Twittersphere razzes Christie over bridge scandal

Just over 40 percent of a quarter-million tweets reacting to Gov. Chris Christie’s bridge scandal were critical of him, according to Pew Research Center.

Only 14 percent, meanwhile, defended the governor.

{mosads}Pew analyzed more than 250,000 tweets between Wednesday — when emails tying Christie’s top aides to the scheme were released — and after the New Jersey Republican’s press conference on Thursday.

Christie said at the press conference that he had fired with a top staffer involved in the scandal and cut ties with another aide. Some sympathetic to Christie deemed it was a “mea culpa,” on Twitter. 

In the lead-up to the press conference, 36 percent of the tweets Pew measured were critical of Christie, and 11 percent defended him or attacked his opponents.

After he spoke for nearly two hours, however, the tweets critical of the governor jumped to 45 percent. Close to 20 percent came to his defense, according to Pew.

The New Jersey Legislature is now investigating the bridge closures, as is the U.S. attorney’s office. Emails and texts that surfaced this week suggest aides to Christie purposely shut down lanes connected to the George Washington Bridge in September as an act of political retaliation.