Just a quick heads up that CNN is covering a segment of Chris Christie's live radio interview on New Jersey 101.5 now at 7:00 p.m. on Erin Burnett''s program. This is the first time Governor Christie is answering question about the many allegations since his January 9, 2014 interview.
The announcer asked him about David Wildstein's accusations. Chris reiterated the same position he took on his January 9 interview, unequivically, denying any prior knowledge, and adding that all that mattered was if he knew before the lane closures. One of Erin Burnett's guests is pushing back on this idea.
The announcer also asked about his subpoena response which was originally due today, but he got an extension on. He claims not to be involved in the details. The announcer asks if he is not curious, and I'm sorry I couldn't transcribe fast enough to catch his response
One guest, who I believe is a Republican, Sean Spicer, is defending Christie using the standard talking points of the decisive way in which Christie responded shows he is a good leader.
Governor Christie also complains about the media's game of "gotcha."
CNN live coverage of that segment is over. I'm looking for some other source for the radio program.
I'll add details in an update.
4:26 PM PT: Oh, the second guest on CNN is NJ assembly investigation co-chair Wisniewski.
4:29 PM PT: I just changed the title to make this an open thread, taking out Governor and Chris to make room.
4:35 PM PT: The radio program is called "Ask the Governor" and is apparently is a regular monthly feature in N.J., from
The Garden Island
TRENTON, N.J. (AP) — Gov. Chris Christie on Monday prepared to take questions for the first time in more than three weeks as his campaign sought to exceed New Jersey's election spending cap to pay for lawyers dealing with subpoenas stemming from a political payback scandal.
Christie gave a nearly two-hour news conference Jan. 9, the day after emails were made public showing that at least one of his top aides had a role in a traffic-blocking scheme near the George Washington Bridge. Since then, he has made public appearances but not opened himself to questions, except to schoolchildren in Camden.
On Monday night, he was scheduled to appear on his "Ask the Governor" radio show on Townsquare Media, although it was not clear how much time would be given to questions on the scandal.
4:39 PM PT: Howard Feinman, on MSNBC's Hardball with Chris Matthews, who has been listening carefully, says Christie is carefully "climbing down" from the "dangerous" (and implausible,) postion of saying he hadn't heard anything about the lane closures, but now clarifying that he hadn't heard anything about a plan coming from his office, or anything untoward.
Christie is backtracking saying while he may have heard about some traffic problems on the bridge, but there are traffic problems there everyday. But, he would have had no reason to think these were significant from a governor's point of view, or that his office had anything to do with it.
4:52 PM PT:
NPR just added about 10 paragraphs to the above link that were not there a few minutes ago including a partial transcript of a critical piece.
On Monday, Christie told a New Jersey radio host repeatedly that he knew nothing about any political issue behind the closures before Jan. 8, when he read about leaked staff emails in the Wall Street Journal.
"Let's make one thing clear," Christie said. "The most important issue is, did I know anything about the plan to close those lanes, did I authorize it, did I know about it, did I approve it, did I have any knowledge of it beforehand. And the answer is still the same ... The answer is, unequivically, no."
Christie, appearing on the radio show, made his first comments on the closures since his two-hour-long news conference on Jan. 9. , the governor said he was "embarrassed and humiliated by the conduct of some people on my team."
Before Jan. 8, Christie said Monday, "This was not an issue," he said.
Christie said the issue has turned into "a game of gotcha."
5:10 PM PT: Gov. Chris Christie tonight stood his ground on Bridgegate.
“I had nothing to do with this. No knowledge. No authorization. No planning, nothing to do with this before this decision was made to close these lanes by the Port Authority,” Christie said during his monthly radio show on NJ 101.5 FM.
But the Republican governor sidestepped specific allegations leveled by David Wildstein, the former Port Authority of New York and New Jersey official who appears to have turned on Christie.
...
“When did I first know about the lane closures?” Christie said. “The fact is the first time this really came into my consciousness as an issue was when Pat Foye, the executive director of the Port Authority’s email about this incident was leaked to the media and reported on.”
5:26 PM PT: CBS has a great overview article from which I clipped these three unique and as yet unreported paragraphs.
The governor said Monday it's possible he saw some media coverage of the September lane closures and subsequent traffic jam. However, he said, "whether I read any of those -- if I did, or heard anything about traffic -- it would not have been meaningful to me.” Traffic problems, he added, are “not something that rises to the gubernatorial level.” ...
Christie said his office did not ask for an extended deadline for submitting documents and has started producing them to the legislative committee on a rolling basis. He added that he has not seen any documents that were produced by anyone else.
In response to questions about Bill Stepien taking the fifth and refusing to provide documents to the federal prosecutors subpoena Christie responded:
“I would hope that people would share information with us, but I also understand they have rights... They have constitutional rights like everybody else, and if they’re going to exercise them, there’s nothing I can do about that,” Christie said in response to the news.
5:55 PM PT: Here's an interesting tidbit of a new name lawyering up in anticipation, from Firm of Chris Christie adviser hires lawyer
The consulting firm where New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie adviser Mike DuHaime works has hired an attorney to help sort through any potential issues related to the mushrooming inquiries surrrounding the bridge traffic scandal, officials confirmed to DuHaime’s firm, Mercury Public Affairs, has secured a lawyer who works for Rudy Giuliani’s lawfirm, officials said. ... The move was cautionary, they said, and not because of any specific requests. But the widening inquiries and subpeonas have now stretched to Christie’s reelection campaign for governor last fall. DuHaime was Christie’s top strategist on his reelection effort.
“Unfortunately, in this highly charged climate, it’s necessary even for those wholly uninvolved in this matter to retain counsel,” said Mercury’s Michael McKeon in a statement. “Accordingly, in an abundance of caution, Mercury has retained Marc Mukasey of Bracewell Giuliani to ensure we comply with any requests that may come our way. To be clear, we have not been asked by anyone to turn over documents of any kind, but we wanted to be prepared to cooperate quickly should a request