Governor Christie came to Fort Lee Thursday afternoon to apologize for the crippling George Washington Bridge traffic mess his top aide orchestrated as political retribution.
Mayor Mark Sokolich had initially asked him to delay the trip because of the investigation into bridge closures, according to the Star Ledger.
But Christie came to its town hall to meet with him shortly after 4 p.m, and left about 4:45 p.m.
He told reporters it was a “warm, productive meeting” before leaving.
The bridge closures caused rush-hour delays of up to four hours in the town, slowing EMS response times and stranding school buses.
His mea culpas began at an earlier Trenton press conference, where he said he came to “apologize to the people of New Jersey, the people of Fort Lee and I am embarrassed and humiliated by the conduct of the people on my team.”
He also apologized for his “failure as the governor of this state to fail to understand the true nature of the problem sooner than I did.”
Former Port Authority official David Wildstein, who has stepped down from his post, mocked Sokolich as “Serbian” in an email exchange with Christie top aide Bridget Anne Kelly.
Christie claimed he didn’t know his staff sought the mayor’s endorsement in the November election, and said he “was never on my radar screen.”