erin burnett "out front" starts right now. erin burnett "out front" starts -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com >> announcer: next, bridge over troubled water. chris christie under fire today accused of plotting political revenge. >> i find it hard to believe that this administration wasn't directly involved. >> is it the end of his presidential dreams? plus, dennis rodman's strange trip gets even stranger. ♪ happy birthday to you ♪ happy birthday to you and a call for help ends with a deadly police shooting. the stepbrother of the teenage victim talks to cnn. >> they had the situation completely under control. >> but the third officer? >> the third officer is 100% in the wrong. >> let's go out front.

good evening, everyone, i'm don lemon in for erin. a controversy involving governor chris christie is intensifying. cnn has just obtained a letter that shows what started as a local political fight had real life or death consequences. we are learning that the traffic jam on the george washington bridge in november which may have within intentionally created by chris christie's staff as political pay back delayed paramedics responding to a woman suffering from a heart attack. that's the accusation tonight from a city official in new jerse jersey. joe jones has the letter. >> it's a new headache from the chris christie administration. a letter from the emergency medical services administrator in fort lee, new jersey, he ticks off four times when they were delayed responding to calls

apparently due to the change in traffic patterns in the fort lee area. we're talking about a vehicle accident with injuries involving four patients, a woman in cardiac arrest who was pronounced at a local hospital and a couple cases of people experiencing chest pains. the letter was dated september 10th of last year. this shows why the evidence of intentionally created delays on the george washington bridge are so serious for the governor's office. >> reporter: first, there was snarled traffic on the george washington bridge and now newly exposed e-mail traffic from members of governor chris christie's inner circle raise questions over whether the gridlock was intentional and politically motivated pay back. the closest thing from a smoking gun is time for traffic problems in fort lee. the reason was a traffic study.

problem is, the town that felt most of the pain was fort lee, new jersey, whose democratic mayor had endors endorsed chris opponent. >> they felt they needed to subject retribution. >> i was the guy working the koengs. you are not serious with that question. >> reporter: that was in december. today the governor releasing a statement calling the e-mails unacceptable and saying he's outraged that he was misled by a member of his staff and that the completely inappropriate and unsanctioned conduct was made without his knowledge. >> may not be the end of it. the other headache for governor christie. the e-mails seem to suggest that more than one staffer may have had knowledge of what was going

on. the governor promised accountability for those responsible, don. >> thank you, joe. joining me now is chair woman of the democratic national committee, congresswoman debbie wasserman schultz. thank you for coming in. >> thank you, don. good to be here. >> democrats are quick to react today. the dnc sent out two e-mails bashing christie. he put out a response saying the behavior is irresponsible. do you have evidence that he knew what was going on? >> i think the investigation that is ongoing is going to -- through the questioning, particularly tomorrow when the assembly asks the right people under oath questions about exactly what happened and who and where these instructions came from to shut down three lanes of highway on the george washington bridge that not just -- not only snarled traffic but actually slowed down first responders from looking for a

4-year-old. there are so many questions that need to be answered that chris christie has refused to answer thus far and today those e-mails revealed that there is smoke and that smoke leads right to the closest staff that he has in his office. if he's such a straight shooter, which he prides himself on, don, why did it take seven hours for him to release a statement for him saying he was outraged and had no knowledge of it. i can tell you if i knew nothing about something and had no knowledge, i would immediately release a statement. that doesn't take a lot of hand wringing. >> you're not buying that he didn't know it and blaming it on the top it's. you're not buying that, correct? >> like i said, his statement and actions thus far have proven that he's not a straight shooter that he has claimed to be and the questions require answers. he needs to step up and face the music and answer those questions. >> congresswoman, here's what

