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the world lead. what a day for mea culpa. dennis rodman saying that he's dennis rodman saying that he's sorry for the cnn interview seen around the world. you see, everybody, it's okay, he was just drunk. and the pop culture lead. are fans of the critically revialed insane clown posse really a gang? good afternoon, everybody. we begin today with politics lead. chris christie expected any minute now to offer his apologies to the community and the mayor in person after doing it on their tvs earlier in the day. it would not be an exaggeration to call this the most crucial day in chris christie's day. they got a look at text messages and e-mails that ties one of his top aide and a port authority scandal that linked them to a

>> i come out here today to apologize to the people of new jersey. i apologize to the people of ft. lee. and i apologize to the members of the state legislature. i am embarrassed and humiliated by the conduct of some of the people on my team. there's no doubt in my mind that the conduct they exhibited is completely unacceptable and showed a lack of respect for their appropriate role of government and for the people that were trusted to serve. i had no knowledge or involvement in this issue, in its planning or its execution. and i am stunned by the abject

stupidity that was shown here regardless of what the facts ultimately uncover, this was handled in a callous and indifferent way and not the way the administration has conducted itself over the last four years and not the way it'll conduct itself over the next four. i'll do everything in my power to assure the people of new jersey that. and i thank them for their willingness to consider my apology on behalf of this government. in the end, i have 65,000 people working for me every day. and i cannot know what each one of them is doing at every minute. but that doesn't matter. i'm ultimately responsible for what they do. all i can do is apologize for the conduct of people who worked for me. i can't do anything else. i can't reverse time.

if i could, believe me, i would. but i'm just going to apologize. i think that's all you can do. i am a very sad person today. that's the emotion i feel. a person close to me betrayed me. a person who i counted on and trusted for five years betrayed me. a person who i gave a high government office to betrayed me. i probably will get angry at some point. but i've got to tell you the truth, i'm sad. i'm a sad guy standing here today. and very disappointed. and that's the overriding emotion. someone asked me that before. that's the overriding emotion. and i know that because of my bluntness and my directness that people think, well, of course, he must get behind that door and be a lunatic when he's mad about something. if you asked the staff, it is the rare moment in this office when i raise my voice.

the rare moment when i raise my voice. i reserve it for very special times. and i will tell you the last time i did. four weeks ago when i had them all in that office and i said if any of you have any information about this i don't know, you need to tell me, kevin or charlie now. that was the last time i raised my voice in that office. and so, no, i didn't break anything, didn't curse anyone out. it is a sad day for me. i'm doing what i'm obligated to do under this job because it's the right thing to do. >> joining me now, the woman who ran against chris christie in the 2013 reelection bid. democratic new jersey state senator barbara buono. and cnn political commentator kevin madden.

senator, to you first. listen, i have been following his career for a long time. i've never quite seen him this way. i'm sure most people haven't. you just saw him apologize. he fired the aides involved. he said he didn't know. do you believe him? >> reporter: look, as nelson mandela has said, resentment is like drinking poison and hoping your enemies die from it. i think we all should forgive one another. i think it's good that the governor is being contrite. he, at the very least, he needs to be contrite. he's trying to reinvent himself. but the fact of the matter is, there are people that were hurt, put in jeopardy, and the governor needs to take responsibility for it. he says he is. but the fact of the matter is these are individuals that are close to him. and i find it incredible that to think that the governor's distancing himself from his

deputy chief of staff, his campaign manager, someone like his alter ego. >> do you believe him? >> and i'm answering your question. i said it's wonderful for the governor to be contrite and we want to forgive him, but the fact of the matter is, he needs to take responsibility for this. >> okay. >> the fact is, this is a governor that runs his administration very -- really like a paramilitary organization. to suggest he's distancing himself from those in his most -- in the closest orbit to him i think is incredulous. >> i don't want to be rude, but i have very limited time. i have a lot to get in. chris christie went to ft. lee to apologize to the mayor. and the people who live here, here's what the mayor just told our wolf blitzer. >> he came up. he was gracious, he was apologetic.

