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, to have a credible candidacy against chris christie. he's still outside -- you should like him more. he's outside of the mainstream. he's vetoed planned parenthood funding five times. >> now democrats are accusing christie of the far right extreme? >> my tax dollars need to go to planned parenthood. >> he's taxing the middle class. so democrats and independents have lots of reasons to be confident about chris christie. this is something he did to himself. >> those are fair policy debates to have. but i think it shows how scared democrats are. are we going to have an election where -- terrible? i don't know. >> i've got something to say. i'm not scared of these numbers. you want to talk about something that's scared of these numbers. look at these numbers. brand new poll from pew. in a year, this guy's unfavorables have gone to 17 to 34%. doubled his unfavorable. doubled his unfavorable numbers. >> this is also pathetic. you're in the middle of wall-to-wall coverage of cnn and everybody else on this ald scandal. bill clinton's numbers we

he's still chris christie's press secretary. chris christie said in his news conference that he had no idea his gang uses private e-mail accounts for gang business when they want to say things they don't feel comfortable saying on their official government e nail accounts. the highest-rank iing is port authority david sampson and no one talks like a gangster better than david sampson. he was one of the nine people who received patrick foye's outraged e-mail about what was happening at the george washington bridge that included foye's order to stop the lane closures immediately. sampson now claims that that e-mail was the very first time he learned at the george washington bridge. here is the chairman of the port authority saying that he had absolutely no idea there were lane closings at the most important bridge in the world until he read an e-mail at the end of the week about those lane closures, and objecting to what was happening and saying the lane closures violate federal laws and the laws of both states. now, what was davi

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

christie might look like using chris christie's own words. team christie didn't like what they saw and they cited that 30-second video as one of their grievances against this network in a press release on saturday in response to the brilliant reporting by steve on his program saturday morning including his interview with the mayor of hoboken in which the mayor said this. >> the fact is the lieutenant governor came to hoboken, pulled me aside in the parking lot and said i know this is not right and i know this shouldn't be connected but they are. and if you tell anyone, i'll deny it. so the bottom line is it's not fair for the governor to hold sandy funds host anl for the ci city of hoboken because he wants me to give back to one private developer. >> team christie's press release in response to steve kornacki's reporting could not have been longer and could not have been stranger. it essentially amounted to a complaint about this network's coverage of the affairs of state in new jersey and some quotes from positive things the mayor of hoboken

. >>> 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

of president would chris christie be? >> i delegate enormous authority to my staff and enormous authority to my cabinet. >> could we trust president christie's staff and cabinet? >> i am embarrassed and humiliated by the conduct of some of the people on my team. >> chris christie embarrassed and humiliated new jersey. don't let chris christie embarrass and humiliate america. >> and christie's republican opponents for the presidential nomination will keep that kind of ad coming every day. they're very easy to write, because christie has written those ads for them. with that press conference. i mean, i wrote that ad in a few minutes. just sitting there listening to him, just grabbed those quotes and wrote it. you can do this at home. it's easy. just take lines from christie's press conference and wrap them in voiceovers about christie's inability to manage his staff and what that would mean if he was in the white house, if he was picking the attorney general, if he was picking the director of the irs. here are just some of

. >>> presidential hopeful chris christie tries to skid into the bridge. in his news conference than he probably has his whole political career. i'm jake tapper. he said he's embarrassed, humiliated, but not a bully. governor christie apologizing but saying he did not know anything about an ark orchestrated traffic jam in new jersey. >>> the world lead. what a day for mea culpa. dennis rodman saying that he's sorry for the cnn interview seen around the world. you see, everybody, it's okay, he was just drunk. >>> and the pop culture lead. are fans of the critically revialed insane clown posse really a gang? good afternoon, everybody. we begin today with politics lead. chris christie expected any minute now to offer his apologies to the community and the mayor in person after doing it on their tvs earlier in the day. it would not be an exaggeration to call this the most crucial day in chris christie's day. they got a look at text messages and e-mails that ties one of his top aide and a port authority scandal that linked them to a traffic scandal which may ha

chris christie is now in charge of that. do you think it is fair for him to stay in that role, that key role for your party while he is going through all of this and the best help he is getting is on "crossfire" and donald trump. >> i think just from the perspective of setting aside this as an issue in other races it makes since for him to step aside in that role. he does not serve the goals of that organization by staying as chairman. t that doesn't mean any of the charges political or otherwise are substantive or not but perception is reality. >> people have said it about chris christie this whole time it is all about chris christie, a party of one. why a chris christie who cares about >> well, frankly i think this is still relatively new. he may well step down. i have no idea what his thinking is on that. he may get counsel from other governors along those lines. >> but let me ask you something about this. gimp the imperial nomination of secretary senator, first lady clinton, this seems to be the offing. this is, after al

