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Did Trump Dump Chris Christie Because He Sacrificed His Aides Over Bridgegate?

By Tito Ojo-Medubi
Published on: 00:54 PST, Nov 14, 2016

Chris Christie’s job options in the Trump administration are dwindling, and it may be because of Bridgegate, the New York Post is reporting.

The New Jersey governor was one of the first Republicans to get behind Trump when he announced that he was going to run for the presidency. The 54-year-old had been put in charge of President-elect Trump’s White House Transition team.

However, he has been replaced by the Vice President-elect, Mike Pence. Pence’s allegiance to Mr. Trump and his connections with the Republican establishment on Capitol Hill is believed to have helped him get the sensitive position.

Three of Trump’s children and his son-in-law will also join the 16-member advisory committee and have their say on the people who will fill over 4,000 posts in the new administration. Mr. Christie will remain vice chairman of the transition effort.

According to a source, Trump is slowly edging him out of his inner circle because of his shabby handling of the Bridgegate affair. The source also said that the 70-year-old president-elect was less than impressed at how Christie allowed his “soccer mom” aide to hang.

“Trump thought it was shameful that Christie didn’t take the fall for Bridget Kelly. Trump is really angry that Christie is sending a soccer mom to jail. He believes 100 percent that Christie was behind it all.”

Bridget Kelly, Christie’s one-time deputy chief of staff and Bill Baroni, the governor’s choice at the Port Authority, were found guilty for closing entrance lanes to the George Washington Bridge in September 2013. It was alleged to be payback for a Democrat mayor who did not endorse Chris Christie’s re-election.

In one of the biggest political scandals to rock New Jersey, both aides were found guilty of all seven charges against them, including causing dangerous traffic bottlenecks, mishandling of Port Authority resources and violating the civil rights of citizens. The maximum sentence for the offenses is 20 years. However both former employees are expected to serve a three-year sentence.

David Wildstein, another Port Authority official, pleaded guilty to orchestrating the lane closures and said Christie leveraged on it to secure certain endorsements. Baroni and Kelly testified at their trial that they thought the barricades were all part of a study that Christie had endorsed.

Kelly said she had particularly talked about the closure a month before it happened with her boss, reinforcing that it was lawful traffic study. Christie had insisted that he had no recollection of any of his aides telling him about the premeditated plot to frustrate Fort Lee Mayor Sokolich.

“I’m saddened about the choices made by Bill Baroni, Bridget Kelly and David Wildstein… I had no knowledge prior to or during these lane realignments, and had no role in authorizing them. No believable evidence was presented to contradict that fact.”

The Republican governor said it was stupid thing to do considering that he stood a very good chance to win another term in office. In addition, he pointed out that if the traffic logjam was indeed political payback against a Democrat mayor, there was no way he could have won the votes in that town.

“I’m up by 25 points in a reelection in a blue state. And they decide they’re gonna create a traffic jam in a town that’s a Democrat town, that I wound up winning two months later in the election?”

The source said that Trump was not fooled by Christie’s doublespeak and had told those close to him that the New Jersey governor roasted his aides to save himself. Despite being a staunch backer of Trump after he dropped out of the presidential primaries, Christie also began to double down on his support for the “blue collar billionaire” when his controversies spiked.

The president-elect began to question Christie’s loyalty and believed that the governor had given up on him when he cancelled TV interviews after the “Grab them by the p***y” lewd tape leak in October. The source said the New Jersey governor did not attend the second presidential debate and stopped campaigning for Trump a week before the elections.

Chris Christie has been given the token title of vice chair to save face and it is hardly a step forward. The source said that the 54-year-old could forget a cabinet-level post in Trump’s administration was in the offing because it was simply not happening.

The New Jersey governor was gracious for the time he spent as head of the White House transition team, adding that he was looking forward to the “next phase.” President-elect Trump, who attacked the New York Times in a series of tweets Sunday, has not commented on the Christie situation.

Do you think the governor had any knowledge about Bridgegate?

[Featured Image by Mel Evans/AP Images]

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