If you don't have a TV nearby, but you want to watch New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie's press conference (scheduled for 11 AM ET) on the George Washington Bridge lane closure scandal, here's your feed:
Follow along here for updates throughout the press conference, and join in the conversation in the comments—and don't forget your popcorn, because watching Chris Christie try to find the right "tone" for throwing his staffers and friends under the
bus is going to be Hilarious. Yes, with a capital H.
7:57 AM PT: Meanwhile, the U.S. Attorney for New Jersey will open an investigation into the matter, reports The New York Times. And on that topic:
Needless to say irony: Chris Christie rose to power as US Attorney. Now US Attorney probing his office.
— @mikiebarb
7:59 AM PT: Perfectly timed for the presser: Murdoch-media reports Christie has canned his Deputy Chief of Staff who ordered the lane closures by email.
8:03 AM PT: The video feed says "Offline," though Christie hasn't begun yet. Just in case it doesn't carry his presser, the New York Times has a live feed.
8:07 AM PT: Okay, so the feed is now live. It's literally mesmerizing watching that counter of simultaneous live viewers grow. A half hour ago, it was 750 or so. Now it's grown by a thousand in just the last two minutes.
8:08 AM PT: Here he is. "I come out here 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 people on my team."
8:09 AM PT: Christie says he wants to talk about two things. First, he says the people who were harmed by the lane closures deserve an apology. Second, he says he has fired his deputy Chief of Staff "because she lied to me."
8:11 AM PT: Christie is trying to explain why he believed her lie. And he's spending a lot of time trying to say that Kelley didn't even report directly to him. "There's no justification for lying to a governor," he says.
8:12 AM PT: So ... if she had told him the truth, would he not have fired her?
8:14 AM PT: Christie says his staff is like a family, so "I am heartbroken" that someone "betrayed my trust." Most of his press conference is focused on his assertion that Kelly lied to him.
8:16 AM PT: Now Christie is withdrawing his support for his former campaign manager Bill Stepien as state GOP chair and as a consultant for the RGA, "because of the lack of judgment" that were shown in the emails.
8:19 AM PT: This press conference is really about Chris Christie trying to position himself as a victim of this scandal, which given that it was his staff at the highest levels who carried out the lane closure scheme really takes some chutzpah.
8:21 AM PT: Christie says "this is the exception" not the rule of what happens in his administration.
8:21 AM PT: He's nearing the end of his prepared remarks. Will he take questions?
8:22 AM PT: And once again: "I had no knowledge of this issue in its planning and execution." Not me, not me, not me!
8:23 AM PT: "I have 65,000 people working for me and I cannot know" what each of them is doing at any given moment, but that doesn't matter." And now he's taking questions.