Christie’s Potential 2016 Rivals Tread Carefully

Chris Christie’s potential rivals for the White House in 2016 stepped gingerly around the scandal involving road closures and political retribution in New Jersey, saying on Sunday that they were waiting for more details to come out.

“I think this is a story that’s still developing and we should reserve judgment,” Senator Marco Rubio of Florida, who at this early date is seen as one of Mr. Christie’s top competitors for the Republican nomination, said on the CBS program “Face the Nation.”

“I really don’t have much to add other than that, and I wouldn’t delve into the political speculation as well,” he said. “That would be a mistake.”

While Gov. Martin O’Malley of Maryland, a Democrat who is said to harbor his own presidential ambitions once his term expires at the end of the year, drew a line between himself and Mr. Christie â€" at one point mentioning that he stays informed about traffic problems in his state â€" he was careful not to say too much.

“In terms of this incident, I don’t know that I can really shed more light on it,” he said on the CNN program “State of the Union.” “I think this is something for the people of New Jersey and the authorities up there to get to the bottom of.”

Former Senator Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania, who has signaled that he may run again in 2016, took a stronger stance. While he commended Mr. Christie’s decision not to dodge the issue, he said the scandal raised questions about his leadership.

“Personnel is policy,” Mr. Santorum said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “And the people that you hire are the policies that are implemented.”

“It is very clear that the personnel there was not sensitive to what seemed to be a fairly obvious wrong thing to do,” he added.

Other Republicans on the Sunday shows defended Mr. Christie’s handling of the revelations that officials close to him ordered the traffic-clogging closings on the bridge out of political retribution against a mayor who declined to endorse his re-election. Mr. Christie’s second term began last week.

Reince Priebus, chairman of the Republican National Committee, said that Mr. Christie had made up for mistakenly putting his faith in untrustworthy people by firing them.

“He admitted that he trusted people that lied to him, and he’s asking a lot of questions about himself as far as why that happened,” he said on NBC.

During an appearance on CNN’s “State of the Union,” Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona, praised the New Jersey governor for his “excellent” news conference on Thursday.

“Having gone through this, I know that you’ve got to answer every question. You can’t leave any question unanswered,” he said. “I think that he can now move on as long as another shoe doesn’t drop.”