we believe sincere. but it's an ongoing investigation. we're concerned there's more stuff and more issues to deal with. but we are appreciative here in ft. lee that the governor came up here to apologize. >> you believe him? >> i take him for his word. listening intently to the press conference today, i mean, there was no in between, no -- nothing but unequivocal statements he had absolutely no knowledge. he repeated those statements during the course of our interview. i viewed it as productive. >> and, again, senator i don't mean to be rude, we have very limited time. if he is willing to believe christie and accept his apology, shouldn't you? >> well, that really isn't the issue what barbara buono accepts. the fact is, people were put at risk, abuse of authority, may have been some crimes that were committed. and that's why i think it is my responsibility, and i owe it to

the people of new jersey, i would think you agree with that and the people of the united states of america to call upon the federal prosecutor to determine whether or not there were crimes committed. >> okay. john king, you were at this news conference today. i want to play part of your exchange with christie, then we'll talk. >> so, i'm just asking, what do you ask yourself? they either thought this is what the boss wanted, or as a group, they were willing to go rogue and do this and cover it up and lie to you? >> listen. i'm obviously -- i said earlier, john, i'm heartbroken about it. and i'm incredibly disappointed. i don't think i've gotten to the angry stage yet. but i'm sure i'll get there. but i'm just stunned. and what does it make me ask about me? it makes me ask about me what did i do wrong to have these

folks think it was okay to lie to me? and there's a lot of soul searching that goes around with this. you know, when you're a leader of an organization and i've had this happen to me before where i've had folks not tell me the truth about something. not since i've been governor, but in previous leadership positions. you always wonder about what you can do differently. and believe me, john, i haven't had a lot of sleep the last two nights, and i've been doing a lot of soul searching. i'm sick over there. >> soul searching, sick over it. you believe him, john? being in the room? >> reporter: sure, in that sense, i do believe him, don. i'm not taking his side, and we'll see where the facts take us over the next coming weeks and months. is he soul searching? of course he is. he's about to begin a second term as governor of a big estate. he just came out of a landslide election thinking he has the wind at his back, now the wind is in his face. he's about to hit the stage as

the chairman of the republican governors association. he's critical to his party's chances in 2014 and wants to use it as a spring board for 2016. you can't do that unless you have a political staff at home and a national campaign organization that you trust. yes, we'll do your dirty work for you, but not petty work, not illegal work. your tough work but not potentially criminal work. you bet he has to think about what did i do hiring these people? and who do i need to fill those places with new jobs coming up? >> it does beg the question, if he did know about it and had some involvement in it, why would he double down on this considering the possibility of 2016? you know, it seems your party isn't -- >> that's what chris christie does. that's what he does. >> -- south carolina governor nikki haley stuck up for him. saying i watched my friend work through a difficult situation today. he did the right thing in taking responsibility in the tough situation. that's the kind of leadership

that earned him the huge level of trust he has in new jersey. is this your party aligning themselves for 2016? >> well, no, i don't think so. 2016, first of all, is a long ways away. and we don't have a candidate field yet. but i think the governor christie that stood there at 11:00 today and answered all those questions for close to two hours, that was the governor christie that voters overwhelmingly reelected in 2013. he was contrite. he was very direct. accountable. and i think he welcomes this level of accountability. and quite frankly, he's going to have to get used to it. he has now raised the bar for him and his staff. every single step now through this entire process, through whatever investigations that come out of it, he is going to have to meet that level of accountability and meet that level of contrition as he works

to repair the trust between himself and his constituents. and then also, i think, with some of the voters that may be looking at him for 2016. that's a long way away. >> thanks to all of you, thank you, john king. and still to come tonight on cnn, governor chris christie blames a bridge scandal on his staff. but which staffers are involved? and did chris christie wait too long to apologize? plus, did a police officer need to shoot and kill a mentally ill teen armed with a screwdriver. why the officer believes he has no other choice. and later, a story we have been following very closely for you. you won't believe this update i got from police. a viral video shows a toddler being encouraged to make r-rat ed comments by his parents. what we just learned tonight about the family. i'm beth...

