staff -- >> a top aide to christie. >> how will chris christie respond? >> i come out here today to apologize to the people of new jersey. >> chris christie's response to allegations of political retribution vournding the closing of the nation's busiest bridge. >> i had no, ma'am knowledge or involvement. >> he's fired a top aide. >> i've terminated bridget's employment. >> he said she lied to me. there's no evidence that he ordered the lane closings in question. i was stunned. i was blind sided yesterday morning. >> a whole slew of things are suddenly in motion here. >> a port authority official has been testifying now. >> i respectfully assert my right to remain silent. >> commerce committee has already launched its own inquiry. >> i had no knowledge or involvement in its plan organize its execution. >> this story is going to continue for weeks and maybe months ahead. >>> chris christie talked and talked and talked some more today, but he did not talk himself out of trouble, except in the eyes of some easily fooled political pundits, and he most definit

christie-crats. i'm the only person who can make this state function because i've got these democrats and we can work together. while washington is broken. and what this does, it shows what the predicate was for that kind of cooperation which is that if you stepped out of line, you got traffic for four days in your town. >> right. the other thing is, like, we have -- one of the -- there are many unresolved questions from today. i think one of them is very much, was -- it's been reported this is about an endorsement, seeking an endorsement from a democratic mayor and denied the endorsement. i'm not convinced that's the case. >> let's bring in new jersey congressman, johnson also of ft. lee. >> part of my district. >> part of your district. >> yes. >> the one thing you got the mayor of ft. lee and governor basically agreeing on at this point is the early reporting which is the assumption that the mayor of ft. lee didn't endorse chris christie and this was retribution for that, both the mayor seems to n

to that as christie comes in. but there seems to be a theme of culture developing that people are talking about around this administration. with a lot of different stories indicating that maybe we can't quite pin it on christie. but maybe there is more than just this one bridge scandal to look at. >> yeah, what the mayors are now talking about and what we've all been talking about is the bully factor. chris christie has this reputation of being a bully. we saw it when gayle called into a radio show to ask whether he sends his kids or public school, he said, gayle, that's none of your business. he and i got on a fight on "morning joe." he's gotten into fights with reporters all the time during his governorship. but what we're seeing here, and i think what has empowered the mayors in terms of trying to find out whether they have been -- whether a vendetta has been taken out against them because of positions they've taken that the governor doesn't like is because it fits in with a pattern of behavior from the governo

and the real driver of the timing on the story around chris christie is chris christie. because he tried to push off the allegations, not really look into it himself. so, you know, this is coming out now because he failed himself to look into it when the problem was first noticed and first brought to light by democrats in new jersey. i think chris christie may have a big problem even coming down the pike with the allegations that he misused funds for the sandy relief effort, which i think is going to be even harder for republicans to defend since they are supposed to be the party of fiscal responsibility. and since they had had some issues with christie in the half over the sandy relief funds. that's another piece they're going to have to try to defend. you can already see how they're turning into into a liberal media versus chris christie kind of a story. >> you know, cynthia, on the new jersey shore as the governor's office has taken heat for promoting these adds, and it features christie and his family. but a christy administration defends ads by saying, quote, the st

christie is a true conservative. he is committed to proving the core conservative value that government is the problem, even if he has to create those problems himself. i can already see his 2016 bumper sticker. christie, bringing america together or i will [ bleep ] you over. best of all, best of all, his team will make sure you have plenty of time to read those bumper stickers. >> but those bridgegate issues right now may prove especially damaging to a guy like christie since it reinforces the very image he sought to downplay, that of a schoolyard bully. as jon stewart pointed out last night, sometimes your reputation really does precede you. >> this is not the tone that i've set over the last four years in this building. it's not the environment i've worked so hard to achieve. >> intimidation, vengeance, vitriol, that's not the tone? >> damn, man, i'm governor. could you just shut up for a second? >> no, no, that's not it. hold on. try that one. >> did i say on topic? are you stupid? >> no, not yet. just haven't f

