CBS Hits Gov. Christie Over ‘Bridgegate,’ Allows Obama To Blame Intelligence Community for Growth of ISIS
Governor Chris Christie (R-N.J.) sat down with Gayle King for an interview that aired on Wednesday’s CBS This Morning and was met with a barrage of questions over his handling of the “Bridgegate” scandal of 2013.
While King accused the New Jersey Governor of blaming others for “Bridgegate,” her colleague Steve Kroft lobbed numerous softball at President Obama during their interview on Sunday’s 60 Minutes and even allowed him to blame the intelligence community for his administration failing to deal with the ISIS threat sooner.
Throughout the 60 Minutes interview, President Obama maintained that “our head of the intelligence community, Jim Clapper, has acknowledged that I think they underestimated what had been taking place in Syria” but never held himself accountable for ignoring ISIS over the past year.
During his discussion with Gayle King, Governor Christie sharply criticized President Obama’s decision to blame intelligence failures for the rise of ISIS:
He used the word they. He said they underestimated it. Don't say they underestimated, Mr. President. We underestimated, his administration. He underestimated. And you know you need to be accountable for those things. You’re not always directly responsible but you need when you’re the leader to be accountable.
While CBS’s Kroft refused to challenge the president’s decision to blame the intelligence community, Gayle King eagerly hit Christie over “Bridgegate” and actually suggested he was blaming others for the scandal:
Some people could say, though, governor, that you might have used the word “they” when the whole Bridgegate scandal happened. You have recently been cleared that the U.S. Justice said as of this moment there is no evidence that you knew anything about Bridgegate, which you’ve said all along. But some people could say that you might have used the word “they” during that time.
For his part, the New Jersey Governor shot down King’s assertion that he was passing the blame for “Bridgegate” onto others:
I stood up the day after it all came public and said I'm accountable. Why I didn’t know it happened? It happened on my watch and I’m accountable. And I stood up for an hour and fifty minutes…And took questions and never once have I skirted from my accountability and that’s all I’m talking about.
See relevant transcript below.
CBS This Morning
October 1, 2014
CHARLIE ROSE: The president's “60 Minutes” comments also drawing heat from Republican Governor Chris Christie sat down with Gayle and talked to the potential presidential candidate about this and other things. Good morning.
GAYLE KING: I did. Good morning. Good to see you guys. President Obama has certainly received his fair share of heat for telling “60 minutes” that the intelligence community underestimated the threat from ISIS. But what got to Chris Christie wasn’t what the president said it was how he said it.
CHRIS CHRISTIE: He used the word they. He said they underestimated it. Don't say they underestimated, Mr. President. We underestimated, his administration. He underestimated. And you know you need to be accountable for those things. You’re not always directly responsible but you need when you’re the leader to be accountable.
KING: Some people could say, though, governor, that you might have used the word “they” when the whole Bridgegate scandal happened. You have recently been cleared that the U.S. Justice said as of this moment there is no evidence that you knew anything about Bridgegate, which you’ve said all along. But some people could say that you might have used the word “they” during that time.
CHRISTIE: I stood up the day after it all came public and said I'm accountable. Why I didn’t know it happened? It happened on my watch and I’m accountable. And I stood up for an hour and fifty minutes—
KING: I remember.
CHRISTIE: And took questions and never once have I skirted from my accountability and that’s all I’m talking about.
— Jeffrey Meyer is a News Analyst at the Media Research Center. Follow Jeffrey Meyer on Twitter.