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[ female announcer ] some people like to pretend a flood could never happen to them. and that their homeowners insurance protects them. [ thunder crashes ] it doesn't. stop pretending. only flood insurance covers floods. ♪ visit floodsmart.gov/pretend to learn your risk. we're talking about chris christie in crisis mode. spent nearly two hours today apologizing for his aides who punished a political rival by orchestrating the closing of

several lanes on one of the world's busiest bridges. christie insists he knew nothing about it. but can he survive this political crisis? tonight, lennie davis, the author of "crisis tales," political analyst steve badabado is here and alan derschowitz. you know new jersey politics, steve. you've been following it forever. dough yo believe the governor didn't know about this? >> i take the governor at his word. i've interviewed him many times as a broadcaster on public television and as a human being. i think i know his body language very well. and another practical issue. you do not name the campaign manager, name him to be the chairman of the republican state committee of new jersey, do not name him to be your point person with the republican governors association nationally. that's his point person. you do not name him to those

positions, just recently, a few days ago, right? if you know that is the guy who was in those e-mails. the governor's not stupid. that is why -- and plus, just having a sense of him, you do not do that plus leave no wiggle room. if chris christie was lying today, you'll find out very soon he's not stupid. i do not believe he would've done that. and just instinctively watching him today for two hours, i believe him. >> apologized for two hours, is it enough? and you can follow up on what steve said, as well. >> well, first of all, i take him at his word, as well. i speak as a crisis manager only. i don't intend to second guess or be critical of chris christie. i'm a jersey boy, i actually like governor christie. but i would say as a crisis manager, he made two fundamental mistakes. i give him credit for what he did today. he did a great job. he didn't answer two important questions, which is what we try to anticipate. one, when all that traffic jam

was going on, why didn't you ask why? there are public safety issues involved in that traffic jam. where were you when that traffic jam was occurring? and why aren't you addressing that today in your press conference? and two, why did you rely on a one-hour semiofficial investigation internally by two of your highest aides? why didn't you call in an independent investigator and go through the e-mails yourself with an independent investigator? because you had warning that friends of yours were responsible for this. now, those two questions he should've answered himself today. they're going to be asked and i'm not sure what his answers are. but as a crisis manager, i'd advise him to answer those. >> real quick. >> lanny, here's my view, some of that may be true. the governor took responsibility, he fired his campaign manager, his top political adviser, fired the deputy chief of staff within 24 hours of the e-mails. >> i know that. >> that's a lot of action. >> i agree with that. but he didn't answer my questions and neither did you.

and i'm saying a crisis manager would say to a client and alan dershowitz -- >> i want to talk to alan. >> you better be out front. >> it appears here from what you're saying, lanny, is he appears to be asleep at the wheel. he appears to be asleep at the wheel. he didn't know about the traffic problems when it was happening. didn't know about his staff. there are a lot of legal questions here, you know, the 91-year-old woman, the heart attack, all of these things. governor christie, does he need to lawyer up? and could he be held responsible legally? >> he needs to have lanny to be his crisis manager and lawyer. the other question he didn't answer is why would these aides have shut down the lanes unless they believed he would approve it? clearly, they had to believe that. now, the two aides are in serious trouble. because they created a traffic jam that may have led to the death of a woman. may have led to missed appointments, missed school days.

and if they are prosecuted successfully, they may well turn on the governor and say, hey, we're not taking this full by ourselves. we were led to believe this was what you wanted. you wanted to take revenge on this mayor, maybe you left it to us how to take the revenge. but it reminds me of henry ii when he said to his knights, who will rid me of this troublesome priest and they went and killed thomas beckett. so i don't want to make analogies here between killing and -- >> no hyperbole here. >> but i do think that there are real legal problems here. the law works backwards, it says there's a dead person, missed appointments, what caused it? and there's a concept of willful blindness. if he told his aides, i don't know, don't tell me, just take revenge. >> i want to make it clear, the 91-year-old's family says it was n't the cause. >> but they voted for him. >> that's not a legal question. that's political conjecture on

your part and you're connecting that to a legal case. that's totally irresponsible. >> what i'm saying is it doesn't matter what they believe, the medical examiner will determine whether the missed three or four minutes might have allowed them to restore her heartbeat when she had heart failure. it's not for them to decide. >> lanny, hold on, this question is for you. chris christie said he's doing a whole lot of soul searching. he's trying to examine it himself, what would lead people to lie to him and these sorts of things. here's the question, when you see the type of behavior he has in press conferences. a lot of people like chris christie but don't like this -- that he has this sort of personality. and possibly, lanny, could this be because people in his administration and because of his antics, they may think they're above the law? that they don't have to answer to anyone because chris christie will shoot you down, mr. reporter, mr. anchor, whomever

you are, in a press conference. lanny davis? >> look, i take him at his word. and i admire what he did today. but he did too little, too late about the big, big question. and it is that he knew about the traffic jam when it was occurring and why didn't it concern him? and i do want to know why he didn't hire an outside council to independently go through e-mails and not rely on a one-hour survey within his office and say today that's what assured him to go out and say that nobody knew. those two things i would say he still has to explain. >> all good questions. i know you're chomping at the bit. still to come, governor chris christie apologized for the behavior of his staff. but should the buck stop with him? plus, an update on the murder mystery of a former beauty queen. a major announcement involving the case. and the day after dennis rodman