the republicans are saying. they say president obama is facing questions. each time the president claims he department know. he didn't know about the nsa spying on allies, he didn't know that if you keep your doctor -- so what's the difference between christie not knowing and the governor not knowing. >> the difference is president obama said he didn't know about policy issues. this is a scandal that leads to his office in which his staff and possibly him exacted political retribution in retaliation for a democratic mayor in fort lee refusing to endorse him in his re-election. as a result they ordered the shut down of three lanes of the george washington bridge on the first day of school, snarling traffic, traffic children in school buses -- >> couldn't all the scandals,

including the president, he believes these are made up scandals. couldn't they be all made up scandals? >> i don't know how you could compare a governor and his staff shutting down three lanes of highway in retaliation. these e-mails that came out "today" show that it was in responds to a mayor refusing to ep doors their boss for an election. how could you compare that to health care policy, intelligence policy and foreign policy? none of those three things were scandals. they're not comeparable. he said he had nothing to do with this and knew nothing about it and that it didn't have anything do with anyone in his office. >> turns out none that have is true. >> to get the -- republicans are saying, listen, this is all politically motivated, even possibly by the dnc and beyond.

clinton beaks all opponents. if we were looking forward to 2014, it shows that christie does that from 42%. do they have a point? >> chris christie is the governor of new jersey and the head of the national governor's association. he said his soul responsibility right now is to re-elect and elect governors. the culture allowed his senior staff to think that it was okay to exact political retribution that impacted his constituents, shut down three lanes of highway on the bridge and he denied having -- his office having anything to do with it. there are more questions than answers. chris christie needs to be forthcoming. he needs to step up and answer the questions and he needs to do that immediately.

>> congresswoman, thank you very much. joining me now, cnn chief national correspondent, john king. john, can you unspin the spin for us here? is this as big a deal as the democrats might want to believe? >> they certainly hope it is. number one, he's starting his new term as new jersey's governor. he needs to get things done. just like this, in the state of new jersey this can set you back on your heels. you had the chairman of the dnc. what did she say? yes, and he's the only republican who even runs slightly ahead of hillary clinton. they want to make republicans afraid of chris christie this year, don. the success of republicans in those governor's races will help or hurt. they're trying to take him down. how the governor handles this in the next 72 hours or so, including the next 24 hours is

critical, both to his second term as governor and to his national ambitions. >> he's going to need someone unscandal to undo this. we were hard press the to find a republican today who would defend chris christie. what do you make of that? >> a number of republicans, the office holders are walking away saying, call the governor's office, that's his business, not my business. you look at rush limbaugh, the part of the republican party that doesn't like chris christie or they're suspicious, they're saying he sounds like richard nixon. he sounds vindictive. we think he's too dangerous, he's a bully. that's a tough image. that's not a presidential temperament. that's been his challenge from day one because of the infamous

youtube videos. the gov another was laughing at the people. go away, that's not a serious question. tonight, don, these are serious questions. the governor has to step back and his staff and the biggest thing he has to worry about tonight, as he said, i was misled. as he says that, we have to assume he knows there is no way, no document that's going to trace this to him. >> serious questions that demand serious answers. john king, appreciate it. >> thank you. still to come, the white house fights back. how the obama administration is responding to the harsh criticism from robert gates. plus, dennis rodman wishes the north korean president a very happy birthday. one person who defends the basketball diplomacy next. and more changes at "saturday night live." >> announcer: erin burnett "out front" brought to you by ink from chase.

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a team of former nba players are expected to catch a flight back to beijing after a controversial visit to north korea. the purpose was an exhibition game pitting rodman's roster against a north korean team. he opened serenading his friend on his birthday ♪ happy birthday to you ♪ happy birthday to you ♪ happy birthday, kim jong-un, happy birthday to you ♪ >> rodman called today's game in front of 14,000 spectators historic. very few agree with rodman's assessment. reverend jesse jackson joins me. on january 26th it appears you tweeted this. congrats. your diplomacy efforts in north

