Christie: Bridgegate Will Be a Footnote

Chris Christie appeared at the Petersen Foundation’s 2014 Fiscal Summit today. He was asked during an on-stage interview with Bob Schieffer whether Bridgegate would have any impact on his career. Christie responded “As far as the impact on my political future, I think it will have none because I didn’t do anything.”

“In the end, what the people of New Jersey know about me is I tell them the truth,” Christie told Schieffer. He added, “You’ve had all these people looking at it for four and half months now and there has not been one suggestion that I knew anything about it.” Christie also said he was not the first executive to have someone working for him behave in a way that he did not approve. Ultimately, Christie said the story would become a “footnote” to his career.

Christie was considered a front-runner for the Republican nomination for President in 2016 until the Bridgeage scandal hit. The story which involved lane closures on a bridge connecting New Jersey and New York as an apparent act of political payback quickly became an obsession on the left, particularly at MSNBC.

From the beginning Christie has said he did not know of the plans to close the lanes. At least three formal investigations into the scandal were undertaken. The first, by a law firm which has previously done work for his administration, found no evidence he knew about the incident beforehand. Two other investigations by the United States Attorney and by New Jersey state Democrats are still underway.

Thanks to Noah Rothman who alerted me to this story on Twitter.