>> chris christie made his entire career on. couldn't do enough of these. >> paul has handled his office in a much more low key way. not the kind of appetite that chris christie has. if you talk to democrats who are more cynical, they say, if this goes to the u.s. attorney, not sure how much is going to come out of it. you have people who predate the current u.s. attorney and were there when chris christie was there. >> so basically if the u.s. attorney is complicated or unlikely to get involved -- a lot of people say it would be easier to bring state charges, instead of federal. although federal seems to be the obvious choice here. if it's not the u.s. attorney, that makes the legislature and their investigation more important and if it has a structural weakness that could be exploited, that could -- >> they can exploit, if they can tie it up in court, maybe the u.s. attorney is forced to come in and take the case. if the u.s. attorney takes the case, it would shut down the legislative panels. >> the number of subpoenas, not th

and the debate with chris christie. we begin the program with former senate majority leader tom daschle. thank you for being with us. obama with relatively low ratings. what does he have to do to turn things around? >> he has to show energy. he has to show passion for the things he wants to do in the second term. there is a feeling of lethargy. he has had some setbacks. he needs to re-engage and re-energize. and i think he will do that. >> the focus, we are told, will be on income inequality, which is very real. the critics say that it is derisive and that obama offers no solutions. >> whether he offer solutions or not, you cannot ignore it. there are too many studies about it. there's been a lot of attention nationally. i think it would be bad to ignore it. we have to adjust that. we have got conservatives and liberals talking about it. they have different ways of addressing it. but clearly, there is a universal recognition. >> could there be a consensus? >> i think there is always a chance. that is always the question

not endorsing chris christie. and the state's effusive efforts to help the second largest city in the state just go up in a puff of smoke. with all the subtlety of a fire-breathing dragon. the mayor in jersey city tries. he asks his staff to please try to reschedule. he says, "try to reschedule. see what they say." the mayor, himself, writes back to his friendly text message buddy, bill baroni to try to reschedule. he waits 2 1/2 weeks and writes again to bill baroni to reschedule. he gets a port authority official to help him reschedule with bill baroni. he writes to a new official just taking office at the port authority to meet with her about jersey city. she's new. maybe she doesn't know about this black ball on the second largest city in the state. initially he gets a positive response from the new official at the port authority, but then, like all the rest, nothing. no response. radio silence. remember during the bridge shutdown when governor christie's staff and appointees were gleeful over how they weren't

i have the same question with chris christie. i, like the other two on this panel, don't think all the questions have been answered. i still think there's more to come out. but when i ask that same question, what did christie know, when did he know it, i don't see any of that criticism. and bridgegate, in comparison to the things that we've seen with benghazi and first scandal and fast and furious, there was a lot more at stake with those other scandals. >> i think there's like a verbal tick among conservatives, that whenever you mention anything with a republican, they have to say benghazi. >> a verbal tick. you call four dead americans a verbal tick? >> no, no -- >> mark, let me say something. i think dana raises a perfectly relevant point. there is a hypocrisy there. having lived through these three other scandals that she cited, i do remember the way the democrats behaved over that. and now, suddenly, it looks like it's a different cite, even though you could argue that bridgegate is just as serious as the others. people's li

those are chris christie's words. we're not going to hear that kind of brand that we see as we wait for him to come out. frank, i want to pick up on two things, one i heard you say earlier, if i understood you right we don't know exactly why it happened. i'm pretty sure we know broadly why it happened at least according to the contemporaneous information that we have. there was a desire and even a glee at punishing democrats and people that they saw were their political enemies. that's in the e-mails. >> but which ones? >> but we know it was political retribution. >> right. the point i'm making it was designed to punish people. and what michael isikoff mentioned, as this turned into a series of investigations, the politics will proceed for some time, but the information can be extremely damaging. i want to be clear for viewers to try to understand where this goes. there are state and state legislature on one track. the federal investigation, the u.s. attorney's office is in inquiry right now. and it if proceeds to a f

