so why would i believe that anybody would have not told the truth about that. but the fact is that regardless of all of that, you know, it's clear now that in the minds of some people, there were political overtones, or political side deals on this, and that's unacceptable. so i don't know, but it appeared in a there was one, based on what i saw in the testimony, but regardless of whether there was or wasn't, there were clearly some political overtones that were evident in those emails and messages that were never ever brought to my attention until yesterday. >> reporter: [ inaudible ]. >> well, listen, i

am -- there's this kind of reputation out thereof me being a micromanager. i'm not. i think if you talked to my staff, they would tell you that i delegate enormous authority to my staff. and enormous authority to my cabinet. and i tell them, come to me with the policy decisions that need to be made, some high level personnel decisions that need to be made. but i do not micromanage. second, there's no way that anybody would think that i know about everything going on, not only in every agency of government at all times, but also every independent authority that new jersey has on its own or by state. with new york, pennsylvania and delaware. so what i can tell you, if people find that hard to believe, i don't know what else to say except to tell them that i had no no knowledge of this, e

planning, execution, and i first found out about it when it was over. andine then, i was told that it was a traffic study. and there was no evidence to the contrary until yesterday that was brought to my attention or anybody else's attention. so i understand why people would ask that question, and i understand your question completely. but what i always want to tell people is, even with all of that being said, it's still my responsibility. i didn't know about it, but it's my responsibility because i'm the governor. so i'm taking that responsibility and taking actions appropriate with executing responsibility in accordance with what the information is today. marsha. >> reporter: [ inaudible ]

>> as i said many times, when i was the u.s. attorney, i hated when politicians stood behind the podium, and said, this is what the u.s. attorney should or shouldn't do, and i'm not going to engage if that kind of conduct at all. >> reporter: [ inaudible ] >> well, listen, again, let me say this. clearly, that's the tone of those emails. but the thing that -- the other part of this that just shocks me, as i said to you all many times before, the mayor was never on my radar screen. he was never mentioned as somebody pursuing that. and i don't remember me asking for his endorsement. so part of this, i never saw this as political retribution because i didn't think that he

did anything to us. we pursued lots of endorsements in the campaign from democrats, and we didn't receive most of them. we received about 60 at the end of the day. we pursued hundreds. and i don't have any recollection of at any time anybody in the campaign asking me to meet with the mayor or call him, which was the typical course that was used when we were attempting to get an endorsement. the staff would work with the elected official first, and then when they thought, using the vernacular, that the ball was on the tee, they would give me a phonecall or have a meeting or a breakfast and i would meet with the elected official and see if i could bring it over the line. i don't remember meeting mayor sakolich in that context, but until i saw his picture last night on television, i wouldn't have been able to pick him out

of a lineup. so part of this, the reac reasor the retribution came into my head, i never knew that we were pursuing his endorsement and no one came to me, and i never saw it as a serious effort >> reporter: [ inaudible ] >> of course. of course. john. >> a birthday party. >> as a group, they were willing to do this and lie to you?

>> i'm heartbroken and incredibly disappointed. i'm not sure that i am at the angry stage yet. but i'm sure i'll get there, and i'm stunned. it makes me ask about me, what did i do wrong to have these folks think that it was okay to lie to me. when you're a leader of an not since i've been governor, i've

been doing a lot of soul searching. i'm sick over there. i've worked for the last 12 years in public life, developing a reputation for honesty and directness and blunt talk. one that i think is well deserved. but you know, when something like this happens, it's appropriate for you to question yourself. and certainly i am. and i am soul searching on this. but what i want the people of new jersey to n know, this is te exception and not the rule. so i don't want to fall into the trap of this one incident happens, and it defines the whole. because it doesn't. just like the one employee who lies doesn't determine the character of all of the employees around you. so i don't want to overreact to that. but if you're asking me over the last 48 hours or last 36 hours if i've done soul

searching -- brian? >> the mayor is saying that [ unintelligible ] as many as ten appointments of city officials were canceled. how do you explain that in the context of what you now know about what some of your staff did? >> all i know is i don't know. pride is the first answer i'll give you, but what i also will say, listen, mayor phillips seems to be having a lot of disagreements with a lot of people. there are going to be meetings cancelled and public disagreements. but the fact is we continue to work with him since he has been mayor. and in the last year, we approved $190 million in financing for projects in jersey city. the dep, deputy commissioner was

just meeting yesterday with mayor phillip and his staff on blue acre issues, trying to buy out projects. so we can work with them, and i don't know about specific meetings going on, but certainly, i'll get into all of these things. but the fact is what the mayor knows is, when we agree with him from a policy perspective, we'll work with him, and when we disagree with him, we'll express that. sometimes that means friction. he's suing the port authority at the moment. and i will look into all of this stuff, but in the end, have i at times been angry with mayor phillip and disagreed with him? you bet. but i also went to his swearing in. they go up and down. and they move. so i'm sure there has been mob.

