check check >> welcome to al jazeera america. i'm thomas drayton, here are the top stories we are following at this hour. >> a dangerous chemical spill in west virginia, a chemical used to process coal leaked from a factory into eliud kipchoge. there are fears of water contamination, a state of emergency has been declared in and around the capital. >> the indian diplomat arrested in new york has been indicted by a grand jury, charged with visa fraud and making false statements. she was granted diplomatic immunity and left the county. >> new jersey grandfather snore chris christie is sorry about a political revenge scandal involving a top aide. the staffer ordered lane

closures on the george washington bridge causing gridlock. chris christie denied involvement. >> u.s. missionary kenneth bae's family accepted an apology from dennis rodman. he had insinuated during an interview that kenneth bae was at fault for his imprisonment in north korea. >> a cold blast may have bost the u.s. economy $5 billion, because thousands were forced to stay home instead of work. it's about a seventh of a day's production for the entire county. those are the headlines. "consider this" is next on al jazeera america. i'm thomas drayton in new york. a bully and denies knowing about his aide's wrongdoing. will it work? dennis rodman says he is sorry for blaming an american

held cap tiff in north korea. also uncovering the shocking role women played in the holocaust. and duz the "the wolf of wall street" depict or glamourize greed gone wild. hello, i'm antonio mora. welcome to "consider this." ♪ we begin with chris christie, the new jersey governor and likely presidential candidate, faced reporters thursday to respond to the biggest political crisis of his career. emails and text showing top staffers conspired to snarl traffic on the george washington bridge in an apparent act of political revenge. >> iment am embarrassed and humiliated by the conduct of some of the people on my team, and i come out here today to apologize to the people of new jersey. i am

responsible for what happened. >> christie said he was blind sided and his deputy chief of staff betrayed him. >> i am stunned by the abject stupidity that was shown here. i have terminated the employment of bridget kelly effective immediately. >> the nearly two-hour press conference show how many questions remain news answer. this was a far cry from what he was saying in december when he mocked reporters for asking about the scandal. >> i worked the cones, actually matt. i was actually the guy out there, i was in overalls and hat -- but i was the guy working the cones out there. you really are not serious with that question. >> joining us now is bob engel, the

coauthor leslie sanchez is a republican strategist and the author of several books. she joins us from our los angeles studio tonight and with us here in new york is richard mertz. bob, i want to start with you. he took every question asked of him. of course the big question is was this enough? or is this just the beginning of an even bigger problem in >> well, after it was all over, and it certainly was a marathon effort, i had questions that weren't answered. in fact i don't think there were any answers today that we didn't already know from the newspaper stories. >> now, richard you have seen this whole thing play out very

closely there in new jersey. the one question that comes to mind is he always seems to have been a politician with common sense. why would he have done -- what his administration have done, wreak venn gej on a small city mayor who didn't support him? >> things get crazy in campaigns, and people do things that really most of us woul look at and say this was not a good idea. >> he seemed to continue the spin his aids had used on the cause of the traffic jam. >> i don't know whether this was a traffic study that morphed into a political venn den ta, or a political vendetta that

morphed into a traffic study. >> but there doesn't seem to be any evidence there was a traffic study. leslie from los angeles where you sit, how did christie do? >> i think giving the governor the benefit of the doubt, and the cars he was dealt, i think he played it beautifully. there are not a lot of figures that could have taken this level of scrutiny, stood before reporters, and all of his colleagues to an exhaustive answer and answer all of these questions. is he out of the woods? no. absolutely. >> bob, you said you had many questions. what is your biggest question? >> well, this woman, kelly he said was fired because he called the senior staff in and asked if

