i thought the five below business but it appears that not is all yet forgiven. business model was very good. i've got to rethink everything >> scott, let me ask you, the five below. i like to say, there's always a u.s. attorney's office is bull market somewhere, i promise to try to find it just for you undergoing preliminary inquiry here on mad mu"mad money." into the case. in order to get a fraud case, i'm jim cramer and i will see there's got to be bribe berry or you tomorrow! i've come out here today to kickbacks that can be proven. apologize to the people of new this doesn't sound like that sort of thing? jersey. >> no, it doesn't sound like i apologize to the people of ft. that and they are going to be stretching to see if there was lee and i apologize to the any sort of law broken here and members of the state probably obviously not for political backlash not trying to legislature. stretch too far for that but it was referred to them by the port i am embarrassed and humiliated authority inspector general. they almost have to look at it. we'll see if anything comes out of it but it does keep it alive. by the conduct of some of the >> many thanks to scott cohn. people on my team. >> chris christie saved his not very often do we see a career by taking full responsibility for the bridge leading staff member take the closing during a marathon rap for a bad decision. he was honest, he did apologize two-hour news conference. and he did clean house and he he traveled all the way to ft. acted very quickly after being lee to apologize to the citizens and to the mayor.

blind-sided by these bridgegate e-mails. it's my personal take. i just wanted to get that in there. we have ron fornier from "the we'll cover that in great national journal," how chris christie can save his career and detail. we also welcome back ann and pushing down oil prices, that is good news for the economy. matt arco who has been following and a week after legal pot sales this story from the beginning in colorado, we'll look at the and we welcome new jersey assembly majority leader lewis financial score. remember, pot heads are expected greenwald. general and gentlemen and to generate reverend few. how can they if they are always stoned and not working? that's coming up on "the kudlow ladies, welcome. report" right now. thank you very much. do you think christie had a sister soldier moment? did he go against the normal political grain? >> yeah, in a lot of ways he good evening, everyone. did. it was a pretty remarkable day, i'm larry kudlow. like you said, larry. it's 7:00 p.m. eastern, 4:00 we have to remember that surviving a political crisis is p.m. pacific. more about a process than it is another trying day for chris a single performance and what we christie. this morning he fired for the still don't know is, one,

woman causing bridgegate and whether the people of new jersey held a two-hour news conference that i think saved his career. and beyond will buy his dee after that, he went to ft. lee niles of involvement. two, whether anybody else was to personally apologize to the involved or where this investigation might lead. having covered the state capital mayor. scott cohn is joining us. before, i find it hard to what can you tell us? believe that only two people >> a trying day as in chris would know about this. and, three, whether it's a christie is really trying. this is not over yet. pattern of abuse or whether it's the office that chris christie isolated. you know that there's going to be a lot of reporters and once held is seeing if there are democrats and enemies even on any legal investigations and the the republican side of chris christie who are going to have jersey legislature is all over their ears pinned back now looking for other instances that this. the port authority who ordered fit this pattern of abuse. the lane closings took the >> just to follow up, it just seems to me -- i appreciate your fifth. the extraordinary news qualifying that, i think it's conference, he said he's sorry, important -- and we're going to really, really, really sorry. talk to assembly greenwald in a moment. it really struck me. >> i believe that all of the it's very rare for particularly a leading politician to take the people who were affected by this conduct deserve this apology and that's why i'm giving it to rap for somebody else's actions. you know what i think? we have a president and maybe them. i'm going to be too tough on

i also need to apologize to them him. obama on most of these things says i didn't know and nobody gets fired. as governor of the state to is this a new chris christie and understand the true nature of this problem sooner than i did. will this be impressed the >> but he wasn't done. voters around new jersey and around the country? them choppering up to ft. lee to >> i think it will. he has a chance to be the personally apologize to the anti-politician, to do things mayor. differently, certainly different they met behind closed doors for than president obama has done. 45 minutes. even president obama was slow to ever take responsibility to fire >> did you apologize to the people of ft. lee? >> of course. anybody, to hold people accountable. i did that this afternoon and if you look at the column i i'm also here to apologize to wrote beforehand, he did everything i suggested that he the people of ft. lee. do today. it's a terrible thing and we are he didn't throw up in his records, he didn't say that he left the media and investigators looked at the e-mails and going to work to regain their documents, which he's going to have to do. other than that, he pretty much trust. >> chris christie still in checked all of the boxes that he needed to today. i wanted to make a point that it's not just about today. >> luke greenwald, thank you for making the trip up here.

