In early September, two of the three exits on the George Washington Bridge connection to Fort Lee New Jersey were closed, causing horrific traffic. The Port Authority claimed that the exits were closed due to an important traffic study. However it has recently come to light that the traffic was caused deliberately, allegedly to punish Fort Lee Mayor Mark Sokolich, a Democrat, for refusing to support Christie in his 2013 re-election campaign. The order to close the bridge came from Bridget Anne Kelly, Christie’s recently fired chief of staff, and was carried out by two Christie appointed officials in the Port Authority.

It remains unclear how much Christie knew about the traffic jam, though he claimed total ignorance in a recent press conference. If evidence is uncovered that the Governor was complicit in the scheme, Christie’s political career will likely end. As it is things do not look good for the governor, especially considering his supposed plans to seek the presidency in 2016.

After acknowledging the mistakes made by his department in a press conference last week Christie announced he intended to cooperate with any further investigation into the incident. He also announced that he would not allow the controversy to bog down his administration, stating that, “This administration and this Legislature will not allow the work that needs to be done to improve the people’s lives of New Jersey to be delayed for any reason”.

While closing down a bridge for a couple days may not seem like enough to make such a large stink over, the results were downright dangerous. Commuters heading into New York were stuck in barely moving traffic for hours everyday, parents couldn’t get their children to school because of the traffic, and emergency response vehicles could not respond to 911 calls.