strong loyalties to christie. how much loyalty will the other characters in the story have. and if the threats to them, the legal threats to them increase, whatever loyalty they have start to erode? that always happens on a story like this. >> the only loyalty left, that's a good question. the bottom line for me, steve, what happened? what happened today means what? what is the bottom line? >> i think it confirms what i've been saying, i sort of suspected about wildstein's position relative to all the of other non-christie players. as we talk about this question of loyalty, wildstein went into this with much less built-in loyalty. his loyalty to christie doesn't go deep like the other players in this. i know people keep linking them as high school las mates, or they went to high school around the same time. they come from the same town there is this natural tendency to say they're old buddies. the dave wildstein i knew, this was not about protecting or looking out for chris christie. when david wildstein sold the

christie versus hillary, 2016. a month after, back in december, it was 42-41 christie. looks like the republicans' best bet. and tuesday, as these storms are gathering, hillary clinton up eight points. supposedly the republican the best bet and the scramble among republicans. the quinnipiac poll, back in december. small number, christie in front at 17. lost about one-third, down to 12% now. a jumble of names right there. but i guess i'm thinking of that florida trip last weekend, and the christie people heading into last weekend were talking about, he's come out. given his nearly two-hour marathon press conference. it's now -- this is about moving beyond this. he's going to have his nainaugu. moving a past it. goes to florida, rick scott, they have to care about, doesn't want to be seen with him. no public appearances with rick scott or with christie at all. how under this cloud can he function in that role? how can he go into massachusetts, a blue state where they have a shot of winning the governor's race, how can he go in and campaign? down to texas? how can he go to

her first lawyer was very close to chris christie and chris christie world. after a week of representing bridget kelly, he decided he was off the case. she's no longer represented by him. she's represented by one of the top defense attorneys in new jersey now. originally it was about let's see if we can protect ourself without doing anymore damage to chris christie. now it is a "i want to save myself" move. >> a larger point people should keep in mind is the wheels of justice grind slowly. what today indicates is that this story is not going away, not for a long time. once it gets enmeshed in this legal machinery, it will dog chris christie for many months to come. >> this will force the hand of others involved in this legally. according to "the new york times," david wildstein is saying governor christie knew about the lane closures and he can prove it. i want to play a clip of chris christie talking about wildstein in his january 9th press conference. here it is. >> and how do i feel about david now? listen, what i read yesterday makes me angry. that's the

christie had a job for stepien. so he would be on that payroll, basically his travel financed to be at christie's side through every one of the things that you're talking about here. isn't that the way it would work? >> yeah, absolutely. and look, that would be very easy to transition. you know, a lot of this organization into the presidential campaign, or open the pac when this election cycle is over. obviously a more difficult road there now. but until things get worse, until there's an e-mail incriminating chris christie, very doubtful that his republican governors will throw him over the rail and out to sea, effectively ending his political career. he certainly can't run for president of the united states if he was forced by his fellow governors to resign under pressure from the rga, which is why i think that's unlikely to happen until or unless more information becomes available. >> let's listen to some of chris christie's inaugural address today. >> we cannot fall victim to the attitude of washington, d.c. the

. >> that's the problem with christie. it's out of his hands. >> in terms of vetting, in terms of the department of justice investigations. >> he has a long road ahead. >> i have had no contact with david wildstein in a long time. >> so we see that wall street journal picture. >> appearing to interact with wildstein on september 11, 2013, the third day of the lane closures themselves. >> decisions for key players come as early as tomorrow. >> when they testify, what's going to be his position then? >> if you want to talk about salt in the wound, there's this. ♪ i was with pissed off drivers ♪ ♪ with no place to go >> the boss with jimmy fallon. a parody that had to hurt. ♪ the new jersey traffic jam >> that happened right here in this building last night. tonight, a new nbc news/marist polls shows that chris christie has lost his big selling point as the only republican candidate who was ahead of hillary clinton in some polls. in the new nbc news/marist national poll, it finds that if chris christie ran against hil

