“Chris Christie wants your pity. He is just a poor humble ex-investigative attorney and strongarm…”
“
Chris Christie wants your pity. He is just a poor humble ex-investigative attorney and strongarm governor who had no idea his closest advisors planned a four-day traffic jam for political retribution, because, geez, he asked everyone if they were involved, and they said no, and man, that makes him “sad.”
“I had no reason to believe they weren’t telling me the truth,” said Christie, who from 2002 to 2008 was the United States attorney for New Jersey, a job in which he was paid by the federal government to dig beyond the statements of accused fraudsters and arms traders to determine their guilt and innocence—and was occasionally accused of entrapping perps in the process.
“We’re family, we work together and we tell each other the truth,” Christie said of his staffers, before saying he was “heartbroken” that those aides hadn’t told him the truth about the scandal. “I am sad to report to the people of New Jersey that we fell short.”
But Christie’s appeal that he simply was betrayed by his underlings raises more questions about his administration:
- Why would several of Christie’s closest associates work to exact political revenge on someone who’d screwed Christie and not let the governor know? There would be no incentive for them to risk their jobs or worse, unless they could get credit with the boss.
- If they really went rogue and screwed the motorists of Ft. Lee without the governor’s sanction, where the hell did he get these people?
- How many more people like this does he surround himself with?
”
–
Christie: Sorry, I’m Just Really Bad at Knowing What My People Do (via veruca-assault)
Yeah, there’s really no way to square Christie’s “I’m as surprised/outraged as anyone” story with an adult understanding of how the world works. If he really were the sort of person who would be outraged by a thing like this, he would have been outraged well before the smoking-gun emails became public. That he only became aware of and outraged by the facts at this point would mean he either was buffoonishly incompetent and therefore profoundly unfit for his job, or that he had intentionally conspired with his underlings to maintain his ignorance so he would have that as protective cover if the facts came out. And if that were the case, he’d still be just as culpable. “Go do this illegal thing that harms people, but don’t tell me the details so I can claim surprise if you get caught” is the behavior of an organized criminal, not a public servant.
But really, it’s transparent at this point that he’s simply lying.
Reposted from http://lies.tumblr.com/post/72875895497.
