New Jersey Governor Chris Christie has denied any knowledge of a political retribution plot that he claims one of his aides organized, yet pundits are already wondering if the blowback will ruin Christie’s chances at a bid for the presidency in 2016.
Emails released Wednesday by the Bergen Record show that Christie’s deputy chief of staff, Bridget Ann Kelly, intentionally planned to inconvenience the citizens of Fort Lee, NJ after Mark Sokolich, the borough’s Democratic mayor, did not endorse Christie for reelection.
“Time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee,” Kelly wrote in an email dated August 13, months before the November election.
“Got it,” was the reply from David Wildstein, a top Christie official who worked at the Port Authority, the transportation center run by both New York and New Jersey.
One month later on September 9, the first day of school, commuters left for work only to discover that two of the three access lanes leading to the George Washington Bridge — the most heavily trafficked bridge in the US — had been shuttered.
Even worse, the Port Authority was soon notified that the traffic jam had delayed police who were searching for a missing child and emergency crews trying to save someone who suffered a cardiac arrest.
Still, the lanes remained closed until New York Governor Andrew Cuomo demanded they be reopened, calling the decision “abusive” and speculating that it may have been a crime.
Yet Christie, who is considered one of the likeliest candidates for the Republican presidential ticket in 2016, denied any involvement in the plan on Wednesday.
“What I’ve seen today for the first time is unacceptable. I am outraged and deeply saddened to learn that not only was I misled by a member of my staff, but this completely inappropriate and unsanctioned conduct was made without my knowledge,” he said in a statement.
“One thing is clear: this type of behavior is unacceptable and I will not tolerate it because the people of New Jersey deserve better,” he went on. “This behavior is not representative of me or my administration in any way, and people will be held responsible for their actions.”
The Fort Lee EMS department has said that it took emergency crews one hour to wade through traffic and respond to four medical calls on the first day of the traffic freeze. One woman, a 91-year-old, who laid unconscious waiting for EMS to treat her cardiac arrest, later died. It is unknown if her live would have been saved without the bridge closure.