>> that was an announcement speech. >> chris christie is running on the theme i can do it. >> chris christie emerged from last night's election as the front runner from the 2016 republican nomination. he got there thanks, in no small part to hurricane sandy. but don't take our word for it. >> my pledge to you tonight is i will govern with the spirit of sandy [ applause ] >> reporter: the spirit of sandy that christie evoked so many times last night is one thing, but the facts of sandy recovery are something else entirely. new jersey received billions of dollars in federal aid to rebuild and 1.8 billion of that came from the u.s. department of housing and urban development to get people back in their homes. to get that money, christie promised 60% of the funds would be reserved for low to moderate income households. right now, it appears chris christie is breaking that promise. of course, we don't know for sure. >> fair share housing center and advocacy group for affordable housing says they're as frustrating. they sued the state for the administration's failure to present the most bake docum

to christie. on the one hand, i think he's got a lot to offer. i think he is the most able politician since bill clinton. on the other hand, you look at those other qualities and ask do you really want that in your president? that's pretty strong stuff. meanwhile, yesterday conservative comment compared the scandal to watergate. let's listen to george. >> this is not a phony scandal because as the principle watergate scholar nose, john dean sent a memo to mr. higby who was the assistant of chief of staff alderman who said we should use the machinery, the federal machinery of government to screw our enemies. that's what this was about up there. >> and the question, howard, who is going to be the john dean here, the one who was part of this perhaps, that's the most likely person to squeal, the person who has been involved in the skulduggery says we were involved in something bad we shouldn't have had. >> there are a couple of other people too including his hand-picked guy who is running the port of

is christie a liar? or just incompetent? or maybe the reckless attacks are the overreach republicans now claim to hate. don't you think republicans look hypocritical and republicans should hold chris christie to the same standard they hold obama to? >> first of all, i think everybody ought to be held to the same standard. your lead in was totally unconnected. each of the people is judged on their own terms and own position and they can both get negative marks or positive marks. >> how can you say when it comes to obama who has to deal with 2 million employees anything he doesn't know he is a liar or incompetent. you have chris christie who can't keep his own aides in the barn and he is not a liar. >> he is paying a price for it. >> i don't hear the pushback that you are describing. you are equating the two and they are not eequivalent at all. look at the irs. other people suffer for that. other people suffer for that. the sandy relief victims don't suffer, the people in the cars don't suffer? >> they are very specific. you h

attorney's office owed christie. i want to play another part of your interview with christie in 2009. >> she literally owes you money. do you think it is unusual. >> not at all. i don't get heads up on anything, the same way we didn't give heads up to people when i was there. >> he said it wasn't an unusual arrangement. what did christie's critics think? >> of course, it was. in the context not a lot of people were paying to the gubernatorial race in new jersey in 2009. this story broke in august. the democrats started running ads immediately. in july of that year there were 40 officials arrested in new jersey in what came to be known as the jersey sting. this was orchestrated by the u.s. attorney's office and michelle brown oversaw the investigation. >> the young lady he loaned the money to. >> for those of us on the inside saw some of the people targeted by a cooperating witness from the government. joe cardwell was a key get out the vote person. it is essential for democrats and statewide elections to win big tota

the same chris christie appointee, he is the same chris christie political appointee who gave the order to close those lanes on the bridge. he's the man who gave specific instructions to bridge officials to not warrant local police, and not warrant town of fort lee about what was about to hit them. other e-mails that have been made public show that the port authority knew they were advised explicitly that shutting down those lanes on the bridge would cause the whole town of fort lee to be gridlocked in a backlog of hundreds of stuck cars. they did it anyway. that is explicitly why they did it. that wasn't a bug, that was a feature, that's what they were going for. we now know that because partially redacted e-mails and text message transcripts were published today. those transcripts and e-mails show that governor christie's appointee to the port authority didn't come up with that idea on his own, it came from governor christie's office directly. boom! look, this is an e-mail from governor christie's office, deputy chief of staff telling david wildstein at the port authority, "time for s

