Gov. Chris Christie finally broke his silence Monday on the guilty verdicts handed down Friday to former aides Bridget Anne Kelly and Bill Baroni on all charges tied to their roles in carrying out politically motivated lane closures at the George Washington Bridge in 2013.Former Christie ally and ex-Port Authority of New York and New Jersey official David Wildstein also pleaded guilty last year to two counts of conspiracy for his involvement in the matter.
Speaking to “CBS This Morning’s” Charlie Rose in a taped interview, Christie said that despite testimony in court from Wildstein that Baroni had informed him of the plot as it was taking place and that the governor laughed in reaction to it, Christie said he couldn’t recall what was said.
“I have absolutely no recollection of any of them saying anything like that,” Christie said.
Pressed by Rose to clarify that he didn’t recall as opposed to being certain that nothing of that nature was said, Christie expanded on his comments.
“If they would have told me that, ‘Hey, we’re creating traffic in the George Washington Bridge in order to punish the mayor for not endorsing you,’ I would have remembered that,” said Christie. “And they never said that.”
Christie also noted that no testimony points to him being previously informed that the plot was centered around political retribution for Fort Lee Mayor Mark Sokolich’s decision to not endorse the governor in his 2014 reelection campaign.
Since the story first broke in January 2014, Christie has repeatedly denied having any prior knowledge of or involvement in the lane closure scheme.
The guilty verdicts, Christie said, “confirmed what I thought on Jan. 9, 2014, nearly three years ago.”
“I had 24 hours to make decisions back then,” Christie said. “And I felt there were three people responsible: David Wildstein, Bill Baroni and Bridget Kelly. And now here we are, three investigations later, federal grand jury investigation, an investigation by a Democratic-led Legislature, and what’s the conclusion? The conclusion is that there were three people responsible.”
Christie singled out Kelly in the interview, calling the plot “one of the most abjectly stupid things I’ve ever seen.”
“You know me,” Christie said. “I’m pretty good at this political game. I’m up by 25 points in a re-election in a blue state and they decide they’re going to create a traffic jam in a town that’s a Democrat town that I wound up winning two months later in the election?”
The verdicts also don’t reflect poorly on Christie himself, but rather on his staff, he said.
“I thought about this in the last week,” Christie said when asked what the verdicts said about him and his staff. “I’ve had 25 people serve on my senior staff over seven years, and had one person who didn’t get it. One out of 25. So I don’t think it says anything about me. I think it says everything about that person.”
Christie refuted recent polls showing his low approval rating and public skepticism on his recollection of the matter, blaming the media for peddling theories that will ultimately end up to be nothing but a “snapshot in time.”
“The fact is that if people, if the media and others attack you relentlessly for three years, and you cannot defend yourself because you are in the middle of cooperating in a judicial process and cannot stain that process, then, if there’s only one line of information, that people will believe the line of information they’re being given,” Christie said.
As he has done before, Christie acknowledged that the fallout from the lane closure scandal may have impacted his chances to be Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump’s running mate, but claimed that it wasn’t the sole or even main reason for why he wasn’t selected, adding that Trump truly believed Indiana Gov. Mike Pence “was the better choice.”
“Donald Trump didn’t call me and say, ‘You’re not going to be vice president because of Bridgegate,’” said Christie.
Rose’s entire interview with Christie will be aired at 7 p.m. Monday night on Bloomberg.
