Christie: ‘Bridgegate’ not a stain on my record

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) on Sunday flatly ruled out the suggestion that the “Bridgegate” controversy in his administration is a stain on his record.

While a number of Christie’s close advisers are either under investigation or indictment, he insisted that his response to the controversy is a positive for him, not a negative. He explicitly ruled out that his record has been tainted by the claims of political punishment by arguing he removed anyone found to have acted improperly immediately. He also touted the marathon press conference he gave immediately after allegations his staff closed a bridge to punish a political opponent.

{mosads}“If mistakes are made, hold the people responsible who make those mistakes and discuss it with the public openly and transparently, which is exactly what I did,” he said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “People love to make a big deal about this stuff, but in the end, it’s about how the leader reacts.”

Christie also dismissed questions about ongoing investigations into some of his closest advisers.

“Let’s stop just reading the newspapers and just blathering back what that is,” he told host Chuck Todd. “Nothing has been proven yet, so let’s see what happens.”

Christie also used the questions about scandal in his administration to blast Hillary Clinton for the continuing questions surrounding her use of personal email while serving as secretary of State.

“What did I do when we had a crisis? The next day I went out and took questions for an hour and 50 minutes, no holds barred,” he said. “Let’s see if Ms. Clinton does even one-fifth of that.”