Huntsman says may be more to Christie bridge scandal

Former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman says there may be more to the growing scandal over staffers to New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie shutting down lanes on the George Washington Bridge to punish a mayor who didn't endorse the Republican governor.

Huntsman told MSNBC's Morning Joe that the his experience as governor was that staff was close-knit and the chief executives were involved in the minutia because they needed to be.

"Everybody knows day in and day out what's playing out in your state down to, you know, miniscule details," Huntsman said during an appearance on the morning show. "There's something here that just doesn't connect fully in terms of how communication was handled and how the issues were put forward to the governor. I hope that part is clarified because I know how governor's offices run. I ran one."

Christie has apologized for the three days of lane changes that caused a traffic standstill in Fort Lee, N.J. Emails that have surfaced since show Christie staffers essentially trying to punish the city's mayor for not endorsing Christie's re-election and the governor has fired a top aide for her involvement in the controversy.

UPDATE: Gov. Gary Herbert said Tuesday that he still supports Christie as head of the Republican Governors Association. Herbert, speaking outside the West Wing of the White House after meeting with President Barack Obama, said that, "Politics are politics and I guess we need to find out what's behind all that we hear about."Herbert added that Christie has had bipartisan support and helped turn around New Jersey economically."The challenge that he's facing now is what's happened with some his staff members," Utah's governor said. "I think we need to let that play out. But this is one Republican governor who supports Chris Christie as our chairman of the RGA."

- Thomas BurrTwitter.com/thomaswburr