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

. >>> chris christie apologetic. i'm sorry coming as 1,000 pages of new evidence from this case becomes public this morning. >> good morning, everyone. i'm john berman. >> and i'm christine romans. it's 5:00 a.m. in the east. there could be more stunning revelations today for chris christie and the political scandal putting him in the center of the political spotlight. he says he's embarrassed and humiliated and sorry for what he claims happened without his knowledge. he's now fired a top aid and asked an adviser to give up a job for their roles in a shutdown of traffic on the very busy george washington bridge during last year' gubernatorial campaign. apparently it was political payback against a mayor who wouldn't endorse their boss. documents are expected to be released today. a source says the fbi now looking into what happened to see if federal law was violated. even though christie apologized, one person connected with the shutdown is not talking. joe johns begins our coverage. >> i come out here to apologize.

was chris christie's mentor and chris christie would probably have no career in politics if he didn't show up as a 16-year-old in tom cane's house in livingston, new jersey, in the 1970s to be a campaign volunteer. and even dick cody, taking on dick cody. now, dick cody is a bear knuckled practitioner of essex county politic, but he's a very popular figure in new jersey politics. and a lot of voters in new jersey have a warm regard for him for stabilizing the state after the down fall of jim mcgreevey. and you mentioned alan rosenthal is almost defied by members of both parties for his knowledge, scholarly knowledge, his fairness throughout the years in serving on commissions and boards. so it's not -- so that's the difference about chris christie and how he's operated. i think what's really interesting, i think, it's deliberate. i think he's tried to send this message that, i am not to be crossed with. i am not to be fooled with, and i think it's had a very -- and he's used that very effectively. >> charlie, i have to ask you, you wrote today the firings of two top staffers, yesterda

>> chris christie's political obituary is being written, chris christie, himself, doesn't seem to understand quite the magnitude of this scandal. >> i'm enormously flattered that folks would talk to me in their party as someone who they think could be a candidate for president. i'm absolutely nowhere near beginning that consideration process. >> that was today. today. during the press conference christie convened to try to explain the breathtaking political payback scheme that was apparently engineered from inside his own administration. it is this context with a massive abuse of power scandal exploding around him that chris christie says he is, gosh, flattered. chris christie is still convinced republicans think he might be their guy in 2016. joining me now, political consultant -- publisher of the federalist. senior fellow at the heartland institute. ben, i get the sense, i've been very interested to watch conservatives not rally around christie. usually nothing makes conservatives rally around someone faster than when the liberal media has their cross hairs on him. that has not been the c

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

they were so mad at chris christie about this. senate democrats made chris christie's first nominee to replace justice wallace, they made her wait until somebody else's seat came up on the court then they would consider her for that one, but not justice wallace's. chris christie nominated a man named phil quan. senate democrats said no. chris christie nominated a man named bruce harris for the court, senate democrats said no. senate democrats were so mad about what christie did to take john harris off the supreme court when he was up for renomination that they would not let anyone through. it's been a big political crisis in new jersey. senate democrats rejected every one of those christie nominees. one after the other. then when another of the justices on the supreme court, a republican came up for renomination just like john harris had, and the senate democrats signaled that they were going to give her a whale of a time at her renomination hearing, chris christie just flipped out. he had enough. he pulled that justice off the su

and that's what chris christie showed. he stood there for 111 minutes in an open dialogue with the press. now only if barack obama and hillary clinton would give us 11 seconds of that would we find out some things we want to find out about obamacare, benghazi, the irs. >> go ahead, joy, i don't know what he is talking about. president obama, whatever you may think about him, but he does hold press conferences. he holds long ones. i don't know what he is talking about. that's a fact. >> and reince priebus isn't exactly the most effective political operative in the world. his rebranding of the republican party isn't going so well. but i think what he is trying to do there is a version of what chris christie did in that endless press conference. it's sort of obfuscation. it's throwing everything but the kitchen sink and trying to distract. i think part of the audience for that really is the media, and trying to refocus the attention of people in the political press. a lot of people have been, let's face it, pretty favorable t