korea. it must be dark but you are a light. then that was deleted. what do you mean? are you supporting dennis rodman? >> no. let me make this clear. the ping pong team went to china. they shed light on the situation. no one expected the ping tomorrow team to change the policy. like when the globetrotters went to russia singing "sweet georgia brown." it led to more political diplomatic efforts. >> those efforts are a bit different, reverend, because no one sanctioned this trip for him to go to north korea. everyone is denouncing this trip. with all that is going on in north korea, the camps, people not eating, poverty in the country, a dictator, not being allowed to use information, cell phones, this is different. it seems like you're comparing apples to oranges here. >> i sent a letter to the north

korean leader urging him on humanitarian grounds to release kenneth bae. i talked to him mother today. that's the role i would play. the enroll that ambassador richardson would play, president carter. we are professional diplomats. >> exactly. dennis rodman is not a professional diplomat so why should he be congratulated or encouraged here. >> the ping pong players are not professional diplomats either and the harlem globetrotters were not professional either. it shed light on a dark situation. >> reverend, how could people -- i'm sure you understand this. how can people take dennis rodman serious and saying that american kenneth bae is guilty of something? >> kenneth bae did one thing if you understand. if you understand what kenneth

bae did, you understand what he did. >> what did he do? you tell me. you tell me what did he do? >> you tell me. you tell me. why is he held captive? >> they haven't released any charges. they haven't released anything. >> i -- >> listen -- >> let me -- >> there's a lot more, for lack of a better word, craziness. i want to say what kenneth bae told cnn. they're appalled by rodman's behavior. you've been on diplomatic missions. do you think rodman is being used by this brutal dictator? >> rodman said i'm a basketball player. we will leave him as a basketball player. they did an interview with him on kenneth bae. rodman said i'm a ballplayer and in the tradition of ballplayers and singers. >> your point is taken there.

i want to play more of his interview of why he thinks this was a good idea. listen. >> now [ bleep ] rat's ass what the hellu think. i'm saying to you, look at these guys here. look at them. >> dennis, don't use that as an excuse for the behavior that you're putting on yourself. >> does this make it harder for diplomats in any way seeing this circus environment, seeing the anger from dennis rodman to get north korea to scale back their nuclear program? >> i would not confuse the role of dennis rodman, basketball, the globetrotters and the soviet union, but entertainment does have an interesting way of illuminating. why are we discussing north korea today? because of dennis rodman. >> thank you, reverend jackson. still to come, why did a police union post a video of a

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next is every second of nbcuniversal's coverage 0f the 2014 olympic winter games. it's connecting over one million low-income americans to broadband internet at home. it's a place named one america's most veteran friendly employers. next is information and entertainment in ways you never thought possible. welcome to what's next. comcastnbcuniversal. why me? it is the question that plagues survivors of horrific plane crashes and the theme of the documentary which makes its global television debut tomorrow night right here on cnn. the film explores complex emotions experienced by lone

survivors. com air 5191 that crashed when the pilots tried to take off on the wrong runway. new technology exists to prevent these crashes. why isn't it being used in all cockpits. rene marsh has the story right now. >> 191 is taxiing. >> taxiing. >> i said set thrust. he set the thrust and away we went. >> reporter: august 2006, com air flight 5191 lined up to take off from lektsing ton, kentucky. 50 people were on board. the pilots were assigned to runway 22 which was 7,000 feet long. instead they took runway 26. half that length. the plane crashed before bursting into flames. james pulhinkey was the only survivor. >> i was not supposed to be on the plane. >> that's the terminal that com air 5119 pulled out of. >> that's correct. >> we retraced part of com air

5191's path but we did it using gps technology the two pilots did not have at the time. >> by having this tool it clearly identifies with the blue dot each one of the taxis. >> reporter: illustrations show which runway is ahead. it's been seven years since the ntsb recommended all dock picoc have it. the ntsb chairman disagrees. >> reporter: it's technology that most of us have in our pockets or pocketbooks so what we're asking is to give this type nolg to the pilots who might need it worse. >> you have problems. >> short runway. short runway. >> so you get a clear warning and a red indication that things are not correct. >> how important is something like this? >> it's very important. especially at night.