there are subpoenas up there. are there going to be more e-mails and text messages and things of that sort that could open the doors that ron fornier said might show up? there are two people from his staff and two others from the port authority. what's going to happen with the assembly side? >> there is going to be more hearings. there's going to be more e-mails. we're going to ask more people to come in and testify. the government took an important step and i agree, we saw a very humbled chris christie. the reality is that chris christie was pushed in this direction that was pushed by the subpoenas that went forward and the reaction of port authority taking the fifth amendment. just a few days ago you saw the old bomb bass stick chris christie saying i was the guy out there with the cones. the question is, is this a chris

christie of convenience or has he realized his behavior, the style he's taken in the past, yelling at people at town hall meetings, berating teachers, calling members of the legislature numb nuts and take a bat out to that old woman, is that style which led to the behavior of his staff or has he really realized that there's a culture that he's created that he has to change? if he changes that culture, he may benefit himself by really connecting with people in other parts of the country. >> absolutely. absolutely. national implications are written all over it. just to follow up on that, have others asked christie or the executive branch to give you assistance in getting hold of other e-mails and text messages and whatever else is out there? in other words, i don't know what christie presumably has none of them because he didn't know about it but does he have the power? the governor of new jersey is one of the most powerful governors in the country.

can he give you more information? can he order, if you ask for it? >> he can. and i think here's where we really are right now. we've gotten information finally after showing the subpoenas from the port authority. much of that information has come over redacted. i think a very important step that the governor can take today is demand as he's doing today an internal investigation is to require that that information be presented with complete transparency so we know who knew what and when they knew it. >> kelly, is and changed man? will they give out information? how big of a story is this? >> he's changed in terms of the way that some people in the public have perceived him but he's always been the honest and ethical guy that you've seen on display today and the contrite and deeply personal hurt at the betrayal of the public and of the governor, him being lied to directly, that was all on

display. let me add to that, with very no notes, no net, a lot of republicans want to run against him in 2016 are not capable of that. hillary clinton is not capable of that. we certainly can't get an answer from her on benghazi let alone what her aides have done but i think what you will see now is this earnest side of chris christie. >> is this a burning bush moment for chris christie? >> it's huge. he your hon he turned one of his most important political days. >> he said i'm not a bully. he's going to have to prove that to you and others in the assembly. >> he busted all of the care ka turs and what he saw,

unadulterated, people saw what they define as a he had looker. mitt romney say they like people who they think are like them. >> because he admitted a mistake. he said, i was wrong and i take the rap. >> he said things politicians never say. don't you think -- >> we'll see if it's a burning bush moment. matt, here's to me the nub of it. the one-hour meeting that he described, what, a month ago when he asked about closing down these lanes in ft. lee for the george washington bridge and he said no one stood up to say anything and therefore his deputy chief of staff and campaign manager lied. are you convinced of that and is that where the future investigations are going to go? that is a huge set of assertions

that he made and so then he says, when i finally saw the e-mails last night, i took immediate action to fire the kelly woman and whatever. do you buy that one-hour meeting story? >> you know, i was on here last night and what he essentially said was, the idea of judging from what we know of christie, covering him for a couple of years, i doubt that he would, you know, face the press corps knowing and just kind of knowing that it was a bold-out lie. what he said about that meeting -- and i discussed it last night -- that we heard that he sat down with folks that have come forward, if you have something, tell me now. and they lied to him. because that's what he's saying. you know, i don't know. at this point i can't say. >> the presumption is former u.s. attorneys would not lie to the public. >> right. >> he's put people in jail to lying to the public.

