lee. mr. lee was the dialysis patient and he's probably in his 80's and every time we would drive up to buchanan street, the hospital, mr. lee would say, "good job, fine driver, number one driver" and he would go like this [thumbs up gesture]. and then as brian would be helping him off the van, mr. lee, i heard him so often say, "brian, if anybody gives you any trouble you send them to me and i'll take care of them." and here great big old brian would say, "henry, you're the first one i would try to get help from." and he says, "the second one is elsa." [laugh] so we knew that we were being relied on by brian. a few weeks back, mrs. lee called brian early in the morning to tell him not to bother picking them up because they were already at the hospital. mr. lee was ill and she had taken him to the er. the next day or so, brian, on his lunchtime, found out that mr. lee had been admitted to the hospital and he went up to mr. lee's room and just stuck his head in just to say hello. and the minute

lee. that column about the traffic jam on the bridge in fort lee, ran on friday. it had been like that for days. it stopped the traffic on to the bridge, the traffic jam gridlocked all the surface streets in the town of fort lee, hundreds of cars backed up on to the streets for hours during rush hour, coming and going, it was epic, it lasted for days. it turns out that traffic jam was created on push, which -- they knew right from the start. the port authority, which runs the bridge cut the number of tollbooths from 3 to 1 on the big span. the bergen record asked, why would the port authority purposely quadruple commuting times for some of the people who live closest to one of the nation's busiest bridges. good question, bergen record traffic columnist. good question. and at this point on the friday of the week that this traffic jam happened, at this points this still was a local story about a traffic jam, but the point at which it stopped being a local story about a traffic jam, and started being a story about why chris christie is probably never going to be pres

lee. well, this e-mail from june 20th is from mayor fulop's office to bridget kelly. "hi, brimt, great connecting with you this morning. i thought i had my hands full with three kids. impressed that you have four. i spoke with steven" meaning the mayor "about your mayor day program and i think it's a great idea." e-mail continues "there are so many complexities with local and state governments that a seamless transition can only benefit everyone. again, bridget, thank you for the conversation and the support." that e-mail goes out from may wror fulop's office on a thursday night, about 9:30 on a thursday night. within 25 minutes, bridget kelly and chris christie's office has written back already, c.c.ing the mayor directly, "thanks, veroni veronica, i'm looking forward to working with you. congratulation, mayor-elect. we're looking forward to working closely with you and your administration." then she gives this big, long list of high level state cabinet officers and state staffers? who sh

lee." at the press conference today, governor christie said he was humiliated by the actions of his top staff in this matter. he also said he did not know about those actions at all. but it was really interesting moment at that press conference when in the middle of this very long discussion, in the middle, specifically, of a long back and forth with reporters, the governor explained that when he was running for re-election, which is the time that this whole bridge shutdown happened, when he was running for re-election, part of what he and his campaign were working on at the time was a strategy to, in his words, run up the score. to run up the score in that election. he knew he was going to win re-election, but he wanted to win by as large a margin as possible. and that strategy to run up the score, that is what drove his team's decision making about local officials around the state of new jersey and specifically their endorsements in the governor's race. watch. >> i mean, i'm happy to admi

lee." one of governor christie's most trusted advisers, campaign manager bill stepien, whose e-mail called the mayor of ft. lee an idiot, who was fired and instructed not to submit his name for state party chairman. the firings come on a day when the u.s. attorney has announced the opening of a federal investigation and key christie appointee at the center of the scandal pled the fifth in front of the new jersey house committee and we will get to all of that. >>> but before we do, governor christie gave the performance of his life today. once apologizing and portraying himself as the victim, all in an effort to prove he has nothing left to hide, but there is so, so much we still do not know. >> good morning. >> today in new jersey, chris christie put on a marathon performance. ripped straight from a "west wing" script. >> i should do a till they drop press conference on the nuclear accident. answer every reporter's question. stay at the microphone until i bore them to death. >> during a pre