looking at your screen it looks like day. >> reporter: technology that would have prevented that fatal wrong turn, a mistake he lives with every day. >> the people that came on board that plane were my responsibility. they were mine and the captain's responsibility and if there's anything that i can say to the family members is that i'm sorry we made that mistake. >> rene marsh, cnn, lexington, kentucky. >> rene, thank you very much. don't miss cnn's "soul survivor" right here on cnn. still to come tonight, the white house fights back tonight against criticism for a former member of the president's own inner circle plus a teenager shot and killed in front of his family. the young man and his stepbrother join us. they sentenced a rapist to three days in prison makes a major announcement. male announcer ] y. even at a distance of 10 miles... the length of 146 football fields...

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welcome back, everyone. second half of "out front." a former guantanamo bay detainee has been linked to the attack on benghazi. the state department will soon formerly designate the libyan city darna a pair group and connected to the attack that killed four americans. the group is led by van coumo. it will impose travel bans on its known members. the announcement is expected in the coming days. a controversial montana judge says he is retiring at the end of the year. judge g. todd bao came under

fire after he sentenced a former high school teacher to one month in prison for raping a teenage girl who later committed suicide. the victim, shirice moralis was older than her chronological age. we caught up with the judge and tried to ask him about the comments. >> excuse me, judge bao, good morning. hi. i'm from cnn. do you have a minute? >> no thanks. >> the teacher, stacy dean r ramble served 30 days. they said it did not meet the state's mandatory minimum. not many people get to ride in the pope mobile but today the pope picked up a hitchhiker. pope francis spotted father fabian bifrom buenos aires secr

gates but his sharpest jabs are aimed at vice president biden. they say he's been wrong on every major national security issue over the last few decades. jay carney is dismissing the a being tas. >> the president and the rest of us here simply disagree with that assessment. as a senator and as a vice president joe biden has been one

of the leading states men of his time and he has been an excellent counselor and advisor to the president for the past five commander in chief

for the time when there were two major wars going on but at the same time gates also praised obama in many parts of the book. .

an officer shooting in his department for 20 years. the detective's record was spotless. >> your officer said on the radio that he had to defend himself. is that the case? >> i wasn't there and i don't know other than what they told me at the radio station. >> reporter: the question that so many people have, how does an 18-year-old kid who's only 100 pounds or so sp ending up dead? >> that's what i'm waiting for when i hear all the inquiries that are made by the

investigation when it's complete. >> reporter: at just 18, young keith was struggling with a difficult illness. his family says he had been diagnosed with schizophrenia within the last year and was having trouble finding medications that worked for him. when he called police, all they wanted was help getting him to a doctor. >> david mattingly joins us now. all three officers involved in this case are getting some support tonight, am i correct? >> that's right. from the police benevolent association of north carolina. they hired an attorney to conduct their own investigation of what happened here. they released a statement today saying that all three officers acted properly, including the

detective who pulled his weapon and fired that fatal shot. they described the screwdriver that the young man was holding as a deadly weapon and they say that after there young man was hit by this stun guns, the hand he was holding that screwdriver in made contact with one of the other officers and that's when the detective fired in order to protect what he thought he needed to do to protect that officer. that sort of conflicts a little bit with what we heard the detective saying in that recording on the police radio when he said he was protecting himself. now the official investigation, no one here on the local level is handling that. that's been kicked up to the state and we're waiting to see what their findings are here. even that may not be the last word. the family has an attorney and is probably considering legal action. don. >> david disturbing video of a saying sexually explicit things

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. a c360 in a few minutes. anderson is here. what do you have? >> don, moving past the partisan politics that has some question whether chris christie is even fit to hold the office of governor of new jersey. also ahead, a texas woman being kept alive against the wishes of her husband and family because she is pregnant. we'll explain that. we'll have medical ethicist mark kaplan. govern ne to pot. a family says that medical marijuana saved their son's life. the therapy that they claim nearly killed their child. we'll look at the medical evidence.