christie, those communications were severed. he continued to e-mail senator bill barone, who was one of the officials who was fired in the wake of this. >> not as a senator. he was working in the port authority. a former senator. people use that title on him, senator barone. i think it confuses some people. >> yeah. and said i would like to continue to discuss our business with the port authority, he does not respond. and mr. fulop in one of those e-mails says i think there's some political overtones in that. now, that is very -- in keeping with what mark sokolich, the mayor of fort lee, said in a letter to bill barone we first reported on that said there's something punitive about this. there does seem to be some traction to this theory that democrats who actively chose not to endorse mr. christie faced some issues. >> and people who don't know how government works, especially at this level, which is to say most people, hear oh, well, he had some appointments canceled, big deal. but this is the essence of the workings of govern

he's been with chris christie since governor krif christie's s u.s. attorney. deputy chief of staff before the chief of staff. he's been chris christie's closest aide for a long time running day-to-day operations of the administration including during the time that the deputy chief of staff seems to have ordered the shut dwoown of trafc in ft. lee, new jersey, as a way of settling some as yet poorly understood political vendetta. chris christie's chief of staff is the man governor christi says he turned to when he first started asking his staff questions about the bridge scandal. governor christie says he relied on his chief counsel and on mr. odowd, the chief of staff, to talk to everybody else. to get anybody else on his staff who knew anything about the bridge shutdown to fess up. now that he has been nominated to be the next attorney general for the state, kevin odowd may be in the position to ask his former colleagues, once again, what they knew about the manufactured traffic jam in ft. lee, because if he is confirmed as attorney general, he might find him

now, we've seen victorious christie. we've seen jovial christie and agitated christie. now meet this new guy, humbled christie. >> i've come out here today to apologize. i apologize for this apology but alocal jazz. my apology. >> 108 minutes. the governor letting reporters burn themselves out on questions. i was half expecting the whole thing to end with journey playing in the background and then a quick cut to black in the diner. denying today being a vindictive man. >> i am who i am. but i am not a bully. i have a very direct, blunt personality. and i understand why some people would then characterize that, especially people who don't like you, as bullying. >> before the e-mails in texas came out, the governor denied any involvement from his office, blaming the bridge woes on what turned out to be a phantom traffic study. but yesterday morning came new e-mails and texts that seemed to bolster the notion that this was a callous, cold, political receipt tribugs. "time for some traffic problems." and "they are the children of democratic voters." the mayor of fort lee is

christie liked and christie still like to talk about reaching across the aisle and his relationship with ho back en's mayor fit to a tee, the image that he cultivated. but that's how it used to be but that story turned. if you've been following the news this week, there have been story of all hoboken was ravaged with hurricane sandy. you remember the pictures of military tanks, millions of gallons of water gushing into the path commuter rail station, a key hub that connects commuters from n to new jersey every day. it's just one square mile. it lies mostly below sea level. it was supremely vulnerable to a storm like sandy. and it's still supremely vulnerable to a storm like sandy because even though it was ravaged by sandy and even though mayor zimmer's team has devised a comprehensive plan to protect the city in the future lez than 1% of that giant pool of relief money has gone to the city. the story you've heard in the news this week is this is supposedly because dawn zimmer didn't enforce chris christie's campaign. but that is not the story. dawn zimmer says the real reason, the real

