Two former Chris Christie associates were convicted on federal charges last week relating to Bridgegate, the plot to create a giant traffic jam for staggeringly petty political reasons. Despite the fact that multiple witnesses testified that Christie knew about the plot, the New Jersey governor told CBS he totally had no idea. What’s more, he found the whole thing “absolutely stupid.”
Christie told Charlie Rose on CBS’ This Morning that, once again, he had no idea any of this was going on but when he found out, boy howdy, was he outraged. Here’s Charlie Rose asking him about Bridget Kelly, one of his senior staff members who was convicted:
Rose: “Why do you think she did it?”
Christie: “Wish I knew, Charlie. I wish I knew. I never could figure it out. It was one of the most abjectly stupid things I’ve ever seen. I mean, think about it. You know me. I’m pretty good at this political game. I’m up by 25 points in a reelection in a blue state. And they decide they’re gonna create a traffic jam in a town that’s a Democrat town, that I wound up winning two months later in the election?”
Rose: “Well, it was stupid on the face.”
Christie: “Absolutely stupid on the face.”
Rose: “And criminal.”
Christie: “As determined by the jury.”
Rose, at that point, gently tried to point out that a witness testified that Christie was told about the closures at a 9/11 memorial event and that he found the whole thing very funny:
Rose: “But it is not just her. David said that he told you about it at the 9/11 Memorial —”
Christie: “Yeah. That’s not what he said, by the way.”
Rose: “ — and that you laughed.”
Christie: “No. The first thing he said was that Bill Baroni told me. Told me what? Even Wildstein said that all Baroni said to me was that there was traffic at the George Washington Bridge and that the mayor was not getting his phone calls returned. Now, Charlie, I have to tell ya’, I have absolutely no recollection of any of them saying anything like that. So let’s be clear. But even if they had, there’s not –”
Rose: “So you’re saying you have no recollection? You’re not saying, ‘I can swear to you that they never said anything like this’? You’re saying, ‘I don’t remember’?”
Yep. That’s what he’s saying.
Christie has never faced charges connected to Bridgegate, but it was one of the factors that caused his approval ratings to plummet to their lowest point. That, and his continued, humiliating support for Donald Trump, a man who treats him like dogshit. Christie was supposed to campaign for Trump this weekend, but both campaign stops were cancelled after the Bridgegate verdict. Christie appears, for now, to still have his job on Trump’s transition team, which is sad in multiple ways.