he's not going to do that. >> that's a key part of this story, that seems to me. if this one-hour meeting story breaks down, ron, mr. christie will probably be finished, will he not? >> i already have problems with it. a former u.s. attorney doesn't take people's word. he should have had his chief of staff run an investigation a month ago. these text messages that came out yesterday, they were there a month ago. so if i'm chris christie, i'm wondering, why didn't i know about this a month ago. >> but he answered that, ron. >> why isn't my chief of staff or legal counsel out the door, too, for not protecting me on this. >> because he said -- >> let me get the majority leader in here. you're going to be involved in this follow-up story. what's your take on what fonier said? >> the governor that you saw today is the governor that i see

when i meet one-on-one with him. the problem is, he's made a stereotype of himself as a bombastic figure. the governor that was a u.s. attorney would have never been satisfied with that one-hour meeting without digging deeper and he left that on the table. that's either because he's gotten complacent or because he's distracted by his own personal ambitions to run for president. having the traffic jams a the george washington bridge that was being reported, any politician worth their salt would have picked up somebody at the port authority, their d.o.t. commissioner and said, what the hell is causing the traffic jam six weeks before the election in the most populated county in the state? i want some answers. >> listen, i want some answers. i got caught in the backlash coming up the west side highway. kellyanne, it sounds like you disagree with ron fornier. >> i love ron but i feel like

christie was blind-sided. >> why didn't his general counsel examine e-mails and texts? why? >> i don't know. but -- >> that's a key question. >> it's something that they are going to be asked. but judging from what the governor said today, the answer is very simple. for the same reason that you didn't investigation e-mails from employees a month ago, for the same reason i didn't and the assemblyman didn't. you have no reason to believe that any crime was committed, that anything untoward was done. he said he was totally blind-sided, not by what the text said but by the existence of a text to begin with. >> bridget kelly and whatever his name is, among his closest -- he called them family members today. closely family members and friends. they betrayed him. >> i see what greenwald and ron are saying. you wouldn't just leave it on the table but you would if you truly believe because the only

people that could have been involved have already told you there's nothing else to know, we're not involved. and the other two people that have resigned, wildstein -- still can't get over that -- and bill had already resigned. >> but that should have raised questions, why did they resign. >> great point. anyone who knows bridget kelly knows absolutely assuredly that she would not have made a call like this to shut down the bridge -- >> i heard she was a straight arrow, frank. i don't know her but i've heard from other political people that she's a straight arrow. >> she would take an order. >> what about the campaign manager? >> larry, that's why i say to you, we need to get to -- >> spepian. >> we need to get the -- and this is why the most important thing that the governor can do is provide those e-mails without the redactions, being as transparent as possible because it will show who knew what and will allow an investigation to take place to see how far this went.

because the criminal activity is not bribery or fraud. it's whether or not taxpayer dollars in a government office was used for political exact tea which we saw in pennsylvania has put a number of people in jail. >> go ahead, ron. real quick. >> i'm sorry. and i'm transparent. i'm sorry and i'm accountable are just words unless you're fully transparent. >> all right. more work to do. thank you, gentlemen. majority leader matt greenwald and everybody else watching, terrific stuff. top u.s. corporation -- we're switching gears. a massive bribery scandal. morgan brennan is about to join us with the latest on that story. and later in the show, we're going to get more on the chris christie story as seen through the eyes of the national talk radio audience. what are the hosts and listeners all over america have to say about this scandal and the government's performance and do they even care? the best path to pros tear tpere

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sell international bribery charges. morgan brennan is joining us now with the details. >> good evening. in a joint venture, paying $384 million to settle charges between the s.e.c. and doj to officials in bahrain. the s.e.c. saying alcoa's subsidiaries used a london-based consultant with connection to bahrain's royal family to maintain a key business in that country. as a part of the deal, alcoa, a joint venture pleaded guilty to one count of violating anti-bribery provisions of the foreign corruption act. this will rank as the largest settlement with the justice department. this is a pretty substantial deal. also worth noting, alcoa was not accused any wrongdoing with no one named in the charges.

