joining us now is reporter matt katz who covers new jersey for wnyc radio. thanks for being with us. nice to have you here. sure, rh. strong denials from the governor on this radio interview tonight. it s his first time answering live questions from a live human really on this matter since january 9th. what did he say tonight that we didn t necessarily know before? yeah, there were three things i picked up. first, he was more curious about why this happened or presented himself as being more curious about what happened here than he seemed to me at that press conference a few weeks ago. we re going to do an investigation, i want to know asap what my investigators find out, and i want to know what caused it. he sort of dismissed those questions at the press conference. i thought that was interesting. also, his tone was totally different from the e-mails that we ve been getting and seeing from christie s people and supporters. they ve been, you know, attacking wildstein personally,
so maybe they were forced to go back to high school and, you know, build a character sketch of them that would be unflattering. and, you know, this is sort of the way they operate. i mean, they are extremely effusive in their praise of people that they are propping up. nominees. political allies. but if you get on their wrong side, they re going to, you know, bring out the knives. and that s what we re seeing here. but, you know, to be honest, wildstein is also bringing out the knives. i mean, wildstein embarrassed the governor the friday before his big super bowl weekend. so there s probably there s a little bit of anger on both sides i think. wnyc s matt katz. thank you for your time tonight. i really appreciate it. sure, rachel. mom used to say if you don t have anything mean to say about someone from back in high school, then you don t have anything mean to say about
what i can promise you is we re going to do our best. new jersey governor chris christie making his first public comments on the bridge scandal tonight since nearly a month ago. that interview was live tonight as more breaking news in this story broke. third figure in the scandal invoked the fifth amendment and announced she will not comply with the speubpoena on the issu. following his campaign manager and a high school friend, beyond bill stepien and david wildstein. the third person invoking the amendment is the former deputy chief of staff who appears to have ordered up traffic problems for ft. lee from the governor s office. joining us now is reporter matt katz who covers new jersey for wnyc radio. thanks for being with us. nice to have you here. sure, rachel. strong denials from the governor on this radio interview tonight. it s his first time answering
you can see him there. the new jersey laborers. in 2012 baroni said they will replace the path station in harrison. the cost $256 million. he said he worked with the democratic mayor of that town. democratic mayor who went on to endorse chris christie in 2013 and was quoted recently saying even in the face of all the revelations of the past few months he d be happy to endorse christie again right now. the port was doing so much work in new jersey it didn t have the cash to do another project, the $1.5 million replacement of the bridge. the port turned to a public/private partnership, the first time they had ever used that kind of more expensive financing in its 92-year history. the new jersey economic development authority authorized the biggest bond sale in state history, $457 million, all in tax exempt bonds. all a of this work has happened since christie came to office and according to wnyc stocked
picture that one. i always appreciated it. the democratic congressman frank pallone. we have andrea with wnyc radio and covering new jersey politics for years and is now a professor. so thanks a, everybody, for joining us. this question of all the world knows of kim guadagno is about 25 seconds of a very stilted, scripted statement she read on monday and everybody has been trying to dissect it since then. jim, we ll start with you. what should people know about kim guadagno? first of all, it s a little troubling because the thought that the governor s office, if they did, sent up as a hardball a messenger up the turnpike to hoboken to deliver that message is implausible and here is why. what has she been the last four years? well, actually she s been a rote which and kawani speech maker and has cut ribbons.