Transportation Committee Vice Chair Says Many More Answers are Needed
Assembly Transportation Committee Vice-Chair Linda Stender released the following statement on the latest developments in the ongoing George Washington Bridge scandal engulfing the Christie administration:
“The Governor’s actions today still leave many questions unanswered and cast a shadow on both his competency and credibility.
“Based on what we’ve seen and heard so far, I don’t believe the Governor is being truthful to the people of this state when he denies any knowledge of this incident prior to yesterday.
“Weeks ago he mockingly dismissed the notion that he would have anything to do with a traffic study, and yet we saw in the documents released yesterday that he did in fact approve a study for the town of Springfield.
“The Governor was right on one thing, however, when he said this is about politics – it’s about the politics of fear.
“The fact is, a punitive and vindictive culture was apparently allowed to thrive in the Governor’s office where staff thought abusing public resources and jeopardizing public safety in the name of retribution was acceptable behavior.
“In the end, there were grave public safety consequences as a result of this vendetta, consequences that cannot be undone by a mere apology.
“There are far too many unanswered questions and references in the subpoenaed documents we’ve seen and Mr. Wildstein’s decision to hide behind the Fifth Amendment did a disservice to the people of this state.
“There are many, many more questions that need to be answered on the long road ahead of us.”