in those relationships overtime. but not anything that i can explain with a specific question. bob?in >> reporter: [ inaudible ] >> sure, i mean, listen. most of you, i hope, are citizens of new jersey. i know, we don't need to point them out. but yes, of course it does. because the fact is i came out here and said something that was untrue. unwittingly, but i said something that was untrue. i think that you've all seen about me in the last four years in my deals with you, i deal with you directly and i say exactly what i think, and i think over time i've developed a reputation for telling you the truth as i see it. there could be disagreements, but the truth as i see it.

yes, of course i would, because most, if not many -- many if not most of you are rents of the state. and you rely on the state government to be honest and trustworthy as well. and in this instance, my government fell short. and i take responsibility for that, and that's why i apologize. >> i was wondering what your staff [ unintelligible ]. >> i've not had any conversation with bridget kelly since the email came out and she was not given the opportunity to explain to me why she lied because it was obvious that she had. and frankly, i'm not interested in the explanation at the moment. i'm not done with the second part of the question. i interviewed him yesterday in one of my interviews, and i'm

convinced that he had absolutely no knowledge of this. it was executed at the operational level and never brought to the attention of the board of commissioners until chairman floyd wrote his email to the board of commissioners, so i sat with staff and met for two hours yesterday with general sampson. and again, i'm confident that he had no knowledge of this, based on our conversations, and his review of his information. so i think, you know, as he said yesterday, he's angered about this and upset about it. and i know that he's going to cooperate with the oig investigation that's ongoing, and lead a discussion at the port authority of what could be done in the future to have stop such conduct. >> charlie? >> >> reporter: [ inaudible ]

>> charlie, listen, i haven't because i know who i am. i'm not that person, and it's easy for people to be characterized in public life, based their personality. and i have a very direct, blunt personality. and i understand why some people would characterize you as that, especially people who don't like you, and i'm more focused on -- melissa? >> reporter: [ inaudible ].

>> i just did. i said i'm sorry for that, and i would have never made that joke in a knew the facts as they have come forward today. because i thought it was absurd and i thought that we had nothing to do with it, that's why. and obviously, obviously the emails are evidence that it's callous indifference to the result of that. and i apologize for it. and i certainly intend to apologize to the mayor today. and i'm going to try to get a meeting with him this afternoon. terry. >> reporter: [ inaudible ] >> who is that? >> reporter: [ inaudible ] >> i read that, and i didn't read that that way.

way at all. and that was a reference to a traffic study that candidly, i knew nothing about. and i recognized that the email said something about the gov supported it or endorsed it, and i have to believe that that was the gov's office generically. because as i stand here today, i don't know anything about a traffic study in springfield. >> reporter: [ inaudible ] >> oh, god no, absolutely not. that's not the way that it operates. terry, four years with folks, trying to be helpful. and nothing like that was ever done. >> governor -- [ inaudible ] the kind of people who run the

campaign or the kind of people who run the republican party, who called the mayor of fort lee a racially insensitive man. [ inaudible ] >> sure, it was a mistake. i mean, soul searching is complete on that part of it. it was a mistake. obviously. listen, the fact is that mistakes were made. and i'm responsible for mistakes. and i obviously tried every chance i can to hire the very best people, and i think the history of this administration shows that we have hired outstanding people with great ethical standards, who have done their jobs extraordinarily well. in a government of 65,000 people, mistakes were made. and i've remediated them today by the actions that i've taken.

i'm in a constant state of trying to figure out who were the best people for individual jobs who would make me proud to have put them there. that's going on, and it's nothing new now, but there are times when people in those positions make mistakes, and they disappoint you and you lose your confidence in them or they lie to you. and when you find that out, the test of leadership is, what do you do? i found this out at 8:50 yesterday morning. by 9:00 this morning, bridget kelly was fired. by 7:00 yesterday evening bill steppian was asked to leave my organization. that's pretty swift action for a day's work, and that's exactly the way i'll continue to conduct myself. if there's any other information surrounding this that comes up or anything different in the course of the next four years.

>> reporter: [ inaudible ] >> i can differentiate, bill, between people who have served me well, and they haven't. and of course there's always going to be, after something like this where you've been lied to, there's going to be some crisis in confidence. there always will be. anybody who tells you differently is not telling you the truth. toe say, this happened to you, and you're not going to second guess yourself at all, then you're just stupid. of course, i've second guessed myself and gone through some of my head on this stuff. and in the future, i'll try to be even more careful. but here's what i know about human beings, phil, i've heard a lot of them. as u.s. attorney, and governor,

and as a private attorney in a law firm. sometimes, despite the best interviews, despite your best instincts, sometimes people are a mistake to hire. sometimes they start to hire, and because of circumstances that happened in their life, they change. you can't prevent everything. but the test of leadership is when you find it out, what do you do? and i'm saddened to have to do this. it's difficult personally to do. but it's my job. now, i've taken an oath, and i'm going to execute my job. josh in yeah, i'm sorry.

