Larry Sabato, director of the University of Virginia Center for Politics and author of
"The Kennedy Half-Century," says he is impressed by New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie's press conference on Thursday in which
the embattled pol asserted he was betrayed by staffers who orchestrated a traffic-clogging lane closure at the George Washington Bridge for political payback.
"This was an impressive performance. There's a reason why most public officials don't do two-hour press conferences. In fact some of them don't do press conferences at all, because they can't stand up to withering press fire," Sabato told "The Steve Malzberg Show" on Newsmax TV.
"Christie handled every question beautifully in my view … He seemed to come across in the assured manner of someone who's telling the truth."
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But Christie is still likely to face criticism for bridge-gate should he enter the Republican presidential primary.
"Probably his opponents will air an ad or two saying, hey, if you can't run your own governor's office with the people you call your family and your own campaign manager, how are you going to run the Oval Office where the staffs are so much bigger and the problems are more complicated?" he said.
"That's where they would use this with effect. Now whether it would actually prove damaging is another question and we're too far away from the election to know."
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