lee. all this was going on without the governor's knowledge, without his knowing the least little bit about how this office, his own office does business. i didn't do nothing, he said, didn't say nothing, didn't speak nothing. that's "hardball." thanks for being with us. "all in with chris hayes" starts right now. >>> good evening, from new york. i'm chris hayes. two new jersey officials have been fired and the governor of that state is now in full-on defense mode. as the george washington bridge political retribution scandal continues to gain momentum. a total of four people have now lost their jobs as governor christie announced today in an epic press conference that he has fired his deputy chiefs of staff, bridget anne kelly, author of the now infamous e-mail reading "time for some traffic problems in ft. lee." one of governor christie's most trusted advisers, campaign manager bill stepien, whose e-mail called the mayor of ft. lee an idiot, who was fired and instructed not to submit his

lee. dear bridget, this afternoon evan received a call from mayor sokolich. not only is it causing horrendous traffic backup in town, but first responders are having a terrible time maneuvering the traffic because the backup is so severe. the mayor told evan he has no idea why port authority decided to do this but there is -- retribution for something. he simply can't understand why that would be the case, however, because he's always been so supportive of the governor. evan told the fine mayor, he was unaware the toll lanes were closed but would see what he could find out. this is an e-mail during the bridge shutdown. it's to bridget kelly who ordered the bridge shutdown. it's from christina renna who worked in the governor's office. the evan who was referenced in the e-mail we think is probably evan jay ridley who also worked in the governor's office. nobody seems to know what his exact job title is other than aide to the governor. worked in the governor's office as an aide and gets paid

jamie lee? >> ranch dressing? >> coated in ranch dress. >> bonus points for the ranch dressing. >> chris: "deadspin" is reporting that to coincide with the super bowl this weekend, a washington state butcher is marketing a sausage called "beast mode" in honor of seattle seahawks running back marshawn lynch's nickname and not after an upcoming sci fi movie about shape shifting alien werewolves as i was hoping. what is the special ingredient in "beast mode" sausage? a. wild boar tongue b. skittles c. an actual seahawk jamie lee? >> skittles. >> it is skittles. they say you never want to see how the sausage is made, but look at this. >> now it's time to add skittles. >> oh, it's so beautiful. >> there we are in seattle.[ applause ] a lot of crazy [bleep] going on. oh my god, no, no. >> that so disgusting! >> it's not vegan though because skittles have gelatin. >> otherwise 100 percent vegan. i'll give you pt myq kaplan. this is amazing and what makes me enjoy the power the show is beginning to have

please welcome mayor ed lee (clapping.) thank you ruth >> and thank you nancy pelosi it is wonderful to be here on the ribbon cutting day. thank you for this. i is enjoy g s a it's like my agency you know my history the university that u purchaser and the city administrator you know i love g s a and to hear pittsburgh it's role it refers to our clients as customers. i went through those years trying to recreate those agencies given the opportunity and the high privilege of re13wi7b9 government and making us not only relevant but at the value for everything we must accomplish. i will add to the appreciation of president obama and his stimulus packet. i was here years ago i broke this ground with the architect and we were happy to before a break ground with leader pelosi and we looked at across market street and we saw market street as thirty percent vacancy rate a darkness to it people hurried and look what's happening 3 years later. i'll also reference this is one of our stimulus lettuce projects that's the purpose of that

lee. a punitive retribution of the mayor of fort lee who had the gall not to endorse christie. you do not want to miss that. tonight a man once hailed as the presidential nominee is fighting for his political life. cancelling his one event today, giving no interviews and issuing a statement attempting to distance himself from the entire mess. one thing is for sure. just a few weeks ago, he was joking about the allegations, chris christie is not laughing now. >> major twist in the bridge gate controversy, rocking chris christie's inner circle. >> i've been reading some of these e-mails, they seem damning. >> the intrigue is intense political revenge, all sorts of allegations out there. >> imagine the following e-mail exchange as mark murray does. former senior white house adviser david plump to treasury, time for some irs audits on tea party groups, a treasury staffer responds, got it, how long until the pitchforks and torches came out and articles of impeachment were filed. today, we have concrete evidence that top officials in the chris christie administration ordered a massiv

