--- description: Republicans used the Sunday talk shows to defend fellow GOPer Chris Christie after the New Jersey governor struck a contrite tone in a press conference... title: Priebus, Rove Defend Chris Christie on Bridge Scandal image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- * [U.S.](/section/us/) # Priebus, Rove Defend Chris Christie on Bridgegate by [TIME Staff](/author/time-staff/) Jan 12, 2014 8:18 PM CUT by [TIME Staff](/author/time-staff/) Jan 12, 2014 8:18 PM CUT Republicans used the Sunday talk shows to defend fellow GOPer Chris Christie after the New Jersey governor struck a contrite tone in a press conference Friday, saying his connection with the traffic scandal won’t rule out a presidential run. Reince Priebus, chairman of the Republican National Committee, praised Christie’s handling of the debacle, saying the governor’s one-and-a-half-hour-long press conference gave him the chance to show Americans he took “ownership” for his “mistakes.” On _Fox News Sunday_, former George W. Bush White House adviser Karl Rove made a pointed contrast to a scandal of the Obama Administration and Hillary Clinton, a potential Christie opponent for the 2016 presidential campaign: “The amount of attention paid to Chris Christie makes the coverage of Benghazi at the same time and the coverage of the IRS pale in comparison.” \[[Politico](http://www.politico.com/blogs/politico-live/2014/01/rnc-chair-defends-chris-christie-181047.html?hp=l3%5Fb2 "undefined")\] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/archive/7161657/priebus-rove-defend-chris-christie-on-bridgegate/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/archive/7161657/priebus-rove-defend-chris-christie-on-bridgegate/"},"headline":"Priebus, Rove Defend Chris Christie on Bridgegate","datePublished":"2014-01-12T20:18:06.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-16T15:35:24.475Z","description":"Republicans used the Sunday talk shows to defend fellow GOPer Chris Christie after the New Jersey governor struck a contrite tone in a press conference...","url":"https://time.com/archive/7161657/priebus-rove-defend-chris-christie-on-bridgegate/","keywords":[],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Staff","url":"https://time.com/author/time-staff/"}],"articleSection":"U.S.","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/us/","name":"U.S."}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/archive/7161657/priebus-rove-defend-chris-christie-on-bridgegate/","name":"Priebus, Rove Defend Chris Christie on Bridgegate"}}]}] ```