first of all, chris christie shouldn't be in charge of investigating chris christie. and they're going to be involved with other investigators and to have christie talk to them about the underlying events may generate more questions than answers. so the idea of christie personally continuing this investigation as he said he would, i'm not so sure that will actually happen. or if it does, that it's such a good idea. >> with one of the players, david wildstein, pleading the fifth. and the u.s. attorney now saying the u.s. federal government is looking into this, jeffrey, who would have main responsibility if in fact there is a criminal investigation, local, state or federal authorities? >> well, this question, wolf, is what prosecutors spend a great deal of their lives negotiating about. in many, many crimes there is overlapping jurisdiction. and there is often competition over these cases. ultimately the federal government always has the juice, the power, to take over an investigation. and here clearly, i think, paul fishman, who is the u.s. attorney appointed by barac

christie when chris christie was 25 points ahead in the polls. >> that's the thing. amy, let me bring you in here. it seems so utterly pointless. he didn't need to do this. it seems so petty and plays right to the claims against chris christie over the years, he's a bit of a bully. whether he knew or not, if the staff are behaving like this, that in itself is outrageous, isn't it? >> exactly. it's not only vindictive, politically it's stupid. how did these folks think that fort lee residents were going to be blaming their mayor and not the governor for sitting in traffic for three to four hours and a governor not interceding on their behalf. that doesn't even make sense politically. to ryan's point, chris christie i think can survive this. but that depends on if the e-mail and texting traffic doesn't lead directly to him. clearly bridget needs to be fired. i think her next job will be for kim jong-un because she has very petty tendencies that don't belong in government. >> are we getting too excited about politics? when you remember george washington bridge is the bu

. >> chris christie's jersey jam.

what did that mean for chris christie. >> that is interesting, because that is where chris christie made his name as a straight shooter, a fighter against critical construction. it gave new jersey a black eye. there was over 40 people indicted. people have gone to gaol. they plead guilty to all forms of corruption. top officials including the mayor among many other people. in that case he made his name and moved his way into the governor's office and now chris christie is under investigation for similar charges. new jersey was brought back into the hold of having a public life and office, but it's an irony much immense request proportion. when you listen to dawn zimmer talk about how the lieutenant governor spoke to her in the parking lot. it sounds like "the sop rannos' a film. >> if that is where christy made his name, as a reputation of catching the bad guys, now the world is wondering, "wait a minute recollects are you the bad guy?" . >> here is a guy that made his name fighting corruption he or his top aides are alleged to be involved in. we know from the fort lee emails eight senio

chris christie as a u.s. attorney he was very skillful and artful at acknowledging we go where the evidence leads us that that's what we're going to do. as we sit here because of the redactions and people who have testified and taken the fifth amendment, we don't know where this goes. but that will be exactly what we're trying to find out. >> but when you say you take governor christie at his word but there are multiple investigations and still lingering questions it leads me to believe you don't take him at his word. he said he's investigating that there are more people involved. he insists he knew nothing about it until these e-mails were released. so do you take him at his word at that? >> listen, the governor's taken an oath to represent the state of new jersey and uphold the constitution. he's made a very dwefinitive statement. i take him at his word. the governor as you indicated in the two-hour press conference that he's going to look into the investigation. we can't allow him to independently do the i

christie democrats and chris christie. until yesterday, he was not expected to renew the subpoena power of the state assembly. this is all guess -- me just spitballing here but a plausible scenario is he put two and two together. didn't want to ask questions and didn't ask questions and hoped we could get to next tuesday when the state session would expire and subpoena power would expire and almost got there. if this story had not come out yesterday and not been directly linked to the governor's office, we wouldn't be having the conversation we're having right now. now as it stands, that new assembly speaker made it clear yesterday he intends to extend that power and now it's getting so much bigger because of what came out yesterday. you have calls for the u.s. -- there's a whole back story, calls for the u.s. attorney to step in and investigate and indications that he might be looking at doing that. you have the issue with the u.s. senate, with jay rockefeller and commerce committee and now a whole slew of things are sudd

