Todd Christie, the younger brother of New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R), has a lot to say about the ongoing scandal over last September’s lane closures on the George Washington Bridge.
In a series of updates posted on his personal Facebook page since Friday, Todd slammed reporters covering the story and defended his brother.
On Saturday, Todd published two posts about the scandal including this critique of the “objective cable channels:”
Todd is a millionaire former Wall Street trader who has advised his brother and aided his political efforts since their high school days when Chris was a three-term class president.
The governor has adopted a conciliatory tone in his public statements about the scandal. In the marathon press conference he gave last week and in the brief acknowledgment of the issue that preceded his State of the State address Tuesday, he expressed regret about the closures, which led to days of gridlock in Fort Lee, N.J., and vowed to take action against aides found to have been involved in ordering the shutdown for political reasons.
In contrast, Todd’s posts have been righteously indignant. They have implied the issue is not deserving of attention and expressed anger at members of the media who have focused on it. Todd’s candid comments on social media could be viewed as a rare glimpse into the Christie id. In private, away from the cameras and press aides, are those closest to the governor enraged the scandal is making headlines?
Todd’s first Facebook post about the scandal was published on Friday. In that post, Todd praised the governor’s performance in the marathon press conference and encouraged friends to buy tickets for the inaugural scheduled for Jan. 21:
On Saturday, after making his comments about cable coverage of the scandal, Todd shared a quote from a Facebook group called “We Stand With Chris Christie:”
The next day, Todd suggested news outlets should focus on the chemical spill that contaminated drinking water in West Virginia rather than his brother:
By Monday, Todd was addressing another scandal plaguing the Christie administration, the news that there is a federal investigation into the use of Hurricane Sandy relief funds to film an ad campaign that starred the governor and his family. Todd posted a link to a local blog post that criticized the investigation and implied it was partisan and not based in genuine concerns about the governor using hurricane aid to promote himself. He did not comment on the link.
Todd’s post late Monday was another shot at the media covering the bridge story:
One of Todd’s Facebook friends responded to that post by saying, “Hang in there!” This prompted a response from Todd.
“Thanks for the thought but it is entertaining watching all of these people and their hypocrisy. The crow will be eaten at some point in the future,” Todd wrote.
