Emails that link a top aide of New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie to a politically motivated bridge lane closure that slowed traffic and emergency vehicles for days could doom Christie's political future, says Bill Kristol, editor of The Weekly Standard.
"It is dangerous for Christie . . . This is the stuff that was done under his supervision as governor," Kristol told "The Steve Malzberg Show" on Newsmax TV.
"This was an actual act, apparently, taken by people in the state government . . . It's got real risks for Christie," Kristol said Wednesday.
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Emails made public by media outlets earlier Wednesday appear to show a top Christie aide ordering the closure of several access lanes on the George Washington Bridge in September.
The closures, which clogged traffic in Fort Lee, N.J., for four days, were allegedly done as political payback after the Democratic mayor of Fort Lee declined to endorse Christie's re-election.
Christie has repeatedly said the lane closures were part of a traffic study initiated by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.
But on Wednesday, he said: "I am outraged and deeply saddened to learn that not only was I misled by a member of my staff, but this completely inappropriate and unsanctioned conduct was made without my knowledge."
Kristol says the scandal — now dubbed "Bridgegate" — could hurt Christie's chances to capture the Republican nomination for president in 2016.
"It's not the story they wanted to have us talking about two months after his huge re-election victory and after he signed legislation that he was touting that shows how inclusive a governor he can be," he said.
"No, this has done some real damage."
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