they knew anything about this, and nobody said anything. so he fired her because she obviously did. well, i have been covering politics for a long time, and one of the things you know about it is there are really no secrets, so i don't believe that she was the only person in that office who knew who was going on. that being the case, why was she the only one fired. >> but then the question some are raising is we saw all of the scandals in washington over the past year, where the president said he didn't know about the irs scandal or the botched obamacare website, does the chef executive, bob, in your experience, covering governors, do they really know what all of their people are doing? >> well, christie said today he couldn't know what always 65,000 state employees are doing, and i agree with that, but i think he can know what his very close knit small staff around him is

doing, and if he doesn't, then he should. >> christie of course well-known for his personality, today we saw a more humble governor, but most people are familiar with these sound bites that have become very famous, his straight talking butment some accuse him of being a bully. let's listen. >> you have numb nuts like reid who put out a statement comparing me to george wallace and lester maddux. did i stay on topic? are you stupid. >> first of all it is none of your business. i don't ask you where you send your kids to school. i don't give a damn about election day. it doesn't matter a lick to me at the moment. i have much bigger fish to fry than that. >> but there is a history of him taking action against political

opponents, so what is your reaction? do you believe he is telling the truth or not? >> it's very hard to tell at this point. it does seem unlikely that a governor would be totally ignorant of what was going on in his own staff. and there were five people, virtually all of them his appointe appointees, the idea that a scandal would emerge and no one would pick up the phone and say we have a problem. >> let's listen to this. >> politics ain't bean bag. okay. and everybody who engages in politics knows that. on the other hand that's very, very different than saying that someone is a bully. i have very heated discussions and arguments with people in my own party and on the other side of the aisle. i feel passionately about

issues, and i don't hide my emotions from people. i am not a focus group tested blow dried candidate or governor. now that has always made some people as you know uneasy. some people like that style. some people don't. i'm in the business of trying to satisfy the people who elected me governor. >> republicans haven't been rushing out to defend him. even a moderate like senator lindsey graham is saying things like what richard and bob said tonight, he said he found it hard to believe that christtive's aids would have done what they did unless they thought their boss was of this mind set. conservative republicans who have never been big fans of christie including people like rush limbaugh are at least support.

>> and that's not uncommon. when people are looking at a 2016 possible presidential candidate, the last thing you want is this kind of investigation. i think one thing you know in politics is you have to see where all of the chips fall. what you can't deny is that he said he was deceived. you have to take the governor at his word at this point, especially after this exhaustive conference. he has done what many on the national stage never do, and that is face all of these questions head on for hours and try to do the best he can in his own way answer them. is he truthful? we're going to find that out, i think as more is discloseded, but it's his personality and style, and to many voters i would argue it's exactly what is his appeal. >> bob, as christie was

speaking, his high school friend david wildstein who is one of the most important people involved in this process. he was the one that received the email from bridget kelly suggesting that he create traffic problems in the washington bij bridge area, he took the fifth. >> on the advice of my counsel, i respectfully assert my right to remain silent. >> what will happen with him and how significant is the fact that he took the fifth amendment. >> well, it certainly didn't make a great impression on anybody. that's for sure. you have to ask why. why did his lawyer suggest that? and it could be that they are thinking that there is going to be some serious legal action coming down the road. we know today there was a class action lawsuit filed in fact

against the people who are alleged to have had their hands on the closing. >> leslie, christie wrapped up the way to go to fort lee new jersey, who went to the mayor to apologize. >> i'm grateful that he would hold a press conference this quickly. i'm grateful he would take such decisive action this quickly. i don't think there was any other alternative, but i think he made the right decision from that perspective. >> is the mayor, he had no other opportunity but to go to forth lee today? >> absolutely. i think the mayor comes across looking like a strong reasonable public servant who is looking out for his constituents at the same way the governor is trying to reach across the aisle and

show he was truthful in that he feels he was deceived by his staff. this was a high-risk situation into. and his style of leadership is very evident right now, and i think that is also working in his favor. >> richard how does this rank on the political scandal scale we have seen over the last couple of decades? >> i think if it is determined that the governor hasn't been straight with the people of new jersey then i think there will be some pretty serious consequences, but the scandal here is not so much that somebody pulled a prank, the real issue is was there an abuse of power, because if someone aspires to be the president of the united states, the last thing anyone wants is someone

