Former Gov. Tom Kean told NJTV News Managing Editor Mike Schneider that he believes Gov. Chris Christie is telling the truth that he didn’t know about the email exchanges between staff members and the Port Authority before lanes of the George Washington Bridge were closed in September.
Kean said that no one knows enough at this point, only having emails and a few statements.
“The whole thing is crazy. If you wrote a novel you wouldn’t believe it,” Kean said. “What worries me is I know there is going to be an investigation and I have respect for the legislators involved, except so far it has all been partisan. There hasn’t been a Republican committee member in sight. If you are going to have an investigation, you better make it bipartisan.”
Kean said that if Christie was surprised by this development, then he needs to find out what the facts are right away and get them out.
“The worst thing you can do is let the facts like this drag out day by day. So I would hope now the governor is doing an internal investigation and finds out all the facts and I hope all those facts are made public tomorrow,” Kean said.
Despite today’s revelations, Kean says that he believes Christie. “The governor says he doesn’t know anything about it. I’ve know him for a long time. I’ll tell you this, he has always told me the truth. You can agree or disagree. This is a guy who tells the truth. He says he didn’t know anything about it. I believe him.”
Kean said there is likely some political damage that comes with the controversy, but the amount of political damage depends on what happens during the investigation.
“My suggestion is that the governor get everything out there and when the investigation is over we will be able to make our own conclusions. But until then it’s very hard to jump to conclusions,” Kean said.