here's what was said about this earlier today. >> we have been able to negotiate it in such a way that puts less financial stress on the company and is getting paid over four years so that's good. we can put this behind us. we can clear the path here and we can focus on what really matters and that is the change, the transformation that is undergoing in the company. >> alcoa reported fourth quarter earnings today. missing estimates. four cents per share. alcoa reported a net loss of $2.19 a share on reverend few of $5.59 billion which topped revenue estimates. shares down almost 4% in after-hours trading right now, larry. >> that's the market verdict. down 4%. morgan brennan, thank you. we appreciate it. now, they've been ceiling legal recreational pot in

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the first week of legal pot head use, sales generating huge tax sales for the state. jane wells is colorado.

good evening, jane. >> reporter: hey, larry. the hope is that these plants will mature soon because demand for recreational legal marijuana is outstripping supply in colorado leading to much higher prices. how much are prices going up because of scarcity. >> about 200%. >> reporter: this is the wellness center and one huge issue facing this industry is no bank accounts for an all-cash business that can't even take credit card payments. pot profits are considered illegal money. >> asking the federal government to address the banking issue, we also heard that the department of justice will issue a memo giving guidelines to the banking industry about what kind of payments they can take. >> as soon as it smells like marijuana, they will investigate us and start to close down our accounts so we may have accounts for two or three months.

i know so many people in the industry getting their accounts closed left and right. >> reporter: and the state is preparing for the possibility of sellers coming to pay their taxes in cash. a lot of cash. tax rates on recreational pot are much higher than on medical marijuana. the new market must pay a 15% excise tax per pound and sales taxes range from 10 to 20%. that's a lot of money as low supplies has driven up taxes. last year colorado collected and if the same amount had been taxed at the recreational rate, taxes would have been 50 million. colorado doesn't know how big this tax windfall will be. they won't start collecting them until february 15th. they did over $5 million in sales. larry? >> many thanks to jane wells. now, tomorrow is the

december monthly jobs report. we're going to preview that and say if that jobs number is good, what does that mean for stocks and higher interest rates and what about king dollar and good profits? it's all in the mix. stay with us on the economy. i'm kudlow. we'll be ril back. [ male announcer ] this is the story of the dusty basement at 1406 35th street the old dining table at 25th and hoffman. ...and the little room above the strip mall off roble avenue. ♪ this magic moment it is the story of where every great idea begins. and of those who believed they had the power to do more. dell is honored to be part of some of the world's great stories. that began much the same way ours did. in a little dorm room -- 2713. ♪ this magic moment ♪ [ male announcer ] new vicks dayquil severe. helps relieve your ugliest, nastiest, roughest,

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. welcome back to the kudlow report. everybody is going to be focused on the jobs report tomorrow. the wall street consensus, apparently 200,000 jobs but the whispers go as high as 250,000. the adp private jobs surveyed when jobless claims have showed signs of growth. also, king dollar is a key indicator and the buck is on an impressive run so far this year. and then we had an optimistic janet yellen saying she shes we can get 3% or so growth this year. that would be an improvement. here now with their economic improvements, we welcome back steve stanley and john rutledge. gentlemen, thank you very much. steve stanley, 200,000 tomorrow. i'm going to venture if that number is right, i'm going to

get your take on t. it's going to push the fed to cut back on their bond purchases faster and greater. >> well, my number is pretty close to that. i don't have any qualm with the consensus forecast. i think the taper pace is probably more or less set in stone. they are going to go with steady, small clips and probably be done, in my view, by the end of the year. i'm not sure at this point that a m it makes a huge difference to the fed. >> if you read the fed minutes that came out yesterday and sort of the commentary, some of these fed governors are worried about bubbles. i think they desperately want to unwind qe 3 but they are saying bubbles. the stock market p.e.'s are bubbles, that there's too much le leverag

levera leveraged loans. i think the loans have been underheating. is the fed in some sort of a panic mode to get the hell out of qe 3? >> i think they want to get out of dodge, larry, no matter how they do it, and that gives them a pretty give excuse to use that. the fact is, as we all know, when the fed dumps a mountain of money into the banking system, it takes time for it to be digested and shows up on the asset markets before it shows up in the national income amounts. so no surprise there. the labor department -- labor market is the next thing to come along. i think you see 230 tomorrow. i think you see more rattling of sabers out of the fed in an accelerated qe but i think asset prices continue rising. >> continue rising. steve stanley, why do we need to extend long-term unemployment insurance for the 11th straight time if the economy is expanding

