By Keith Brown





A contrite Gov. Chris Christie apologized Thursday for the role a top staffer played in purposely creating days of choking traffic jams in early September at the Fort Lee entrance to the George Washington Bridge. Damning emails released Wednesday seemingly revealed that Christie's deputy chief of staff, Ramsey native Bridget Anne Kelly, worked with a Port Authority executive to orchestrate punitive lane closures at Fort Lee's entrance to America's busiest bridge.

Christie did not mince words Thursday in revealing that he'd fired Kelly for lying to him about her role in bringing traffic to a halt atop the Palisades. He said her actions were "stupid" and that she was partially to blame for his early -- and now apparently inaccurate -- insistence that the lane closures were part of a traffic study. "I'm sick over this," Christie said. "What I want the people of New Jersey to know is that this is the exception, not the rule."

"I trusted that I was being told the truth, and I wasn't," Christie said. "And I wasn't by somebody who I placed a significant amount of trust in. ... How incredibly sad and betrayed I felt." The potential presidential candidate took questions for more than an hour in front of a contingent of national media not seen since at the statehouse in such numbers since former Gov. Jim McGreevey's resignation nearly a decade ago.

The serious tone of the press conference stood in bold relief when played alongside a clip of Christie sarcastically answering a question about the "traffic study" from the same wooden podium several months ago, in which he told reporters that he personally placed the cones that closed off the toll lanes.

The governor, who was reelected in a landslide in November, also pulled his support for the appointment of his campaign manager, Bill Stepien, as state Republican Party chairman. More importantly for future campaigning plans, Christie said he had severed political ties with Stepien.

"I would not place him at the head of my political operation because of the lack of judgment that was shown in the emails," Christie said. Christie said he would cooperate with any investigation into the closures and did not rule out additional firings.