lee." david wildstein, chris christie appointee at the port authority which controls the george washington bridge, the busiest bridge in the world, responded to that apparent order by saying "got it." that was the most important thing that we knew before today. for color, before today, we also had mr. wildstein and somebody else unknown texting back and forth about their glee, their delight, that ft. lee, new jersey, had been turned into traffic hell for a week. that school buses were trapped in the gridlock and kids could not get to school on the first day of classes. they are the children of barbara buono voters. don't feel bad. they're the children of democrats. it is not wrong that you are smiling at the suffering that we have caused them. we had that before today. today, with release of more than 2,000 pages of documents, which the legislature obtained under subpoena in their investigation of the bridge shutdown, today we learned quite a bit more. after that mid-august instruction from

yeah, our good friend lee he is constipated all right. no, no, lee? yeah our good friend lee he is going to be backed up oh -- you want taste real new jersey corruption here say typical story. >> the mayors from hoboken, is a caucus and deputy mayor of jersey city charged with bribery. >> jon: give me more. >> a group of rabbis arrested for involvement in a international money scheme. >> jon: now more. >> one accused of dealing in human kidneys. >> jon: jersey politicians, rabbis, kidney dealing. corruption! corruption! corruption! ♪ corruption ♪ ♪ corruption that is the state i grew up in. have you seen our state flag? there's it will -- literally a severed horse's head on the state flag. that sends a message to every other state in the union no (bleep) put them in the movie. look at how christie handled himself in the press conference. i worked the cones. i was actually the guy out there. i was in overalls and a hat. >> jon: this is say level of dickishness and sarcasm. that's how i handled it at home. yeah, mom i'm a drug fiend, me and my fri

lee. >> i cannot reconcile the bridget kelly i knew from those days than -- >> of time for traffic in ft. lee. >> she was fired as well. unlike david wildstein, bill baronie, bill stepien and bridget kelly, who lost their jobs over this, david samson, whose name appears in the e-mails is standing. he was counsel on christie's first gubernatorial campaign and appointed him to the port authority board in 2010. she the man who wildstein wrote, is helping us retaliate against new york state port authority officials during the fight over the closures. so far he has not been fired. if chris christie wants to survive this scandal, he needs david samson not to be involved in any of this in any way. and the documents we got today don't make that look like lie. joining me now, bob herbert, former "new york times" columnist and now at the progressive think tank dimos. mr. powell, columnist for "the new york times." you've been covering this as well. all right. a lot of players, we learned some stuff

way beyond fort lee. if you go through the george washington bridge, that's the city you go through, but many others were affected. we're told that the governor's journey through fort lee has been slowed by traffic. >> thank you very much. >> that will do it. >> hello, everyone. i'm kimberly guilfoyle along with bob beckel, dana perino and greg gut felled. it's 5:00 in new york city, and this is "the five." >>> in a news conference that lasted nearly two hours today new jersey governor chris christie moved quickly to crush the political firestorm brewing over a series of traffic jams last september that some of his aides may have engineered as retribution against the democratic mayor. first, there was an apology. >> i come out here today to apologize to the people of new jersey. i am embarrassed and humiliated by the

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 playing in traffic. made a big mistake." so in the earlier bridge backup, david samson's mad at the executive director because of the backup and he says so. in the more recent one, the ft. lee one, there's nothing said publicly, the only thing david samson is apparently mad at the executive director about this time is that he's talking to the press about it. he's playing in traffic, he's the leak, stirring up trouble. he's made a big mistake. that's when some of the first press about the ft. lee disaster came out. during the ft. lee disaster itself, during the shutdown itself. on the final day of the shutdown. when that executive director who leaked to the press had in

lee, did you want to make me remarks to the board before we hear the public testimony? >> yes, i know. yes. >> thank you. >> good evening, my name is olsen lee and i am the director of the mayor's office of housing and i just had a very, very few remarks, one is i just wanted to thank, the district staff for the work on this particular transaction, and this is as you know from the discreption and the presentation from mr. gold man and conversations with mr. gold man and assistant superintendent lee, this is not an easy transaction, it is a complicated transaction and it looks at a number of properties, but i think that the bottom line is that this is a transaction where both parties benefit. and i think that that is one of the things that we do here in san francisco well. and we look for sort of the good in the transaction and clearly, this provides the benefits to both the school district and to the mission of my office, which is to create the additional affordable housing and so on behalf of the mayor's office, i truly want to thank you for your consideration of this,