and jobs are expanding? what is the logic -- i understand the politics of it, they love to give away money to their constituents. but in economic terms, do we really need to go down this road? >> well, my personal view would be no. i think the argument in favor would be that even though the unemployment rate has come down, there's still long-term unemployment. i think there's a case to be made for doing it in such a way that it phases down rather than going cold turkey the way they did at the end of the year. we need to wind that down as much as the fed needs to wind down qe. >> a lot of people think that expanding the unemployment insurance, it almost came to a vote in the senate today but it didn't. they are trying to make a deal. a lot of people think that is extending unemployment, john. >> well, of course. you know, there's a huge difference between the long-term unemployment course and the short-term unemployed course. short-term unemployed is back down to almost prefinancial

crisis levels. it's the long-term that is hanging up there and the long-term unemployment rate may reflect change and people who may have said never mind or people close enough to retirement that it's not worth their while to do it. i think it's not a good time for the economy to do it but it's great politics to throw money around. they have done that before. >> steve stanley, what if you have 3% growth? i think the yellen stereo, she's saying growth this coming year, 3% handle. the u.s. dollar, as you know, is strengthening. we have a lower trade deficit. the energy boom is now supplying more energy but reducing our imports and so we see oil prices coming down quite substantially which should help the economy. now, do you agree with that pot of economy factors? do you think that's going to continue? do you think growth is picking up? >> well, you know, as much as i'd love to believe chairman

yellen's scenario, i'm still a little skeptical. i think the economy will do better in 2014 but, boy, moving all the way from 2 to 3%, it seems to me is a bridge too far. if we get 2 1/2, i'd be pretty happy to see that. i think there's a lot of impediments to growth. the spector of uncertainty is still a big deterrent for hiring and investing. so, you know, i hope we get to 3% but i think that may be a little too optimistic and certainly there's a track record for us all coming in and getting all excited about the economy at the beginning of the year and then having something happen in the first half that has to lower expectations. >> john rutledge, i think something happens when the dollar goes up. and what i think i'm seeing -- and i may be wrong -- i'm seeing a rise in the real exchange rate of the dollar. i'm seeing a rise in real interest rates.

i think interest rates are going to go much higher. all of that combined with a drop in oil prices, that may be too polly-annish but are things going to be better than people think? >> i think so. the u.s. is actually far ahead of both europe and japan in the timing of the recovery from the financial crisis, which is why we are coming along. europe is so excited with signs of life. the best signs for growth that we saw from the adp report yesterday is that the new jobs numbers were skewed towards small businesses. of the 238,000, 108 of them -- 108,000 were businesses less than 50 people. small businesses only get money from banks. banks refusing to lend is what has made this crisis stretch out too long. so this is indirect evidence that the banks are back in business again. now, to steve's point, the small

banks are not back in business because it's a small bank prevention act. 400 billion increase in the last three years. so i think we've got a very strong 2014 coming. >> all right. thanks, gentlemen. steve stanley, i enjoyed reading your normalization of the bond market. the question is, what is that going to mean? gentlemen, appreciate it. steve stanley and john rutledge. if jobs are strong and there's more aggressive fed tapering and interest rates are driven up, what is that going to mean for equity investments? we're look at your money, next. please stay with us.

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expected sales. that stock is up 14% in after market trading. >> that's really high. flipping one down, one up. all right. look, the basic story as i see it right now, stocks continue to consolidate. last year's massive gains. year to day so far in the new year were off by less than 1%. the question is what happens after tomorrow's jobs report. let's bring in michael, chairman of holland & company. let me try out this scenario on you. the economy is stronger, profits hopefully will be better. interest rates are going to go up. median and long-term rates. not just short-term rates. they are going to go up. i would say 100 basis points. what does that do to the stock market and the environment of a better economy? >> probably would propel the stock market higher. the reason i say that, the only