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new jersey governor chris christie said today what we have heard from so many politicians before, the buck stops with him. but it's some of his top aides who have been implicated in a growing political scandal that could upend. joe johns takes a closer look. >> reporter: today, as one figure at the center of the bridge scandal couldn't stop talking. >> i come out here today to apologize. >> reporter: another had no interest in even starting. >> on the advice of counsel, i assert my right to remain silent. >> reporter: in a nearly two-hour press conference, new

jersey governor chris christie announced the firing of a key aide, said he would no longer work with his former campaign manager and assigned much of the blame for the scandal to this man, david wildstein. one of his appointees to the port authority of new york and new jersey. >> clearly he played a major role in it. >> reporter: even as christie spoke, he was in the building next door. he'd been seen by some as the governor's eyes and ears inside the port authority. the two men go back a long time, even attended high school together. >> he was very loyal to the governor. extremely loyal. but i would say a lot of people felt afraid of him because his direct line to the governor's office. >> reporter: today, christie painted a vastly different picture of that relationship. >> i could probably count on one hand the number of conversations i've had with david since he's worked at the port authority. >> reporter: he used the presser to distance himself from another

confidant, his deputy chief of staff saying he had no idea she ordered the bridge lanes closed. >> this morning, i've terminated the employment of bridget kelly effective immediately. i've terminated her employment because she lied to me. >> something those who know her say is out of character. >> but if you think she is the engineer of all of this mess, i cannot believe that. >> reporter: also kicked out of the inner circle, long time adviser bill stepian. among his e-mails, one calling the ft. lee mayor an idiot. >> reading that, it made me lose my confidence in bill's judgment. and you cannot have someone at the top of your political operation who you do not have confidence in. >> reporter: joe johns, cnn, washington. still to come, other stories we are following tonight. a teenager shot and killed by a

police officer in front of his family. we have an exclusive interview with the officer's attorney tonight. and that disturbing video of a toddler caught on camera making obscene comments, you've got the court documents. going to tell you all about this child. the dangers he faced, other children in the home, and all about the family. you will not believe the explosive details. [ male annou] the new new york is open. open to innovation. open to ambition. open to bold ideas. that's why new york has a new plan -- dozens of tax free zones all across the state. move here, expand here, or start a new business here and pay no taxes for ten years... we're new york. if there's something that creates more jobs, and grows more businesses... we're open to it. start a tax-free business at startup-ny.com.

and our giant idaho potato truck is still missing. so my dog and i we're going to go find it. it's out there somewhere spreading the good word about idaho potatoes and raising money for meals on wheels. but we'd really like our truck back, so if you see it, let us know, would you? thanks. what?

now to some of the other stories we are following for you tonight. governor earl tomlin is warning residents not to use tap water for cooking, drinking, washing or bathing. the counties are boone, lincoln,

jackson and putnam. the warning came after a chemical spill at a factory along the elk river. venezuelan police believe they have arrested seven people in connection with the murder of a former miss venezuela. the couple's 5-year-old daughter was also shot but survived. the head of the crime investigation agency says the investigators think the motive for the attack was robbery. they say four other suspects are still on the loose including the man believed to have the murder weapon. investigators say spears' camera was a key link that helped track down her killers. dennis rodman who is still believed to be in north korea is apologizing for an outburst during a cnn exclusive interview earlier this week. here's just a taste of what he had to say. >> no, no, no, no. no [ bleep ]. what the hell you think. i'm standing here looking at these guys. look at them.