it deeply impacted fort lee. the democrat refused to endorse christie when he was trying to build up endorsements as a way of talking about bipartisan in the re-election. pushing through the closure, david wildstein port authority of ny and nj. wildstein and christie are old high school friends. we don't know if wildstein with testify today. they're subpoenaing him on who was behind the traffic mess. let's continue drilling down on this. cnn joe johns is piecing together what happened and the fallout. christie is due to speak at the top of the hour. what do you expect him to say? >> jake, the trouble for the christie administration calls for state or federal investigation. there should be a question or two about that. then there are the hearings. questions are asked about the scandal on capitol hill. on top of that, the governor will have to answer questions about abuse of power and political retribution. this morning the pressure is mounting. >> that's not the kind of leadership new jersey needs and certainly no

lee. we begin with jake tapper who has been watching all of this with riveting attention. >> it's an incredible story. for those of you watching christie for some time, we've seen candid christie, feisty christie, blunt christie. today we saw a chastened christie. he entered apologetic and heartbroken. >> i am embarrassed and hum mill ated by the conduct of some of the people on my team. >> reporter: echoing the words of the written statement, e-mails and text messages that showed some of his top staffers conspireing to shut down the george washington bridge in an act of political payback. >> i had no knowledge or involvement in this issue, in its planning or execution, and i am stunned by the abject stupidity that was shown here. >> he said that heads have already rolled, including bridget anne kelly. >> i've terminated the employment of bridget kelly immediately. she was not given the opportunity to explain why she lied because it was so obvious that she had lied. >> reporter: bill stepi

next, we'll hear from mayor edwin lee. when he's not delighting young crime fighters, he's worked tirelessly to make sure that construction is at the heart of every new area in san francisco. it's no surprise that the mayor has been focused on affordable housing. this has been his issue. thanks to mayor lee, no other city is developing as much affordable housing that san francisco is doing right now. thanks to the mayor there is now permanent funding in affordable housing in the affordable housing trust fund. $1.5 billion will be available for construction in affordable housing. mayor lee believes building affordable housing is something to accomplish. mayor's accomplishment includes parks, public safety. ladies and gentlemen, mayor lee. [ applause ] >> thank you, michael. i guess that time capsule is not big enough for me to go in. first of all i have been business an acquainting myself with the family. i'm really happy to not only see you here welcome a great project. this is again another celebration of the presence tha

there we see chris christie arriving at fort lee. he is arriving with his entourage and going into -- we have craig melvin on the scene so we'll speak to him soon. we saw chris christie making his somewhat dramatic entrance here to do this personal apology. what we showed before that, of course, was him talking about the traffic study. why does that matter and why does the governor seem to want to put some distance between himself and the idea some study happened? >> there's a traffic study he's saying and maybe a political vendetta. i don't know what the balance is. the only evidence is there was a political vendetta. p exact origins i don't think we fully understand and maybe we will learn. there has been no evidence a real traffic study was commissioned, that took place, that there was any real traffic study at any point. it was curious to hear him almost clinging to that today. the christie claim is he was completely blind-sided by this, had no inkling until yesterday, no reason to be suspicious of anything. that defies common se

you knew that when fort lee called 20, 30, 40 times. you knew that when i kept sending text after text and calling cell phone after cell phone. you always knew that because we were telling you that that was happening. to now -- to shut that bridge down and to put my folks in absolute danger, i think it's more than civil. let me answer the question that way. it's more than civil. >> as far as you know, is there a criminal investigation under way by any local or state or federal authority? >> i know that the independent investigator for the port authority is conducting an investigation. i know that the assembly is conducting an investigation. and i have to believe that now in light of what's transpired over the last 24 hours and now seeing these revelations in these e-mails, now that it's unconditionally confirmed that there's a level of intentionality that's involved, i've got to believe that there's going to be investigations to determine whether this rises to the level of criminality. and i tell you, i'm not rooting for it. i'm not loo

