New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio (D) said Thursday that New
Jersey Gov. Chris Christie’s (R) marathon apology for the George
Washington bridge scandal “raises bigger questions” about how it happened on his watch.
“I’m glad he came clean and said that he would take resolute action,” the newly-minted mayor said at a press conference, as quoted by Politicker. “But I think it obviously raises bigger questions about how something like that ever happened to begin with. And it’s unacceptable. And it’s not tolerable for anyone in government to play with the people’s needs that way.”
De Blasio added that a lot of New York residents got snarled up in the massive traffic jams that lane closures on the bridge caused in September, and said those people were “treated wrong” by the “bureaucrats” tied to the scandal.
“Look, it’s really troubling,” he said, as quoted by Politicker. “What happened was absolutely inappropriate … this was a big problem. And this is not how we’re supposed to treat the people we represent.”
In addition to apologizing, Christie fired a deputy chief of staff, Bridget Anne Kelly, who discussed the lane closures weeks before they occurred with one of Christie’s former appointees to the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.
That appointee, David Wildstein, refused to answer questions Thursday at a hearing of the New Jersey Assembly Transportation, Public Works and Independent Authorities Committee, before which he was subpoenaed to testify about the lane closures.
