Christie Bridgegate Report – Do You Buy It? [POLL]

The second guessing has begun in earnest – both in the papers over the weekend and on the Sunday morning news programs regarding the long-awaited Mastro report commissioned by the Christie Administration to get to the bottom of the Bridgegate affair.

After Gov. Christie vigorously defended the findings of the report released this past Thursday, political pundits were quick to criticize its findings – exonerating the Governor for whatever role he may have had in planning the traffic problems that had plagued Ft. Lee back in September; and laying the blame for the incident squarely on the shoulders of former staffer Bridget Anne Kelly and David Wildstein.

Those who criticized the report pointed to the failure of the investigators to interview many of the key players – notably Kelly, Wildstein, former Christie campaign manager Bill Stepien, and now former Port Authority Chairman David Samson – whose abrupt resignation from his post this past Friday raised plenty of eyebrows as well - and whose name only comes up regarding his resignation and nothing more.

According to this report from the Trentonian:

“I think the report will stand the test of time and it will be tested by the other investigations that are going on,” Christie said, referring to separate probes by federal prosecutors and a special legislative committee.

Christie said the lawyers who produced the report would not “give away their reputations to do some kind of slipshod job for me.”

Even the Governor’s most ardent supporters had doubts as to whether or not the report was the final word on the matter.

According to a report in the New York Daily News, former NYC mayor Rudy Giuliani, an ardent Christie supporter, lamented on one of the Sunday morning programs that the report was not the final word.

“I would not accept this as a complete investigation,” former New York Mayor and Christie amigo Rudy Giuliani said Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press” of the report released this week by Christie’s lawyers. “But this report has gone as far as anybody could go.”
. . . Mastro’s report parallels two other ongoing investigations into the scandal — one by the New Jersey Legislature and the U.S. Attorney's Office — that are still ongoing.

It is one of those two reports, coupled with the findings of this latest which will go a long way in reestablishing what some are referring to the “Christie comeback.”

Most likely the report being conducted by the US Attorney – as there are some who feel the select legislative committee has its mind made up as to the degree of complicity Chris Christie has in the entire Bridgegate affair.

Bottom line here is this: Do you buy the findings of the Christie Administration’s report issued this past Thursday?

(Note: The video is of the entire press conference.)