muhammad was going to be lord over and lee would be one of his soldiers. and he really believed that. >> he was so enamored with john muhammad that he would have done anything. and what muhammad was asking him to do was kill other and over again. >> lee boyd malvo. >> yes, sir. >> two years after the shooting, lee boyd malvo was convicted on two counts of capital murder. he was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. three years later, he wrote from his cell, i'm still grappling with shame, guilt, remorse, and my own healing, if that will ever be possible. as for john allen muhammad, he too was convicted of capital murder. the sentence? death by lethal injection. his own motive for the killing spree remains a mystery. >> all we know about muhammad's approach to these shootings is largely what other people have theorized because muhammad never really explained why it happened. there are theories that he was randomly shooting people in that area so that perhaps he could kill his ex-wife and then swoop in as the grieving ex-husband and

lee. they control the george washington bridge, the busiest bridge in the world responded to that apparent order by saying, got it. that was the most important thing we knew before today. for cover, before today, we have mr. wildstein and somebody else unknown texting back and forth about their glee, the delight that ft. lee new jersey was in traffic hell, school buses were trapped and kids couldn't get to school the first day of classes. they were the clirn of barbara buono. it's not wrong that you are smiling at the suffering we have caused them. we have that before today. today, with the release of more than 2,000 pages of documents, which the legislature obtained under subpoena, today, we learned quite a bit more. after that mid august instruction from governor christie's office that it was time to cook up something terrible, within the port authority, the traffic engineers were asked to provide a few different scenarios for how to do that. under what appears to be the guise of a traff

lee are no strangers to traffic. the backup on the bridge happens every day, but not like that week. how bad was it? >> it was terrible. >> it was very bad, worse than ever. >> reporter: this is just an average day for ft. lee. this is just regular traffic. you can already see how difficult it is for emergency responders to get where they need to go. the real traffic mayhem started on september 9th. >> wreaking havoc at the george washington bridge. >> reporter: the next day, ft. lee's coordinator wrote a letter to the mayor. over the past two days, we have had delayed response times due to the traffic. he describes several cases including a car accident with multiple injuries. favia says he was forced to jump the curb in order to avoid the stand still traffic. school children got caught up in the mess, too, the first day back from summer vacation. some did not reach the classrooms until noon. >> out of the blue, it took me two hours to get into work. other staff member, it took them a long time. students were impact

lee. i mean, he really did spend the right amount of time both in that press conference and then answering questions addressing very serious grave questions. and i think that will satisfy a lot of people at least in the short-term. there are more questions to be asked. the three of you have raised those questions. so he's not completely out of the woods. but as press conferences go, i think it was pretty much the best he was going to do. >> the question i have, s.e., and maybe you have a sense of this, you know, we have not heard from bridget anne kelly, his deputy chief of staff who was fired. >> yeah. >> we haven't heard from bill stepien and we haven't heard from david wildstein. at some point we're going to hear from them. and what they say potentially could be very damaging to this governor. >> yeah. i mean, clearly they didn't respect him enough. if what he's saying is true, clearly they didn't respect him enough to warn him of this, tell him they were doing it, come clean when he as

lee hadn't been the victim here of some purposely caused traffic jam. ft. lee was the perpetrator. they think they're so special. ft. lee was the problem. the camera is shaking here, but watch the point that he's making. watch this. >> so ft. lee global traffic enters the special entrance to the bridge here. that arrangement enables ft. lee residents to skip the general traffic backup at the george washington bridge. the result, 12 lanes, a quarter of those lanes are available to ft. lee local traffic. and that local traffic, and 75% of the lanes are for everybody else. while the port authority is very sensitive to the effect traffic has on our host municipalities. >> we at the port authority are super sensitive to the effect of traffic on our cities. we have nothing to be embarrassed about with this traffic study. ft. lee is getting more than their fair share of access to the bridge for years now. so yes, we had a traffic study to show how selfish ft. lee a is and how much they are hurting everybody else. that was totally made up. there was no traffic study. the whole thing was co

