't know at this point
as we said we don't know for sure that it was even responsible for the woman's
death but it certainly doesn't look good
now %ah this question or this topic actually came up at the press conference
and chris Christie did address
soulful now I've also seek a foot to report about what the cause of death was
however but it doesn't matter
it's awful here listen all I can do is apologize for the conduct the people who
work for me
I can't do anything else i cant were first-time
if I could believe me I would but I'm just gonna apologize I think that we can
do
enters did really nothing else you can do well
the governor looking very calm there he doesn't seem like a guy embroiled in a
controversy that could theoretically at least bring down his governorship
possibly ruin his chances are running for president
I certainly media fish on remembers the media are speculating that this could be
the end of his presidential
aspirations SE Cup saying on CNN that he should resign
of course the reason she say to resign is a very good focus on running for
president
and she thinks that the people in New Jersey will not only forget about this
Brit lit bridge closer
but might think that look he resigned his this magnet wonderful guy who's
willing to give up his governorship
set to make a right on what his aids dead think that's
a pretty bad evaluation of what's going on here but lawrence O'Donnell
does perhaps have a point there now I was talking with ben mink was as about
this earlier today and he made the point that chris Christie has been relatively
untouchable
now he's done things like pouring I the beaches when Sandy hit with Obama
certainly republicans didn't like that
but they have been able to stick anything really horrible to a
right-winger to him just yet
but what people are going to like this especially once the the woman's face
comes out once a picture ever comes out
and traffic as a general issue usually something that strikes a chord with
people
and so it's his belief that this is the sort of issue that will transcend the
normal things that people tune in to the news for
is not some arcane policy doesn't obey its not about funding levels this is
about
basically at all school-based level politics where you use your political
power to punish people you don't like
or help people you do like and I think that that's the sort of thing that's
simple enough that it will resonate with the average voter
and look will the ads work will they actually bring down Christine
that I don't know but I do expect the republicans will try to use this against
him