New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie apologized to the people of New Jersey Thursday for last year’s lane closure on the George Washington Bridge and announced he was firing his deputy chief of staff for lying to him.
"I come out here today to apologize to the people of New Jersey. I apologize to the people of Fort Lee, and I apologize to the members of the state Legislature. I am embarrassed and humiliated by the conduct of some of the people on my team. There's no doubt in my mind that the conduct that they exhibited is completely unacceptable and showed a lack of respect for their appropriate role in government and for the people that were trusted to serve," Christie said in a press conference Thursday morning.
Christie also traveled to Fort Lee, N.J., to apologize in person to Mayor Mark Skokolich, even though Skokolich told him not to make the trip Thursday evening.
In another development, six New Jersey residents filed a filed a federal lawsuit against Christie, the state, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey and others, calling the traffic jams caused by the bridge lane closures "deliberate actions."
On Thursday Christie announced that he had fired Bridget Anne Kelly, a deputy chief of staff, for lying when he sought the truth about the bridge closures from his staff a month ago. Christie also took punitive action against Bill Stepien, his campaign manager who was under consideration to be the next head of the New Jersey GOP. Christie has asked Stepien to withdraw his name from consideration for the position and also to withdraw his consultancy from working with the Republican Governor's Association, the association that Christie took over in November.
"I was disturbed by the tone and behavior and attitude of callous indifference that was displayed in the emails by my former campaign manager, Bill Stepien," Christie said. "If I cannot trust someone’s judgment I cannot ask others to do so."
What seemed to be a poorly planned lane closure to conduct a traffic study exploded into a full-blown scandal Wednesday after a series of communications between a Christie aide and two of his political appointees to the Port Authority became public. The email and text messages suggested that Kelly, one of Christie’s three deputy chiefs of staff, ordered the lane closures
"Time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee," Kelly wrote in an Aug. 13 message to David Wildstein, a top executive at the Port Authority who was appointed by Christie.
"Got it," replied Wildstein, who would later resign as a result of the outburst of anger surrounding the lane closings, which snarled traffic, prevented school buses from running on time, and even delayed emergency vehicles trying to reach a 91-year-old woman who was unconscious and later died.
Other exchanges reveal mockery of the school children who were late to school because of the traffic, with one person saying, “"They are the children of Buono voters," a reference to Christie’s Democratic opponent in the gubernatorial election, State Sen. Barbara Buono.
Christie maintained that he had "no knowledge or involvement in this issue, in its planning or its execution," and said he was "stunned by the abject stupidity that was shown here." He said there would be further investigation, including whether the bridge's access lanes were closed as part of a traffic study, which was the original explanation for the massive gridlock.
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