lee. the headline fort lee approves second half of $1 billion development. it's called the hudson lights t. plan is to loom large on the jersey side of the hudson river just right near the george washington bridge. the site calls 157,000 retail space, 477 residential units and 157 room hotel. it is being developed in a state that jersey has been trying to develop for almost 50 years. it's at the center of the motive for the bridgestate scandal. joining me is steve kornacki and so, you went in on this on your weekend show, steve this parcel of land, why do you think it bears some connection to this? >> yeah, i wouldn't call, i don't feel that i put a theory out there. i can oons ter y question. where i think it does take you is we have been looking at this and saying, this town of 35,000 people, supposedly about an endorsement. >> that was never asked before. >> yeah. so what, this level of interest from such high level gubernatorial staffers, people this closely related to chris christie, in his level of interest, his level of risk, it's not proportionate to

the honorable mayor ed lee at the san francisco. and from hk architects. (clapping.) and crystal-clear barton artist with the cliff barton studio. thank you all for joining us the general services administrations is to deliver the best technology services to the government and american people. critical parts are providing with that,s that preserve the integrity off our historic fats and incorporating the design features all have been integrated. those of us who work here about work in a historically more than building. the m public works will homicide a place in his. at the history it dates back to 17952 when it was commissions to design is a new this. this federal building is within the center complex. after the earthquake of 18906 devastated many buildings it was transformed offering a promise of a now a fundamental humane city. this was designed by before a began in 1933 and was complete in 1936. the 77 his is unique including the historic oral office of chester. thanks it to the recovery act it's a beacon to achieve a plaque. in other words, this historic building

lee high school in ft. lee, new jersey. governor chris christie, the governor of new jersey, is expected to land his helicopter there imminently, we are told, as he begins the process of apologizing to the people of ft. lee, new jersey, and to its mayor for the traffic jams that were apparently caused in september when a member of christie's staff instructed the members of the port authority to block some lanes on the george washington bridge. the whole issue comes down to the use of public funds and public facilities for political retribution or political gain. that's really what the u.s. attorney in that area is looking into right now. it's a whole political drama. but it does involve a rising star in the republican party, chris christie, considered the front runner for the presidential nomination in 2016. does this end those chances for him, this whole scandal? something we'll get into in a while. we're still waiting for the governor to show up in ft. lee, new jersey, to begin the apol y apology. >> i'm sure we'll bring

lee: thank you. i would like to thank you for your partnership for helping us take on the challenges of our city. our unemployment rate is 5.2 percent and thousands of citizens are back to work. it's not just one any industry, we are seen broad base job growth in every sector of our city. we have worked together to spur the control of all of city san franciscans by providing hub fund and summer jobs plus programs for youth and with our historic investments with school and we work together to strengthen our neighborhood and small businesses. we have worked to fund our roads, parks, libraries and help our san francisco families succeed and helping to rebuilding our health care infrastructure with five health developments going on now. i'm looking forward to working with all of you to challenge all of these tasks together so san francisco remains 100 percent. i will look forward to outlining my focus in the coming days. with that, supervisors, any questions? >> thank you our first question is from super

lee. a punitive retribution of the mayor of fort lee who had the gall not to endorse christie. you do not want to miss that. tonight a man once hailed as the presidential nominee is fighting

lee. and i'm telling you, we ought to wait until this investigation concludes. >> when we spoke to christie last election day, we talked about apologies in the context of president obama's broken promise that if you like your health plan, you can keep your health plan. >> here's what my suggestion would be to him. doipt be so cute. and when you make a mistake, admit it. i said it. i was wrong. i'm sorry. and we're going to try to fix this to make it better. >> today it sounded as if he was taking his own advice. >> when mistakes are made, then i have to own up to them and take the action that i believe is necessary in order to remediate. >> and joining me now to discuss the implications of this all, reporter for nyc, matt katz, cnn political kmen state commentator, ryan lizza. we saw a very contrite chris christie, very different from the one who asked you weeks ago and he made a comment about putting cones out in the lanes. do you think this is going to be a less bunt and controversial ch