who is going to abuse power. >> let's listen to this. >> the american people are a fairly forgiving lot. if you got it wrong, you got it wrong. but what they don't like is when they think you are dodging it. and i think that's what the president looks like he is doing right now, dodging it. >> i want to ask all three of you quickly, what do you think this will mean long term? is it fatal or not for christie? bob, i'll start with you. >> well, if we don't hear anymore, that he did know and he was lying on us, he does have history on his side. we tend to forgive and forget and two years in politics is the same as 50 in anything else. >> richard? >> i think it's too soon to tell. and when we know whether in fact his story is credible; that he didn't know, that will probably

be determinative of how much damage he suffers. >> lessy? >> given the governor the benefit of the doubt he has shown and exhibited leadership and the style that a lot of independent voters and soft conservative democrats are looking for. that's his appeal and would propel him on the level. >> thank you all for your time. appreciate you joining us tonight. the christtive press conference garnered lots of attention on social media. let's check in on that. >> this is one of the stories that blew upimmediately on social media. it quickly rose to number one, while hashtag chris christie took the number two spot. you have probably seen this photo today after governor

christie said he couldn't pick the mayor out of the lineup, as you see the photo shows christie meeting the mayor. and it compares bridgegate to a sex scandal. antonio. >> yeah, it was a busy day on social media. coming up dennis rodman apologizes to the family of an american imprisoned in north korea. we'll talk to kenneth bae's sister next. and paid paternity leave is >> start with one issue ad guests on all sides of the debate. and a host willing to ask the tough questions and you'll get... the inside story ray suarez hosts inside story weekdays at 5pm et / 2pm pt only on al jazeera america

and in those cases where formal education isn't feasible because of the securitsi

den -- dennis rodman apologized today for comments he made earlier this week about kenneth bae. while in north korea to celebrate the birthday of the man rodman calls his friend,

dictator, kim jong un, rodman made bizarre comments that took a turn for the worse. >> if you understand what kenneth bae did, do you understand what he did? >> what did he do. you tell me. >> in this country. >> no, no! you tell me! why is he hell captive! that's what the hell you think! i'm saying to you! look at these eyes! look at them. >> rodman blamed stress and alcohol for his meltdown saying his dreams of what is he calling basketball diplomacy were collapsing around him. we are joined by kenneth bae's sister, terri chung. you have accepted his apology. >> yes, we are absolutely appalled about his comments

about my brother, for him to say he doesn't want to help that's fine, but everybody makes mistakes and he is human, so we're going to give him the benefit of the doubt and say okay, we accept. sincere? >> again, i think we're going to give him the benefit of the doubt and hope it is. >> rodman has been to north korea four times since your brother was imprisoned. and back in may he sent out a tweet saying . . . so were you shocked to hear then that he refused this week to speak on your brother's behalf? >>, you know, i mean -- it seems like he has slowly been changing his mind over the -- over the several months after that infamous tweet. so we weren't so much surprised by his refusal to help, which is disappointing, of course, we had hoped he would, but more -- we

were just outraged by just his hurtful comments. if he doesn't want to help, that's fine. but please do no harm. this is a very dangerous situation where man's life is on the line. >> talking about the danger, you have seen these recent political purges by kim jong un, he ordered the execution of his uncle, and i'm sure this makes you even more worried about your brother's safety? >> we are worried about my brother's life. he has been sentenced to 15 years in a labor camp. >> i know he was allowed to call home recently for the holidays. what did he have to say? i know he has diabetes. how is his health? >> i think he is hanging in there. he is still being held in a hospital, because he has chronic conditions such as severe back pain where he can't stand for

more than 30 minutes at a time. he has chronic treatments that require treatment back home, and he is suffering, and he is trying to put on a strong front for us, but it's the second christmas he has spent away from his family. this is the first time he has talked to his children in months. >> it must be devastating. at least he is in the hospital now and not doing hard labor. as hurtful as radman's statements were, do you think in some odd way it may have been a good thing because it has now raised so much awareness and has people talking about your brother again? >> we do appreciate that other people are now paying more attention to kenneth's plite.

