The Christie Tracker

WNYC

Find WNYC’s archival coverage of the former New Jersey governor, his ill-fated presidential run and the Bridgegate scandal under the "stories" tab. Our weekly Christie Tracker Podcast ran for three years, between January, 2015 and January, 2018. It was hosted by David Furst and featured award-winning reporting from Matt Katz and Andrea Bernstein.

  1. The Christie Tracker Podcast: And That's a Wrap

    01/13/2018

    The Christie Tracker Podcast: And That's a Wrap

    OK, you caught us. The Christie Tracker Podcast actually wrapped up back in November of 2016 - after the Bridgegate trial of former Christie staffer, Bridget Anne Kelly and former Deputy Executive Director of the Port Authority, Bill Baroni. But because Tuesday, January 16th marks the last day in office for New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, we had to temporarily reemerge. We bribed them with hot coffee and free EZ Pass for a month, so WNYC's Matt Katz and Nancy Solomon came back for one more round on the podcast. They join host David Furst for a last look back on the Gov's two terms in office. Chris Christie dominated the state's political stage like no other. He claims New Jersey is "much, much better than it was eight years ago." But he finishes his term with the lowest approval rating of any governor in state history and may be remembered more for Bridgegate, Beachgate and endorsing Donald Trump than anything else. Matt and Nancy highlight some of the moments that helped shape his legacy. Nancy says, "To me, it's all about how good of a communicator he is and how personable he is... and then all of the ways that he perverted our state government for his own purposes." And while they were at it, the crew selected a few of their favorite episodes of the Christie Tracker Podcast: MATT's PICK: Christie's Bold Defense of Muslim-Americans (Four Years Ago) On this show from November of 2015, we turned back the clock to a time well before the presidential primaries, when Gov. Christie was letting loose with his bold support for a Muslim-American judge. NANCY's PICK: Chris Christie Through the Looking Glass Things get curious. The man who deleted texts during Bridgegate investigation gets offended when Hillary Clinton's emails are erased. Matt picks apart every word of the governor's recent statements. And what does Alice in Wonderland have to do with Chris Christie? All will be explained in this episode from August 26, 2015. DAVID's pick: Chris Christie: The Springsteen Tracker If you're with the Gov at a Bruce show, don’t even think about leaving early. Back in October of 2015, Matt explained Christie's Springsteen legendary obsession.

    13 min
  2. The Christie Tracker Podcast: The Bridgegate Trial - Week 6

    10/26/2016

    The Christie Tracker Podcast: The Bridgegate Trial - Week 6

    Former Christie staffer Bridget Kelly finally hit the stand in week 6 of the Bridgegate Trial. Governor Christie has always maintained that he had no knowledge about the plan - prior to or during the lane closures at the George Washington Bridge. Kelly testified that she told him once before and twice during the 5-day shutdown. She even offered up a counter explanation for her infamous "Time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee" email. And Kelly testified that she was afraid of the governor. She says, "I was gun shy. I was scared. But he would then turn it on, and be charming. It was a confusing, frightening time." WNYC's Matt Katz and Andrea Bernstein and the Star-Ledger's Tom Moran join us for a full breakdown of week 6. And Andrea poses an interesting question. Did this whole thing spiral out of control because Bridget Kelly wanted to sit with the cool kids? Andrea says that Kelly may have been motivated by a desire to be accepted by Christie's inner circle. Tom adds, "She seems like someone who really wants to be included in the club and she's just on the outer edge of it and almost in there. And a lot of the stuff she does it to ingratiate herself with them." Matt takes it one step further: "This is a weakness that all of these characters had." WNYC Studios is the producer of other leading podcasts including Freakonomics Radio, Radiolab, Here's The Thing with Alec Baldwin, Death Sex & Money and many more. Listen to more shows from WNYC Studios: http://wny.cc/yzc4304odXp

    21 min
5
out of 5
16 Ratings

About

Find WNYC’s archival coverage of the former New Jersey governor, his ill-fated presidential run and the Bridgegate scandal under the "stories" tab. Our weekly Christie Tracker Podcast ran for three years, between January, 2015 and January, 2018. It was hosted by David Furst and featured award-winning reporting from Matt Katz and Andrea Bernstein.

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