that's very bad for chris christie. nobody likes a bully and nobody wants that kind of personality to represent this country and to the rest of the world. >> i get the feeling -- scott walker, ed schultz went after heavily and survived that onslaught. he's the only guy i can think of that's not identified as a tea party type. he may be a conservative and a tough guy. >> here's what's devastating about this not just for christie but for the republican party. that new survey you talked about that said the greatest number of american people identify themselves as independents. chris christie was the guy who was is going to appeal to the independents. because somehow he was outside of and beyond politics. now as i said he's showing himself to be all too typical, maybe even corrupt politician, that's going to turn off the independents who like good government. who like people who are outside of the party system and the way things, politics are usually practiced. this smells of the way politics are usually practiced at the lo

he was appointed to that job by chris christie. david samson was furious and outspoken about that april 2011 debacle, and he lambasted the executive director of the port authority for having caused that traffic jam on that bridge 2 1/2 years ago. when the port authority caused this even bigger traffic jam for four straight days, the same chairman, david samson, didn't say beep. no public comment on the issue. no apology. no telling the press it was unthinkable, nothing. not a word. why is that? in contrast to the outer bridge backup in 2011 where david samson raked the director over the coals for public in that backup, here's what we know about what david samson did about the backup this past september in ft. lee. he e-mailed the vice chairman of the port authority after an article about the backup came out in the "wall street journal." david samson's complaint was the executive director of the port authority had talked about it. the article, "confirms evidence of pat foye being the leak, stirring up trouble." "in this case, he's p

. >>> tonight, chris christie's donors are worried, and the first national poll on chris christie since the bridge scandal broke turns out to be very, very good news for hillary clinton. >> 4 in 10 veoters say christie is a bully. >> we has a nation remain stuck in the news traffic jam. >> chris christie's jersey jam. >> come on! >> chris christie and the problems he's had. >> he's a good politician. he's great at defending himself. >> simultaneously, his political career could be finished. >> that's the problem with christie. it's out of his hands. >> in terms of vetting, in terms of the department of justice investigations. >> he has a long road ahead. >> i have had no contact with david wildstein in a long time. >> so we see that wall street journal picture. >> appearing to interact with wildstein on september 11, 2013, the third day of the lane closures themselves. >> decisions for key players come as early as tomorrow. >> when they testify, what's going to be his position then? >> if you want to talk about salt in the wound, there's this. ♪ i was with pissed off drivers ♪ ♪ w

what did christie know? and remember a lot of this whole discussion is predicated on was this political retaliation? and there's nothing in this that suggests that there was any political retaliation, which is kind of the key here. >> jeffrey toobin, our legal analyst is here as well. what the letter does, at a minimum, suggests that there's been a total split between david wildstein and the governor, governor chris christie, that they are on different sides of the story because in this political paragraph, his lawyer has written it and he's strongly, strongly alleging that christie lied. >> right. if you recall the famous two-hour press conference, it was basically a two-hour wildstein under the bus.id they were high school classmates. christie wi christie went out of his way to say i was one of the cool kids in high school and david wildstein was a loser and i didn't even know him. what's happening here is the split is now irreconcilable between them. wildstein is apparently in the process of taking consid

chris christie wouldn't be a strong candidate. democrats think -- >> i'm going to agree with you because i think if democrats overplay this, all we're going to do is make conservatives who have hated chris christie actually like him. >> let me just say this, i was in the first bush white house. we lost terribly in '92 and i remember this chortling in december of '91 when mayrio cuoo said i'm not running again. i remember i said dan quayle said don't underestimate the didn't i. he's a pretty good politician. he got elected in a state full of conservatives. >> suddenly everybody is running for the hills away from this guy. >> i'm not. >> not everybody. >> i'm defending him. i'm happy to defend him. he deserves due process. he's been a good governor and also the charge is bullying? really? is that a serious charge. if there's a law that's been broken, obviously that needs to be investigated. >> first of all, both of these things would be -- both of these things would be illegal and we both know it. you've been around this ground for

