why did chris christie not take action earlier? this controversy has been going on for a couple months. you had the major resignations last month. why didn t chris christie take bigger action earlier? a host of questions remain for chris christie. but john, he did a the lot of things right in the news conference. he fired close aids. that s important. he took action right off the bat, within 24 hours. he apologized a number of times. he took every question. an hour and 48 minutes. he was humble, humiliated and embarrassed. he lost that traditional swagger and luster that we know from chris christie. so he did a lot of things right, but by denying or saying he had no knowledge of what was going on with his closest aids, he s kind of given himself very little wiggle room as we go forward. this is far from over. people who criticized him as a bully in the past, democrats who don t like him or even some
chris christie does not give himself much wiggle room by saying he had no knowledge. he leaves himself very little wiggle room as we go forward. it is refreshing. he was pretty definitive. a lot of apology there is. you talked about the legal future. 900 pages people will be pouring throu through. let s talk about the political future. one thing that poll it tigss run into is when adviser z say you have to be different. tone down this ses a peck of yo character. chris christie yesterday said i m not a bully. that s a phrase that s going to be played back again and again and again. how careful will he have to be going forward about how he acts in public and treats other people? very careful. you may see a different chris christie now in his interactions with the media, with reporters and news conferences. you saw it it yesterday. if you watch the news conferences, it s a tough give
there s more to come or more stuff to find out about. the at the end of the conversation with the governor, i did say to him, i guess a little sarcastically, governor, am i now on your radar? he chucked. he said fort lee gets its own radar screen. we hope we know if there s retribution coming. we hope it didn t come. there s much talk about the impact including a 91-year-old woman who died after an ambulance couldn t get to her on time. her daughter as a different take on what happened. my first reaction would it really have affected but apparently it may have. it s not good. ambulances are late going to or from a hospital. you think it would have had any impact on the final result for your mother? i don t think so. i think she was 91 and i believe in my heart that she was gone when the ambulance got there.
that s what mayor was so concerned about. all the complaints from ems, school buss, late to school because they couldn t get through the traffic because the bridge was backed up. this effects people in ways they understand. everyone knows what it s like to sit in traffic. a lot of questions about what happens going forward. let s bring in political editor paul steinhouser. great to see you. paul, i want to ask you this. we all judged the performance. let s talk about today. let s talk about tomorrow. what questions still remain for governor chris christie? there are a host of questions that still remain. chris christie said he had no knowledge of this. but as you just mentioned, 907 pages of documents will be coming out today from that committee that was investigating this controversy. so there could be a lot of questions that will arise as we pour through the documents. other investigations, a civil lawsuit, this thing is far from over.
even starting opinion on the advise of counsel, i assert my right to remain silent. reporter: a two-hour press conference, chris christie announced the firing of a key aid, his former campaign manager and assigned much of the blame to the scandal for this man. david wildsteen. clearly he played a major role in it. reporter: he was in the building next door refusing to answer questions at a legislative hearing about e-mails which implicate him in the september lane closures. he was seen by some as the governor s eyes and ears inside the port authority. the two men go back a long time. even attended high school together. was very loyal to the governor. extremely loyal. but i would say a lot of people felt afraid of him because of his direct line to the governor s office. reporter: christie painted a different picture of that relationship.