way they are going to be going up, there's median and intermedian and long rates because janet yellen and her counterparts are going to say that's okay because the economy is getting better. that's going to have to be in the picture or something close to it or they are not going to have intermediate and short rates going up. so where we are right now is heads you win, tails you can't lose much with respect to wind at your back right now with the stock market. >> i'm not so convinced that controls long-range. but let's just leave that aside. let's ask about the dollar. >> that's a very important point, larry, because inflation is one of the things that gets us to higher rates. and if we have growth, then we have no inflation and we can't have long rates. >> yes, you can. real interest rates are way too low. the tips yield, inflation protected security, it's 65

basis points. >> i'm a huge fan of watching the tips and i couldn't agree with you more but i think, given today's psychology, it's tough to get long rates. >> what happens if the dollar keeps going up? >> that's another thing with the stock market because it's going up not because, as you pointed out a second go, not because of interest rate differentials are causing it to go up, because the u.s. is asian growth, european growth, nonexistent. while not particularly good, it's better than those. we now have a renaissance and manufacturing and we have a boom in energy production. the u.s. is being looking pretty good to the rest of the world. it's not because of our political leadership but because of rapid growth but because we look better than the rest of the world. >> oil prices are headed to 90 bucks. by the way, i think a rising dollar is helping to push down oil prices along with the tremendous energy going out.

that's got to be a good thing. >> it's absolutely good. it's absolutely having an effect, pushing it down. far more important is the supply and demand, however, and that is that we are overproducing because we're so successful in the u.s. we're producing at a rate because of dominance, the rapid growth in supply is dwarfing the tepid demand caused by world growth. >> what do you do about the odds and ends being talked about on wall street, talking about overheating. all of a sudden the economy is -- we haven't hardly grown since 200 and you get a couple decent numbers and you talk about overheating and it's going to cause the fed to tighten up. are we overheating. is that possible? >> not from where i am. i get pretty chilly. the only place i'm seeing a

little bit of overheating is in the fixed income products and particularly in the high-yield market that you referred to a few minutes ago. but certainly not in the economy. certainly not in housing. certainly not in the stock market. we have companies selling small single digit multiples. so, no, i don't see overheating right now. i hope we get there. i hope we get there really soon. i'd like to sell some stocks. >> but if the dollar rises and the economy rises, that's a good thing. profits are the mother's market of stocks. it seems to me profits are going to be really important. i know they always are. particularly if interesting rates rise. >> yes and yes. and i don't expect a big rise in interest rates. i expect some rise in interest rates. i expect some rise in profits, however. i think janet yellen probably is as good of a guesser as to what is going to be going on. she may be wrong but if we get closer to 3% gdp, we get to 5%

growth and profits and one or two multiple points, you're getting back to what we talked about several months ago which is an 18, $20,000 dow jones. >> favorite investment, michael holland. >> thank you, larry. >> favorite investment. give it to me. >> that would be -- well, i think it is aig. apple, intel, and google. i would buy those three. >> all right. you're the best. mike holland, a wise investor, if there ever is one. is the christie bridgegate story a truly sense tags and could it help his presidential aspirations in places like iowa and new hampshire, for example? we're going to talk to some radio guys about what they heard on the radio today, next up on "the kudlow report."

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welcome back to the kudlow report. i'm morgan brennan. the u.s. is asking for more money. 9 irs saying that it would do a better job if it had more funding. now that it has more responsibility, including administering tax provisions of obamacare. >> more money for the irs? are you kidding me? i wouldn't give them a wooden nickel. chasing after conservative groups? holy cow. anyway, let us move on? new jersey governor chris

christie delivered a strong apology for the bridgegate saga today. he took full responsibility. fired his senior staff who lied to him. but did he do enough to restore his credibility and national image? just how is the scandal going to resonate across the country? for that, let's check in with ma mark levine and lars larson. what did you hear from your callers? >> i'm hearing from a lot of people that they don't believe that governor christie wasn't involved. i personally think he wasn't. he gave the come to jesus speech, said tell me the truth, they didn't. he fired two of them today. i think he's probably done what you would expect an executive to do. personally, i'd be more concerned about his position on guns and craziness than jamming up the world's most traveled bridge. >> mark, i want to get your same take. you're on the liberal side and i