dr. sanjay gupta joins us with the medical facts. can marijuana actually have that effect? those stories tonight's ridiculist at the top of the hour. >> thanks, anderson. last night we told you about a controversial video that was posted online. video shows a child in diapers cursing and making obscene gestures with the adults who are taping him and encouraging him. we have cleaned it up for tv but we want to warn our viewers, it is disturbing. >> so what hood you from, blood? >> say [ bleep ] i'm from deuce kneip. >> something's different. he said he was -- >> say my name three times. >> [ bleep ] a ho. >> you a ho. >> you a ho. >> what's up then? >> so that video led to a very heated debate about whether it was right to post the video

online. >> do you think that this is a common occurrence even in places where there's high levels of violence? >> yes. >> you do? >> yes. >> both of you are absurd. >> i hear people talking to their children like that all the time. >> really? >> yes. >> you think people walk around with kids saying what hood you from? >> yes, i do. >> people calling them little "n" words. >> where do you rather this? >> i walk the streets of new york city. >> what we saw in that video is a whole other level. >> many of you went to the internet to weigh in. we like it when you become engaged. here are a few of the responses. they say watching your debate about that video, i see that type of behavior regardless of race every day as a@donlemon ri.

jennifer says poor child doesn't even realize that she's doing anything wrong. it's abusive and invasive. the video will be out there forev forever. sergeant john wells is head of the omaha police association and wendy wallace is a psychologist. thank you all for joining us. sergeant wells, i know this video was on facebook before it was posted on your site. but many disagree with you. how do you defend the decision to put it out there. >> great question, don. first of all, this video was public. it was on a person's facebook page. one of our followers tipped us off about this video. the whole point behind our facebook pain and our website is to give the public not necessarily the national public because this has obviously received a lot of attention, law abiding citizens and voters an

unfiltered view of what law enforcement deals with in the city of omaha on a day-to-day basis. some is uplifting, humorous, sad, shocking and you folks especially an emotional reaction much like this video did. >> let's get the reaction -- >> at the end of the day. go ahead. >> go ahead. finish your thought. at the end of the day what? >> at the end of the day the whole point to posting this video was to show, again, the depth of the problem so that people realize this type of thing does happen in omaha, nebraska, and we can start to address these very serious issues. >> i appreciate your candor and honesty because over the last few days some people were saying the video was posted for concern as a cry for help for the child. it was in many ways saying the police saying look what we have to deal with. we have to deal with people like this. my concern with the video is multiple. one, you posted the child's face. we spent the last few weeks talking about what it means to protect toddlers, innocent baby's, yet we posted this

child's face. calling it a thug psycho prepares the world to see him as the end of the cycle, in other words, the outgrowth of a process of thuggery ends with this little boy who's not ready for great school yet. we're already imagining him as a thug. i agree. the video was public, very true. we don't want to imitate the behavior. >> did you have to show his face and do you think it was wrong to call the child a thug? they asked him to be a thug in his diaper anyways. sergeant. >> to be straightforward, we never called the child a thug. we talked about thug culture when we talk about criminal

>> again to the will go down a path that he can't recover from. my hope and prayers are that this child gets the help that he needs to lead a productive life. we referred this to our k450i8d victim unit. it is being investigated. the police chief would have to comment about that because it's an ongoing investigation. to the child's face, this was a public video. we didn't record it. we didn't make it public.