>> do you believe the u.s. government is doing enough to get your brother released? >> i think the u.s. government wants to help and see kenneth come home, and they tried to send an envoy, and that was called back. and i love my brother and i just want to see him come home safely. so until he comes home, it is not enough. >> i hope you do get to see him come home safely and that happens soon. best of luck with this. >> thank you for having me. as pattern leave becomes more common place in the u.s. is it already shifting the dynamics of american parents. the act gives three mull months of unpaid leave to mothers and fathers who work for medium and large-sized businesses. but a growing number of businesses have begun to give

leave to mothers and fathers. liza is the author of the richer sex. she also wrote about paternity leave for the new issue of the land -- atlantic magazine. great to have you with us. it's still only a small number of states and companies that offer paternity leave? >> right. i would like to say it is trending. it is true at large companies that many men and most men now take some time when a child is born, but often men have to use their vacation time, but it is a small but growing number of companies and in some cases states that offer paid time when a child is born. >> the u.s. is one of the few countries in the world that

doesn't require paid maternity leave. do you think it is going to be a while before we see paid paternity leave? >> yeah. the few number of states offering it are offering it to mothers and fathers alike. so if it becomes common in more states then i think it will apply to both parents. >> i was surprised by who you thought benefits most from this? >> right. obviously the men who get offered paid paternity leave in their workplaces are very happy. sometimes they are afraid they will be stigmatized, but i think more often they are very happy to take it. it's good for men's relationships with their children. studies show that men are very interested in being more engaged father.

but i think what people don't realize is the real beneficiaries are women, working women, and the companies who want to keep women in the work force. when men are able to take time when their child is born and become accustomed to the -- the care of a baby, and the sorts of -- you know, diaper changes and feeding and become comfortable with those routines, men are more likely to be engaged a year down the road or more. and that means women are more freed up. >> and you say that leads to gender equality in the workplace. and you cite a study that says it's all of us, because the stronger economies in the world are the ones that offer paid paternity leave. >> yeah, and women now are the majority of students in colleges. and companies and country's

interest to keep these women engaged. so the countries with the strong economies are the countries who have found ways to close the gender wage gap and keep their female work force in the workplace, and offering leave to fathers, and thereby changing the domestic division of labor in a way that makes life a little bit easier for women is one way to keep women in the paid work force. >> and you also found that it could lead to longer lives for men, better health. are there any negatives? because when paternity laws first took effect in california in 2002, there were real killer. >> right. in california it is six weeks of paid leave, and that's a great thing, and that may seem like an eternity to men who wouldn't

expect anything before this, but that's not a super long time. and it's not just companies -- the great thing about the state laws is that it applies to men and women who are not in white collar workplaces. so for my peace i interviewed firefighters, a guy who worked in a restaurant, a guy who was a roofing contractor, and these guys were all so happy to have paid time to spend with their kids. and basically the study showed that businesses can cover. >> another piece in the atlantic showed that men who took family leave ended up having depressed earnings. does it carry the financial risk that it always has for women to take this kind of leave? >> men historically have enjoyed a premium when they have gotten married or had children. there is the fatherhood or

marriage premium for men. and company's would actually pay husbands and fathers more because they were the breadwinners, and there's still a lingering bonus when men become fathers either because they are working harder or because their employer sees them as more promotable and committed that men have enjoyed this benefit, so if it depresses men's earnings a little bit, keep in mind men are still benefiting this bonus. women are more likely to be stigmatized in the workplace committed. >> so you are saying there could be a reverse stigma, that men are expected to take care of