assume your colleagues are on the liberal side. >> i do have conservative callers, too. they say this is the culture of corruption. this is what we see in new jersey where there's political payback. you reward your friends and punish your enemies. senator graham said if my staff did this, they would know i was opposed to it. >> what did rush say? >> rush said this is typical for christie. this is the kind of things that he does. i don't remember the exact quote. >> you know, we had a good segment earlier in the show. the whole thing kind of hinges around this one hour -- you call it a come to jesus meeting. he had a one-hour meeting with his staff and asked them if they had done anything regarding

bridgegate and so he left it where he immediately made firing two days ago. this may be the if of the year. if it turns out that that one-hour meeting story is true and correct and nobody fessed up, i think christie is a huge winner here because he took immediate action to fire the bad apples on his staff. >> larry, i agree with you. one of the things that he got a cha chance to do is act like the way an executive should. take decisive action, fire the people responsible, which doesn't happen often enough to the people at the white house or not at all depending on your view and he did just that. he did get a chance to act presidential, if it you will. could people have done what the better again record did and tell his chief of staff or i.t. director, go take a look at all

of t of the e-mails and we don't get that kind of oversight. it's a fair criticism of his response to it. if you tied up your office doing nothing but internal investigations, you'd probably get tied up that way. >> for months he made a joke of it. remember how they got these documents to begin with. they investigated new jersey people did, and the administration refused. the christie administration refused to give them any documents. they subpoenaed them and it's positively nixonian. and now finally they have the documents and christie reads them. it's not just one or two people. there's five or six or 10 or 20 people involved. there's a lot of people involved. >> you're right, mark. but that wasn't christie's doing. >> it wasn't? >> no. that was not chris christie's doing. >> you're telling me christie didn't tell his people to turn

over the documents? >> the guys who turned over the documents were the two port authority appointeess. >> right. >> christie has no power over them. >> why didn't governor christie order them to turn over the documents? >> he can't. >> or i'll fire you. why didn't he do that? >> you have to fire state law, mark. >> by the way, stop yacking and listen to me. he can order everyone in the executive branch in trenton to turn over e-mails and text messages. that he can do and i asked this question in our earlier segment and i'll you, should he not do that and make every effort to supply the state assembly with that news? >> yes, he absolutely should do that and the real test of whether or not he's telling the truth about this is now that he's fired people, somebody, if they know otherwise that governor christie knew about this before he claims to know something about it yesterday

morning is going to have to come forward and say, no, the governor knew about it, i have an e-mail or something along those lines. if that's out there, chris christie is in real trouble and his presidential prospect is dim. >> essentially, your point is this issue is far from settled? >> is that what you're saying? >> yes. and it's larger than what christie knew about it ahead of time. he set up a culture of corruption. if there was a bunch of honest people there, it wouldn't happen. >> mark levine and lars larson, that's it for tonight's show. "the kudlow report" back tomorrow evening. [ children yelling ]

[ telephone rings ] [ shirley ] edward jones. this is shirley speaking. how may i help you? oh hey, neill, how are you? how was the trip? [ male announcer ] with nearly 7 million investors... [ shirley ] he's right here. hold on one sec. [ male announcer ] ...you'd expect us to have a highly skilled call center. kevin, neill holley's on line one. ok, great.

[ male announcer ] and we do. it's how edward jones makes sense of investing. ♪ it's how edward jones makes sense of investing. >> narrator: in this episode of "american greed"... locked up in a federal prison for committing fraud, perry griggs shouldn't be a threat anymore. >> eight years in prison is a long time. i didn't think that we'd hear from him again. >> narrator: but this is no ordinary con man. this prisoner is prospering with a new scheme. >> from inside the prison walls, he was able to convince people he was a millionaire commodities trader and have them invest their money with a man in jail. >> narrator: and before anyone

is onto his scam, griggs gets released... >> perry had left in a hurry. so this became an active fugitive investigation. >> narrator: ...leaving his victims with nothing. >> our property is taken illegally. it actually rips the soul.