>> alec baldwin isn't known for parenting. there are plenty of high profile

and nonprofile wealthy people who don't deal with their children well. it contributes to a broader narrative about who these people are. >> but comparing a child to alec baldwin, that child will probably have every access in life these kids probably won't. wendy a few seconds here. what's the solution? >> well, i think it's early intervention in parenting, that these young parents who clearly are children themselves need to learn that small children and babies are not performing animals doing tricks for you. and understanding that if you decide that you're going to live above the law, that teaching the next generation is not going to actually help keep your genes in the gene pool in the long run. >> wendy, thank you. sergeant wells thank you. mark lamont hill, thank you well. still to come tonight, what do beyonce' and donna brazil have in common. we'll show you next. joe doesn't know it yet, but he'll work his way up from busser to waiter to chef before opening a restaurant

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the entertainment world was abuzz this week with news that "saturday night live" had hired its first black female cast member in more than six years. after auditioning about 25 women in new york and los angeles, 27-year-old sashir zumeda was awarded the coveted spot on the show. it was announced today snl will also be adding two black female wrierts. lakendra tuks and leslie jones. we were curious about what it takes to land a job on snl. earlier we had the chance to speak with one of the other women who auditioned, actress and comedian seimone shepherd. >> the l.a. audition was excellent. we had no idea what we were going for. all we heard was snl and black girl and we just showed up and did our best work. >> what did you do? >> that was all we did.

i did a bunch of characters. i did donna brazil. i did -- i even did susan rice. i did beyonce'. beyonce' is a character that i do a lot, a personality that i do quite often. that's what i'm most known for. i did michelle obama, anything black i did it. >> all right. so quickly, give me beyonce'. >> i would like to wish my baby blue a very happy birthday today. happy birthday, blue, from your mother beyonce', the greatest singer ever [ laughter ] >> is it tough for black female comedians to get work? >> absolutely. first of all, there's a stereotype with women not being allowed to be funny. i mean, there's been lucille ball, so many people, but it's still so hard for us to prove to the world that we're funny. and then being a woman, being african-american, it's like a double whammy. it's like no one wants to see a black girl being funny at all. they want to see us do angela

bassett. >> right. everything has meaning. i think you said it best. you said we take ownership of everything, every single comment, right? do you think sometimes we need to lighten up as a comedian? >> we do. when snl came about, i never thought to audition. i don't see black girls doing it. it was never something that i went out for. they didn't come and find me, i probably would have never went to them. so with that being said, i have to take responsibility. and that's a joke that i make. like well i wouldn't think about them. >> i wrote something about shahir. and i said, she's ultimately going to be judged on her talent. because everyone's talking about black comedian this, black comedian that. she's going to have to be funnier than she is black. meaning she's going to ultimately be judged on her talent. some people took offense to that. do you take offense to that? >> i think it's hilarious. because honestly, what's been rolling around in my brain is that i think that i was funnier than i was black. but still. we can be funny in all packages

we are funny. >> and lighten up. you have a great attitude. don't take everything so seriously and lighten up. after all it's a comedian. people get what you're saying and what you mean. they just want to take offense to it. >> exactly. >> so listen, i understand you mentioned you do a great donna brazil. >> oh, lord. >> i have somebody here right now who would like you to do a donna brazil. as a matter of fact it's donna brazil herself. >> hi there. >> hi, donna. >> so let's see your best donna brazil. >> let's do it. welcome to cnn. i am donna brazil. i will be your moderator for this 2016 presidential debate. join me now in welcoming our nominees. democratic nominee, former secretary of state hillary clinton. and the republican nominee, governor chris christie. governor christie, you will have one minute and 30 seconds to answer my questions.

good luck. former secretary of state hillary clinton? you take all the time you need, girl power. >> yeah. >> girl power. >> yes, love. there you go. all the time. >> what did you think, donna? >> i love her. i love her. >> that was great. i'm don lemon. thanks for joining us. "ac 360" starts right now. don, thanks very much. good evening, everyone. tonight break news in the scandal involving america's busiest bridge. the gop's brightest presidential hope right now, chris christie, and evidence that his administration played the kind of bare knuckle partisan politics that he criticizes in others. we're keeping them honest tonight. also ahead in the program, her brain-dead body is being kept alive against her wishes, against her family's wishes because she's pregnant. we'll look at another very hard case at the intersection of life and death and the law. and later, medical marijuana. we know it helps some people tolerate cancer treatment. the question is, can it also be a cancer treatment by itself? in to be the's installment of our week-long series "gone to