governor chris christie leaving the town hall. joining us is molly from the atlantic and a former aide to barack obama, hillary clinton, and new york attorney general eric schneiderman. blake, your thoughts on what we've seen today and the governor leaving just now. >> you know, look, we spent a lot of time on politics of theater and reeyal ti. chris christie with all due respect to you, i don't care that he has a lot of intellectual stamina and stand for 09 minutes and make his local press corps if giggle at his jokes. what he didn't do is get to the bottom of what happened. he's a former u.s. attorney, did a lot of digging in his day. he couldn't answer questions about where else this extend to. he was asked about who else in his administration knew about this, what did he know and when, didn't really have answers for us today. this is not just one of those scandals, you know, a lot of political scandal, some we call nontroversies, things that are made up and aren't a pig deal. but this is his constituents potentially having the

and what happens to chris christie. the subpoena authority of that committee that has been so critical to breaking this story open, the subpoena authority of that committee is about to expire on tuesday. unless the new speaker of the assembly agrees to extend. it's his decision and his decision alone. governor christie was asked about that at his press conference. >> moving forward, speaker-elect indicated yesterday that the assembly's investigation in this would continue. do you believe that he assemblyman wisniewski and other folks in lecture -- >> listen, i think they have every right to do what they are doing given what was revealed yesterday. you know, i'm certainly not going to question that. in terms of their right to conduct an investigation. i think given what was revealed yesterday, i was shocked by it. i assume they were, too. and i have a good relationship be the incoming speaker. and i'll work with him in every way that i possibly can to make sure we put this matter to rest. so certainly am not going to que

>> 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

does it smell like chris christie? do you smell the fact that there is somebody going to testify like a john dean in a couple of weeks? i'm betting and hoping for bridget kelly to talk about what it really was like working for big guy and what the orders were and the signals were and the atmosphere was. >> right. >> and that's why she had this conversation. "time for traffic problems in ft. lee", as if she had been having this conversation for months. your thoughts. >> well, i don't think they'll ever find a smoking ham, you know, to attribute to chris christie directly. i think he is too clever for that. that's not how thugs work. the whole reason that you hire someone like bridget kelly is to carry out orders like this that you don't actually give. remember when benedict was the god's rottweiler or the pope's rottweiler they called him before he got the pope job? well, she is blob's rottweiler, okay? she knows to do this without actually having to be told. it's the atmosphere. what i think is interesting that i find

chris christie on defensive. closing highway lanes on america's busiest bridge causing massive traffic jams to get back at his political foe. >> gridlock for political revenge. will a traffic jam derail chris christie's white house hopes. >> kg, what about it? a little media bias? >> my gosh, i thought it was the end of the world this morning. i mean, it doesn't matter what media outlet you turned on, it was just like an explosion. word salad, media salad all over the screen. this is chris christie, let's get after it. this is something that they can get excited about really, right, in the start of a new year to kind of put their teeth into. it was like fresh red meat to them. that's what it looked like. total disparate. >> bobby, i have to think the obama administration went like this, whew, thank god we found this out. >> let's remember, chris christie has an enormous amount of coverage. the other thing about hillary clinton. i can understand why the obama piece is damning. hillary clinton, every politician mak

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

chris christie re-elected in a landslide. let's listen into some oh of the pomp and circumstance. >> . >> and so the celebration is beginning now in new jersey. there you see, that's the lieutenant governor there. she is watching what's going on. we are, as well. welcome to this special edition of "cnn newsroom," i'm wolf blitzer in washington. this would normally be governor christie's day to shine, as supporters hoped it might submit his status as a front runner to become the republican party's presidential nominally in 2016, but two controversies now overshadowing the governor's big moment. there you see the governor and his family. the -- our reporters and analysts are standing by. we have special coverage of what's going on in new jersey this hour. chief political analyst, gloria borger, cnn investigations correspondent, chris frates. gloria, set the scene for us now. we're going to hear what chris christie says. he's not necessarily going to address the specific issue at hand, namely the charges, the allegations being l

josh, it is a big moment for chris christie. we'll be waiting and watching developments as they happen. we have to leave it there. thanks for hanging with me, guys. that is all for now. i'll see you back here monday at 4:00 p.m. eastern. >>> good evening, americans, and welcome to "the ed show" live. we start the show with breaking news tonight. there has been a major development in the chris christie bridgegate scandal. according to "the new york times," david wildstein is saying governor christie knew about the lane closures. the ex port authority appointee released a letter through his lawyer today describing the closures as the christie administration's order. the letter says evidence exists tying mr. christie to having knowledge of the lane clore