>> in a statement released by his publicist, rodman says he was stressed and he had been drinking prior to the interview. rodman apologized to his teammates and the family of kenneth bay and an american in prison. the bay family accepted the apology saying we acknowledge he's human and we all make mistakes. conflicting stories tonight on what led a north carolina police detective to shoot and kill a schizophrenic teenager in his home right in front of his family. two officers arrived at the home after his stepfather said he'd been acting erratically. well, his family says the situation was under control until a third officer arrived on the scene. 70 seconds later, he was dead. that officer first said he fired to defend himself. but in an exclusive interview with cnn david matingly, the officer's attorney told a different story. >> reporter: shortly after he shot and killed the 18-year-old, we could hear byron vasse on the

radio saying he was defending himself. >> i don't know if you've been advised or not, but shots fired. i've had to defend myself against the subject. >> apparently suffering through a schizophrenic episode and holding only a screwdriver, keith had been hit with stun guns and was on the floor of his home restrained by two officers when the detective shot him in the chest. his attorney now tells me why. >> you're telling me this young man was not subdued and he was fighting back? >> he was, yes, sir. >> he was actually taking that screwdriver and stabbing one of the officers multiple times? >> in the abdomen area, yes, sir. >> but not causing any injury? >> apparently he had not. again, apparently the officer had a bulletproof vest on. >> just 5'3" and maybe 100 pounds, the smiling teen in these pictures according to the attorney had become such a threat to the safety of the one officer that vassy had no choice

but to use deadly force. >> did that officer yell for help or ask for someone to shoot this man? >> no, sir, did not. >> then why did the detective feel like he needed to use deadly force at that moment? >> because the stabbing motions traveled to an exposed part of the down officer. and he was not being subdued. >> the north carolina police benevolent association agrees, the legal support group calls the situation dangerous. calls the screwdriver a deadly weapon and says detective vassy used authorized law enforcement action. the picture described is in sharp contrast to the family's belief that keith should not have died. >> why would somebody shoot a 90-pound kid with two full-grown officers on top of him with two tasers deployed inside him? there's no reason.

>> was that the only option here to pull a firearm and pull the trigger? >> at the instant it occurred, again, having to step into the shoes of the officer to make that judgment call, he had to make it in the split instant. >> was it the right decision? >> yes, sir. >> david mattingly is here. has there been any reaction tonight from the family? >> the family has been relatively quiet this week. they are preparing a statement. they just weren't able to prepare it for today. they have been paying very close attention to what's being said by the other groups and by this attorney. you can bet that when they finally do have a statement, they're not going to be willing to conceive one second their son needed to die here. >> thank you very much. let's talk more about this now

with mark o'mara. mark, do you find it plausible that this detective had to fire his weapon that three trained officers couldn't subdue a teenager who weighed under 100 pounds armed with a screwdriver? >> i've said many times that cops are very difficult and very dangerous job. having said that, the circumstances have to be looked at. they were called to a situation of not a dangerous, armed person, they were called because of a psychological occurrence with this person. and they had to respond to that in mind. when they respond and subdue him, look at the situation as not being criminal but as somebody who is ill. the way the third person came on the scene and seemed to have aggravated it makes no sense to me whatsoever. and we have to look at what cops are told to do. they're given a spectrum of force to use. at the end of the spectrum is deadly force.

every other opportunity to resist should be employed. even backing up. why not just back away from the situation and see what happens rather than using deadly force. >> all right. let's talk more about the situation. the officer who opened fire said he did so in self-defense. but as we just heard, his lawyer is now saying he shot to defend the other officer. how much does that discrepancy hurt his credibility? >> i think it's going to hurt because the first thing he said and the way he said it nonchalantly was i have to defend myself. you would think the first thing he would've said to dispatch was he was threatening a fellow officer and i felt no other option but to shoot. rather than, oh, i was defending myself and then when thought through a little more because obviously the facts will no support that he, personally, was in danger, deadly danger, then it sort of changes to be defending others. again, if he believed the force was immediate, imminent and dangerous, he has the right to do so.

but none of the facts, the 90-pound -- doesn't suggest that deadly force was the only option. >> thank you, mark o'mara, appreciate it, sir. the classmate accused of raping daisy coleman is in court. why some feel justice still hasn't been served. and the court documents in that toddler case in omaha, nebraska, i have gotten them. you will not believe what's in these court documents, a condition under which that little boy was living. and other children in the home. and what of the parents? you're going to learn about it next. when you have diabetes like i do,

