The closures clogged traffic for four days on the busiest bridge in the world. The traffic caused delays for emergency responders on four occasions, including transporting an unconscious 91-year-old woman to the hospital, the Bergen Record reported. It was unclear if the delay had a role in her eventual death.

TomatoPie wrote:Truly idiotic. Can't believe the hubris of those who would plot something so moronic, and compound the sin by discussing it in emails. Hard to imagine that Christie could be so dumb.

drsmooth wrote:surprised CC isn't building in hedges against info that will come out in the investigations to come. There are certainly documented exchanges between him & his now-fired staff about political activity pertinent to this incident that will come out, that he will be called on to clarify/exlain/brush off, etc.

He's painting himself into a corner by not embroidering this "I knew nothing until yesterday morning" line

Brian Beutler @brianbeutler
"I've terminated Bridget's employment" presumably because her first name is a constant, painful reminder of the scandal

drsmooth wrote:surprised CC isn't building in hedges against info that will come out in the investigations to come. There are certainly documented exchanges between him & his now-fired staff about political activity pertinent to this incident that will come out, that he will be called on to clarify/exlain/brush off, etc.

He's painting himself into a corner by not embroidering this "I knew nothing until yesterday morning" line

"Believe me, I havent had a lot of sleep the last two nights," he said in a press conference Thursday. "And I've been doing a lot of soul searching."

The story that implicated the embattled governor's office broke open Wednesday morning, however, which is when Christie said earlier in the news conference he learned of the matter.

When a reporter followed up on the remark later in the press conference, Christie agreed that it was a "mistake" to say he had a sleepless two nights.

drsmooth wrote:surprised CC isn't building in hedges against info that will come out in the investigations to come. There are certainly documented exchanges between him & his now-fired staff about political activity pertinent to this incident that will come out, that he will be called on to clarify/exlain/brush off, etc.

He's painting himself into a corner by not embroidering this "I knew nothing until yesterday morning" line

swishnicholson wrote:

drsmooth wrote:surprised CC isn't building in hedges against info that will come out in the investigations to come. There are certainly documented exchanges between him & his now-fired staff about political activity pertinent to this incident that will come out, that he will be called on to clarify/exlain/brush off, etc.

He's painting himself into a corner by not embroidering this "I knew nothing until yesterday morning" line

Yeah, I'm perfectly willing to believe he had no knowledge of this before or as it happened. But when it hit the press, it's much harder to believe he wouldn't call in those implicated and demand a straight accounting. And that they would stand up to him and not give it. Still could have gone down that way, but I only see it happening through carefully protecting his ignorance, which is not that far from engineering a coverup.

This morning I've terminated the employment of Bridget Kelly, effective immediately. I've terminated her employment because she lied to me. I brought my senior staff together I think about four weeks ago tomorrow. And I put to all of them one simple challenge: If there is any information that you know about the decision to close these lanes in Fort Lee, you have one hour to tell either my chief of staff, Kevin O'Dowd, or my chief counsel, Charlie McKenna.

And I told them that in an hour I was going to go out in a press conference. And if no one gave me other information to the contrary that I was going to say that no one on my staff was involved in this matter.

Over the course of the next hour, Kevin and Charlie interviewed each member of my senior staff, came back and reported to me that they all reported that there was no information other than what we already knew that had been testified to by Senator Baroni regarding this incident. I then questioned Kevin O'Dowd and Charlie McKenna directly, since they are the only two who report directly to me, and they assured me that they had no information that would change my ability to be able to say that no one, in response to Angie's question, on my staff was involved in this matter.

That was obviously a lie. And the emails that I saw for the first time yesterday morning, when they broken in I believe the Bergen Record story, proved that that was a lie. There's no justification for that behavior. There's no justification for ever lying to a governor or a person in authority in this government. And as a result, I've terminated Bridget's employment immediately this morning.