he is christie's top political apet pointee. we've reported on this show about how some of david sampson's behavior surrounding the shutdown remains unexplained and odd. the most odd is his public behavior concerning this traffic disaster, which we now know was man-made and engineered for political purposes, the contrast between his behavior surrounding that shutdown and a similar traffic disaster that happened on another bridge back in 2011 on easter sunday. that traffic jam was also caused by the port authority by a shortage of toll takers in that case. but there's no indication that one was done on purpose. when that traffic disaster happened on easter sunday 2011, david sampson, as port authority chairman was publicly furious about it and very vocal, telling the press, we consider this unacceptable. we have mother's day coming up, the fourth of july coming up. it's unthinkable to have these problems. he has a history of being vocal when the port authority causes traffic jams. but on this one in fort lee, that lasted for more

but chris christie cannot count on the mcdonald stannal to eclipse the far more important christie administration scandal. the mcdonald scandal used to be the most important republican political scandal way back when it involved a possible candidate for president. but the mcdonald scandal knocked bob mcdonald out of the running for president long, long before he was indicted today. so team christie is still number one when it comes to republican political scandals. and they continued to emphasize that by hiring some of the best criminal defense lawyers in the country to protect them. the latest high profile hire is former secretary of homeland committee michael chertoff who once was the u.s. attorney for the district of new jersey and newark. if you're in trouble in new jersey or anywhere else in america, you can't get better representation than michael chertoff. and now chris christie's favorite chairman of the port authority, david samson has michael chertoff representing him. chris christie's new team of the best and the brightest defense lawyers, headed by a former federal prosecutor will not

. >> chris christie's jersey jam.

christie at his age. his kang cantankerous manner an independent streak are essential to his white house ambitions. there is a new worry, that once seemed like a refreshing forcefulness may come off as misguided bullying. >> yeah. i think that -- i think that mike has it exactly right. issue for christie is -- i'm stealing this line from someone else, i-can't remember who, but that his image has always been that he is the bully who is on your side. right? yes, you know, he has this sort of swagger and bullying persona but he is using it to stick it to special interest groups and cozy government bus deals and so on. in this case, he's -- you know, or -- let's say his aides are just straight-forwardly, you know, they are bullying the mayor of fort lee but really they are bullying all of the people who were stuck in traffic. anyone who spent my time stuck in traffic in and around new york city knows how infuriating that kind of bullying can be. it does seem like a big problem. i think that the big question t

chris christie, the base of the republican party never loved chris christie. they were a little suspect of him. pragmatic, willing to work with democrats. . they remember his speech in 2012 where he didn't help mitt romney much but talked more about himself. he hugged president obama after superstorm sandy. they remember his attacks on senator rand paul. they were not in love with chris christie before this and this may give them more ammunition. but overall, it's been muted. the responses have been muted. you mentioned nicki hailey saying good things, but there's not been a the lot on either side. what's interesting about nicki hailey is he's the chairman of republican governors association. she's up for reelection. one of his tasks is to talk about them as they go for reelection. interesting dynamic this year. >> whab what about the 900 pages of documents? any preview of what's in the documents? >> we don't have any preview yet of what's going to be in there. you got. to think more communications, more e-mails and will it close the line to chris christie or

christie announced the firing of a. bridget kelly and after a statement from the u.s. attorney's office in newark it was reviewing the later, we will determine whether the law was implicated. david wildstein pled the fifth refusing to answer state lawmakers for investigating this very issue. we need to be clear, no evidence has suggested that chris christie knew about or ordered the lane closings in question. now, throughout the nearly two-hour-long news conference the governor emphasized his repeated attempts in the past to minimize this scandal were based on deception fed to him by staff members. >> i had no knowledge or involvement in this issue, in its planning or its execution. i've had a tight-knit group of people who i trust implicitly. i had no reason to believe they weren't telling me the truth. >> the governor said he was embarrassed and, quote, humiliated at the conduct of senior staff. in addition to the firing of kelly, he announced his withdrawing support for a campaign manager of his who was slated to be