their children and if they don't take leave a reverse sigma could happen? >> right. quebec offers families a certain amount of leave but there are five weeks that can only be taken by fathers. and if the father doesn't take that leave, the family just lose it. and what happens is that men are likely to feel more stigmatized if they don't take the leave. if you just throw it away, then it changes the cultural perspective. >> liza thank for being on the show tonight. >> thank you. time now to see what is trending on al jazeera america website. >> the highest growth in casinos rose to what many considered a

magsal model in living wages. it changed lives, but now three monks later 175 of those employees that worked in the casino restaurant have been one frustrated employees explains his frustrations. >> this place is making millions and millions. day and night, and they trying to take away what they give us. we -- everybody in this kitchen deserves the raise. >> a spokesperson for the casino said the restaurant had lost money since it opened and each employee let go would receive some severance.

coming up how many congressmen are flush with cash? and later spiderman the musical just ended its disastrous run on broadway, so why are many new move i have adaptations vying to take its there's more to finical news than the ups and downs of the dow. for instance, could striking workers in greece delay your retirement? i'm here to make the connections to your money real.

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caucus >> al jazeera america is a straight-forward news channel. >> its the most exciting thing to happen to american journalism in decades. >> we believe in digging deep. >> its unbiased, fact-based, in-depth journalism. >> you give them the facts, dispense with the fluff and get straight to the point. >> i'm on the ground every day finding stories that matter to you. >> in new orleans... >> seattle bureau... >> washington... >> detroit... >> chicago... >> nashville... >> los angeles... >> san francisco... >> al jazeera america, take a new look at news. check check >> most people think nazis were by and large men. a new book challenges that conventional women. "hitler's furies, german women in the nazi killing fields" outlines the roles that women

played, including those women that helped him build his empire. >> we are joined from washington d.c. by wendy. thousands of books have been written on the holocaust, most focused on men. women faced compulsory labour laws and were part of the nazi regime and were involved at almost all levels. >> that's right. if we talk about the rise of naasies, and the expansion of the third rict we can't leave out the population of women. this was, in nazi thinking, a large revolution that was supposed to occur. they were mobilising p men and women for the war-making campaigns and genocidal campaigns. women were a part of that. >> let's talk about the different ways they were involved. talking about genocide is

talking about the role that women played as nurses, killing people. >> actually, the first deaths that occurred in the holocaust, when the killing phase began started with the beginning of the war in 1939. it was against the mentally and physically disabled. the first victims were german children in the asylums and hospitals. the nurses were mobilized for this. one of the women featured - i have 13 biographies interwoven. among the first perpetrators, pauline knissler was brought together with 30 other nurses and signed an oath of secrecy to participate in the mass murder campaigns. at the high point of her career in this campaign, she killed as many as 70 patients a day in a gassing facility. she was mostly giving them -

administering lethal injections and giving them deadly medicine. >> horrible stories. and the ones that were not as active. you bring up the secretaries involved who at their deaths say - it's the perfect example of the binality of evil and you describe the women of favouring their detail over morality and they stood by. >> in this regard women were no different to men, in the fact that duty prevailed over morality. women entered into this part of the workforce for generations. it exploded during the nazi era because of the expansion of the modern state. we had 20,000 secretaries working in ss operation, and the gestapo in berlin was a huge administrative machine of about 55,000 personnel. women were part of this

machinery, working for people like eichmann. my book takes the phenomenon of women in the clerical role and moves it to the killing fields, the bloodlands of the hollow cause. these are women working as secret ris in towns where the mass shootings and gassing operationing occurred. >> you talk about ss wives and other higher-level nazi women involved in the process. >> a lot of the violence that women participated in in the eastern territories involved - was done in a way that was very kind of - i don't want to say ad hoc, but it happened almost spontaneously or randomly. women, the wives of ss officials, government officials visiting their husbands or maids, or living with them as part of these communities, they would be going on walks in the