>> reporter: [ unintelligible ]. >> a few things, and first off, to my knowledge, and i think that the mayor said this last night. i have no knowledge of him being asked for an endorsement. he may have been, and he was certainly asked by me, and he doesn't recall being asked for an endorsement. this doesn't make any sense to me because why would you execute a vendetta against somebody that you weren't asked to say no to. but if you didn't ask for an endorsement, why are you mad that you didn't get one? none of it made any sense to me.

>> reporter: [ inaudible ] >> i don't, and again, i don't know whether this was a traffic study that then morphed into a political vendetta, or a political vendetta that morphed into a traffic study. i've seen in front of the legislature specific things about the traffic study, so i know there's information there, and i don't know what it is. we'll find out over time. but that's in the minds of the people who were doing it, and that's what i based my decisions on at the time, the testimony that people gave. lastly, >> reporter: [ inaudible ] >> none of it -- listen, i don't know exactly what you're references, but i think you're talking about the foy memo that was leaked? is that cha you're talking about? >> reporter: -- the story

appeared in one of the newspapers, they told the story, and he says, [ unintelligible ] i asked general sampson about that yesterday. and he said that he has absolutely no idea what they're referring to. and the only communication that he had at that time was his concern to the express to the fellow commissioners about internal port authority documents being leaked. and he said that's not appropriate for folks to be leaking internal documents. but he has no recollection, from what he told me yesterday, with any conference that references the gist of what you said in the email.

>> reporter: [ inaudible ] >> certainly not that i'm aware of or not out of the normal. let's remember something too. this is a bistate agency with significant attention all the time. there's no conflict between governor cuomo and i, we have always been able to resolve them. buts this tension, and always has been, between new york and new jersey on allocation of resources at the port authority. let me be clear. there are some battles that have happened in every administration over the course of my memory, but you can't connect that -- that's kind of the ongoing nature of that agency, and i think most of the bistate agency, because of the resources are greater and the demands greater, there's nothing more. but i do want to make clear to

people that there is tension that goes on between the employees of these agencies. not everyone of those issues of tensions, thank goodness, are raised to my level and governor cuomo's level. but the people of new jersey, when those issues have been raised in the last three years, to my level and governor cuomo's level, been able to amicably resolve it and move on. >> reporter: [ inaudible ]. >> okay, let me answer that, and then i'll let you follow up. i don't know what makes a legitimate traffic study.

it's not my area of e expertise. so i wouldn't have a nose for that. i don't know what makes a legitimate traffic study. i've been told that sometimes they're done live, and sometimes by computer model by the professionals that testify for the port authority. but you would have to go to them. i probably wouldn't know a traffic study if i tripped over it. >> reporter: [ inaudible ]. >> i'm not sure what i did before. but it's not true. >> reporter: [ inaudible ].

>> i have no idea. but clearly, there's a difference of opinion between senator veroni and pat floyd about the existence of a traffic study. and it seems to me that there's evidence that senator varineo showed evidence of the traffic study. going back to what constitutes a traffic study, arguing about some specifics and nuances that i'm not familiar with, but i would certainly not cues pat floyd of purgerring himself. i'm just going by what i was told. but i wouldn't cues pat foye in any way. >> reporter: [ inaudible ] >> listen, guess what, after reading everything yesterday, i don't know. but what i'm telling you is, that's what i've been told. and he seemed to display

evidence at the time, but now, because of the tone of the emails and text messages, all of this stuff is something that i'm not going to warranty, because i don't know, considering all of the back and forth that went on. senator veroni is a very respected guy, and he served in this building for along team. i have known him for a long time. when he gave his testimony, i have no reason to believe that he was not telling the truth. but obviously, after reading the emails yesterday, there was other stuff going on that i wasn't informed about. bob? >> i never called him personally, but beroni's position was that there was a traffic study. and he had a disagreement with pat foye, and he had already expressed concerns that someone had put out to the press.

matt? >> reporter: [ inaudible ] >> i had earlier conversations with bill steppian, and he said that he had no knowledge of this. well after the fact. my decision on bill was based on the fact, the tone and the ten or of the conduct that was evidenced in those emails, that i lost confidence in his judgment.

>> i have no idea what that process would look like, as i said many times before. and i know that everybody in the political media and the political chattering class wants to start with the 2016 race, and universities can't help themselves but do polls that are meaningless, three years from the election. and you can't help but put them on the air and talk about them. my job is to be the governor of new jersey, and i'm enormously flatred that folks would talk about me and those in my party to say that i could be a candidate for president, but i'm nowhere beginning that consideration process.

i haven't even been sworn in for the second term yet. i have work to do. my focus is on the people of new jersey and the job they gave me. so all of the hysteria that goes around this, because everybody in that gets preoccupied with that job. and i'm not, and as you can tell, i have plenty to do. >> you're rolling your eyes and disgruntled that i haven't called on you. >> reporter: [ inaudible ] >> i'm sad. i'm sad. that's the predominant emotion i