chris christie just said he's concerned about tone. that's a new one for us at "the ed show," folks. let's look at some of the tone in the leaked correspondence e-mails. when the mayor of ft. lee expressed concern about children being able to make it to school an unidentified person said, is it wrong that i'm smiling? someone else chimed in, they are the children of bu buono voters. ooh. in one-e mail bill stepien called the mayor an idiot. what in the world did the mayor of ft. lee to make one of the associates of the governor think he's an idiot? because christie said today at the press conference he barely knows the guy. how would we know if he's an idiot or not? i don't know. kind of going around. i'm going to take a wild guess and just assume that these people working around christie picked up the tone from outbursts like this. and you know what? you know what? let me tell you this. it's people who raise their voices and yell and scream like you that are dividing this country. if what you want to do is put on a show and giggle eve

chris christie? i think republicans would be smart to move to a center right candidate, but that's 23409 where the republican primary electorate is. and i don't think they were going to be there. so i don't think this has changed christie's odds of being the nominee that much. i don't think they were high to begin with. >> david corn, i completely agree with all of that. i've never seen a way for chris christie to get the republican nomination. but now, i'm starting to doubt whether he can even mount a campaign. >> well, you know, i think we all agree here. i mean, chris christie was the candidate for karl rove and the koch brothers and the funding community. the funding base of the republican party. the gravitational pull of the republican voting electoral has moved so far to the right that chris christie by talking about bipartisanship as we just saw him would almost disqualify himself in a lot of states. in iowa, in south carolina, throughout the south. and, you know, i think there was a way he mi

chris christie is ready to move on. in fact, a lot of people on the right are ready to turn the page on the george washington bridge scandal. it is over. he has apologized. time to move on. >> without a doubt, we will cooperate with all appropriate inquiries to insure that this breach of trust does not happen again. >> not for nothing, governor but these inquiries aren't happening to ensure nothing like this ever happens again. it is hard to imagine anyone in the future being quite as craven. there to find out what happened this time. we still don't know. there are still so many questions that need to be answered, including, what was david sampson's role in the george washington bridge scandal. >> i met two hours yesterday with mr. sampson, general sampson. again, i am confident that he had no knowledge of this. >> last week, chris christie issued a sweeping defense of this man, david sampson, one of several people implicated in the first batch of e-mails who has managed to escape the axe. david sampson is not a formerl

tonight's lead, did governor christie know? today several thousand pages of new documents were released in the investigation of the new jersey bridge scandal. one of the most striking new developments and biggest revelations came from david wildstein, the former christie appointee who refused to testify at a hearing yesterday. the leading investigator says documents from wildstein refer to a meeting between governor christie and david sampson, the chairman of the port authority, the agency in charge of the bridge. the meeting took place just one week, just one week before christie's deputy chief of staff e-mailed, quote, time for some traffic problems in ft. lee. the investigator says, quote, by submitting these documents, mr. wildstein is telling us they are related to their -- to the lane closures in some way. the question that demands answering is how. that's a very provocative question. was the christie meeting somehow related to the lane closures? we're going to speak to the assemblyman, asking that question in a moment. >

, not only to chris christie appointees and chris christie staffers and the people who we know seem to have taken part in shutting down the lanes of that bridge as some sort of act of political retaliation last september, not just to those people, but a subpoena went out today to the governor's office itself. and to governor chris christie's campaign for re-election. we were told yesterday that there would be roughly three entities, three organizations who were getting subpoenas alongside a long list of individuals. turns out it is two entities. it's the governor's re-election campaign and the governor's office. which means that as sprawling as this scandal and this investigation have become, they are much more tightly focused than we knew on the governor himself and his immediate staff. this is not a far-flung investigation into how politics is done in new jersey, which is some of the way that it's been covered in the national press. no. at least so far, from what we can tell about the scope of the investigation, this is about chris christie. the subpoena tells the governor's office t

