Black Thursday, one of Gov. Chris Christies least favorite local newspaper columnists called it, under a headline that declared it his worst day ever. At the least, it was the New Jersey governors terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day.
On Thursday morning, one of his closest confidants pleaded guilty to a felony charge of abusing power at the agency that Mr. Christie tapped him to lead. By that afternoon, federal prosecutors had charged a former cabinet official in connection with the same case, which spun out of the George Washington Bridge lane-closing scandal that has dogged Mr. Christie for nearly three years.
Then he did not get the job he had been publicly pining for, and on which he had pinned his hopes of political resuscitation. Donald J. Trump, who is expected to become the Republican nominee for president next week, picked someone else as his running mate, despite an endorsement that dragged Mr. Christies poll numbers to record lows at home and alienated him from moderate Republicans he once called friends.
And that was before a storm knocked down a tree and power line outside Mr. Christies house, starting a fire beside it. When a local television station asked the governor if he still had electricity, he gave a thumbs down, which might have been answering the question, or summing up the previous several hours, or months.
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