New York Times reporter Kate Zernike listened to Joe Scarborough poke holes in her coverage of the George Washington Bridge scandal, but she believes the MSNBC host was genuine in his pursuit of the truth.
Zernike reported last week on former Port Authority official David Wildstein’s allegations that Chris Christie knew contemporaneously of the lane closures, but Scarborough suggested repeatedly on Monday that the claim is not a new development.
“Does anybody assume, Kate, that Chris Christie did not know? I’m sorry, am I missing something here,” Scarborough asked Zernike on “Morning Joe.”
Zernike, for her part, tried to explain to Scarborough that the claim would in fact contradict what Christie has said previously. She pointed out, for example, that Christie said at his nearly two-hour press conference last month that he didn’t know about the lane closures until after they ended.
But Zernike doesn’t believe it was just another case of Scarborough covering for his friend.
“Kate thinks Scarborough was genuinely trying to understand what Christie has said before on the issue and how it related to the letter [from Wildstein’s attorney],” New York Times communications director Danielle Rhoades Ha told TPM in an email.