. >> turning to the christie crisis, chris christie is playing the victim, responding to smoking gun e-mails linking members of his senior staff to a plan to shut down four lanes of the busiest bridge in the world, the garden state governor took full responsibility yesterday, while simultaneously throwing his staffers and former campaign manager under the proverbial bus. in a 100 plus marathon press conference, he announced the termination of bridget anne kelly and perhaps in a more notable but critically underdiscussed move he ended the career of his strongman bill step yan, sla slated to be advio the national governor's association was asked to remove his name from consideration for both posts. he denied involvement or knowledge of the closures. >> i apologize to the people of ft. lee and the members of the state legislature. there's no justification for that behavior. there's no justification for ever lying to a governor or a person in authority in this government. i had no knowledge or involvement in this issue in its planning or execution. and i'm stunned by the abject stupidity

christie. john wisniewski believes that laws were broken when christie's aides ordered those lane closures at the george washington bridge. also state senator barbara buo o buono. she ran against christie for governor. let me start with you, barbara. what do you think here is chris christie personal culpability based on all the evidence we now know? >> well, you know, this is a pattern this governor has demonstrated since the beginning of his term. and that is that he puts his own political ambitions ahead of doing what's right for new jersey. there are a lot of questions that need to be answered, as you know. we certainly, assemblyman wisniewski has done a great job of gathering as much information as he can, but so many of those e-mails are incomplete, they're redacted. there's a lot of information we don't know. but one thing is for sure. i know chris christie, i know his administration, i've dealt with him for four years. he runs a very tight ship. it's almost a paramilitary organization an

they always are in team christie. so the notion you would have one man, particularly samson at the top, who's, you know, sort of stroking his chin and wondering, again, credulity. >> that's key. one of the things you get from this, a huge bulk of this has to do with what a freak-out, a flipout was happening in ft. lee and how much it was blowing up through ft. lee politics and through new jersey politics and into the governor's office and into the press and through the port authority where people are writing in saying, it takes me half an hour usually, took me 2 n 1/2 hours to get to work yesterday, 2 hours yesterday. what is going on? >> you have christie operatives saying don't talk to the press about this and didn't even alert the ft. lee police? i mean, it's utter madness. >> another christie associate, this is key, brought to our attention by our own great steve kornacki who knows new jersey politics very well. david wildstein also forwards the outraged memo from randy foye who learns of this whole thing and says

christie-- is a true conservative. (cheers and applause) >> stephen: he is committed to proving the core conservative value that government is the problem even if he has to create those problems himself. i can already see his 2016 bumper sticker, christie, bringing america together or i will [bleep] you over. best of all, best of all, his scheme will make sure-- his team will make sure you have plenty of time read those bumper >> stephen: welcome back, everybody, folks, i got to tell you, truth be told, the thing that really hammers my banana about this whole christie flap is that it's all just a distraction from the real scandal that barack obama is a failure. the facts don't lie. and now at long last those facts are backed up by some information. it's all informer defense secretary robert gates new memoir. >> the book is called computey. >> doubty. >> everyone is talking about duty. >> stephen: yes, duty is on everyone's lips. and the book isn't even out yet. next week is when the doesn'ty drops but a little bit of d

the email wend to the chief of staff for christie. got it, was his response. >> i apparently got somebody mad at me. those emails are pretty damning. >> one month later, they closed two for four days, the time it took to drive to new york took four hours. >> it was backed up all the way on this street. and i was like 20 minutes later in school every day for that week. >> emergency responding, including police officers searching for a missing four-year-old girl. >> america's governor, chris christie. >> as for christie, who won a landslide in november, he initially denied any involvement. >> i was actually the guy working. >> his statement now, i'm outraged and deeply saddened that not only was i misled by a member of my staff, but this completely inappropriate and unsanctioned conduct was made without my knowledge. >> now that we know it was manmade, we need apologies and explanations and people to be accountable. >> christie has already accepted two resignations from people associated with this bridge controversy and the governor ins