wood. they'd walk through town or be at the villas. and they were not only exploiting labourers and the roman labourers and soviet pows, but were whipping them. there's a pattern that is astounding of ss wives who are shooting from the balconies of the villas. some may have seen, "schindler's list", there's a pattern of that, it's not an anomaly. women are part of the violence in the home, domestic settings. >> some of the notorious women were camp guards. i didn't realise 3500, one-tenth of camp guards were women. >> there's a list that survived the law. the documentation is sparse. it took me decades to piece the

story together from the archives. the list we have of camp guards, 3500, that's the number we use. but, honestly, now this we know there were as many as 40,000 different camps, thanks to the research the museum has done across nazi occupied europe, i think that number of camp guards is quite low. i think we need to revisit that number. >> what happened to the women who participated after the war. you write that some committed suicide. were they sorry. the last line of your book is the short answer is most got away with murder. >> it was difficult to track down the women. a lot of crimes were committed outside the camp system. they were difficult to document. they were not - they were done - they did them by their own volition. they were not part of an official killing unit. it was hard for prosecutors to find substantial evidence. there was a lot of witness testimony from survivors.

it was not enough to convict the female criminals. most got away, as you said, with murder. they changed their names, got married. a lot were young single women. it was hard to find them. prosecutors, when they came across them and were questioning the women in the conjunction with cases when they are pursuing their bosses or maids, the men were the perpetrators. they couldn't believe what they had done. there was a lot of disbelief attached to this, that didn't create the kind of will or the drive to convict these women. >> there's horrible stories. i know one of the reasons you write that these stories take to long is because it happened behind the iron curtain. there has been less time for the information to be made public. it's an important book. the book is "hitler's fury, german women in the nazi killing

fields." >> straight ahead - there are more millionaire congress men than ever. why do they have so much cash on hand. and golden globes - are younger audiences missing the point that the film up for award is about not being good. cl clsz

we turned the camera on the photographer shaking up the art world. >> 2... 1... that's scary jr... >> talk to al jazeera with jr only on al jazeera america >> today's data dive gets rich in congression half of the representatives are millionaires. medium net worth is up $40,000

from last year. they are wealthier in the senate. the medium net worth is $2.7 million. lawmakers have been richer, but there's a growing gap with constituents and there are concerns they are out of touch, especially when they argue about low wages, food stamps et cetera. when you consider that they are in session, they make good money. that doesn't include the fundraising events they need to attend and meetings and work back home. they are paid well, but they need to pay for a place to live in their home states and in d.c. with average rent or apartments on capitol hill on $1500 plus utilities and cable, a basic

place could cost $30,000 post tax. two of the most powerful democrats, dick durbin and others bunk together with two representatives in a townhouse. it had problems with rodents. their families don't like to stay when they visit. not exactly the lap of luxe. >> coming up "spiderman the musical" closed after losing millions, why are "rocky" and a "aladdin" following in the movie to musical footprint? techknow - ideas, invention, life. on al jazeera america

exclusive report... >> from coast to coast... >> people selling fresh water for fracking... >> stories that have impact... >> we lost lives... >> that make a difference... >> senator, we were hoping we could ask you some questions about your legal problems... >> that open your world... >> it can be very dangerous... >> i hear gunshots... >> the bullet came right there through the widdow... >> it absolutely is a crisis... >> real reporting... >> this...is what we do... >> america tonight, only on al jazeera america.

check check >> >> the india diplomat at the center of an international incident has left the u.s. and is headed home following her criminal indictment. making a federal case out of the bridge scandal in new jersey. governor chris christie says he didn't know anything about it, but the u.s. attorney launches an investigation. >> a new program to fight poverty - pumping aid into five depressed area. >> in an unusual attraction, the eerie islands of the dolls. why so many flock to see this site.