Abstract
In 2013, two lanes leading to the George Washington Bridge – the busiest in the nation – in Fort Lee, NJ, were closed. In January of 2014, it emerged that Christie’s Deputy Chief of Staff Kelley instigated this problem. Governor Christie was accused of retaliating against Fort Lee’s Mayor Mark Sokolich, who had not endorsed Christie’s re-election bid. Christie fired Kelley, held a press conference, and apologized to Sokolich and the people of Fort Lee. Christie’s primary strategies were mortification and corrective action, but he also used denial, differentiation, minimization, and defeasibility to deal with this situation. Minimization was interesting as Christie attempted to lower expectations for his performance, reducing the offensiveness of his action.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
Recommended Citation
Benoit, William L.
(2015)
"Bully or Dupe?: Governor Chris Christie’s Image Repair on the Bridge Lane Closure Scandal,"
Speaker & Gavel: Vol. 52:
Iss.
2, Article 7.
Available at:
https://cornerstone.lib.mnsu.edu/speaker-gavel/vol52/iss2/7