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>> today the special prosecutor re-examining the case of daisy coleman, the young woman who accused her classmate of sexual assault determined there was not enough evidence to charge the older boy with rape. instead he pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor. >> matthew barnette faced judgment for his crime what he pleaded guilty to, misdemeanor child endangerment for leaving her outside her mother's house in january. >> the misdemeanor charge for which he pled guilty accurately reflects the conduct for what he should be held accountable. >> what barnette did not face, charges of raping the young victim. daisy coleman alleged she and a friend were raped by barnette

and another high school boy after a night of drinking. the case of the other boy who was 15 at the time was handled in juvenile court. charges against barnette who was 17 were dismissed. daisy's family claimed the real reason was barnette's political ties. his grandfather was a popular four-term state representative. daisy and her family were run out. a stark example of victim blame. a national outcry followed and jean baker was appointed to re-examine the case who says the justice system worked. >> my job is to analyze evidence. in this case, it was -- there was insufficient evidence to go forward on a sexual assault. >> barnette was sentenced to two year's probation with no jail time. it was quiet as barnette left, but reaction was swift on social media. #justicefordaisy. the system has failed and sickening.

baker read a statement from daisy coleman. >> today i'm grateful that the defendant took responsibility by pleading guilty to the charges. i am ready to move forward. >> this has been very difficult for daisy, hasn't it? >> reporter: it's been very difficult. and that's really the sad legacy of this, don. over the weekend, this young girl who is 16 now, she tried to commit suicide because she was bullied on facebook after attending a party. something that normal 16-year-olds always do. but after that bullying, she tried to take her life. her mother said she decided to stay with her daughter at her bedside instead of coming here to the courthouse. her mother said she braced for the outcome, they fully expected this would happen and they are trying to move forward. but she maintains, don, that political power was at play here in that first investigation. >> kueng lah, thank you very much, appreciate your reporting. brand new information

regarding the nebraska toddler who unleashed an r-rated tirade in that controversial video. it's a story we've been following here on "outfront," and tonight we're learning the little boy along with four other children are in protective custody. it's five children. authorities had to step in after the video of the little boy flipping the bird and cursing was posted on the omaha police union's website. >> [ bleep ] -- >> wait a minute. something's different. >> he said he's -- >> say [ bleep ] three times. >> [ bleep ]. >> what's up then? >> i invite everyone to come sit and watch this story, especially those who say maybe this video should not have been shown. maybe so, but take a seat and listen.

officials say they found nothing criminal in that video. but behind the home, police say there were kids, there were kids living with kids and raising kids. and they all ranged in age from 1-year-old to 19. i'm joined now by dr. charles sofie. thank you very much. i cannot get over the story. i hope this little boy is saved and the other children and other children around the country who are dealing with this. for situations like this. doctor, i'm going to go to you first. police say the parents failed to provide -- this is according to the documents i was able to obtain. they failed to provide proper parental care, safe, stable and/or appropriate housing. and because of that, the children were at risk. appropriate for authorities to step in and put these children into protective custody? >> yes. absolutely.

>> yes, absolutely. it looks like it's horrific when we watch it and it certainly is. but we also have to have other things in place to be able to take the children out of the home and put them in a safe environment. until we see really what needs to happen for that family. >> other things in place like what? what do you mean? >> well was there drug addiction going on and that's what this behavior was about? why are they not parenting? what else is going on in the house? do they have jobs or food? why were the conditions so bad? >> according to the official documents, one of the parents continued to allow known gang members into their home and full access to the minor children in the home. you say that this is a breakdown of the family but police should not regulate this? why? >> i don't think that police should regulate morality in general, don. but i think what happened here in this case, this was a video that the police union -- let me make that clear -- got from the

parents' facebook page this. video went viral because they posted the unredacted video on their web site. they didn't offer this child protection. they didn't offer this child services. what they did was they exploited this child also. >> perhaps they should have blurred the child's face, okay? this is according to the documents, all right? the little boy who was two years old, on october 2nd, 2013, there was a shooting with multiple gunshots near his home. this little boy was struck in the right foot by shrapnel, treated and released. his mother, who is 16 years old, struck in the right shoulder, treated and released. >> yes. >> are you kidding me? do you think this should not be brought to light and people shouldn't be made aware when a child is living in these conditions? >> i think any child should be protected. i'm a child advocate and i think that children should be protected. i think they should be protected from the exploitation of police,

too. that's what i'm saying. i am saying that -- it's a really dangerous slippery slope when we go back and look for a pretextual reason to do something to cover some action that they did. and i'm happy that this child got services. i really am. but i want to know, would he have gotten services had not people been outraged that the police posted a video? >> that's the issue. nobody was outraged. nobody was stepping in to help this kid when there was nobody -- >> including the police, don. >> hang on. when the video was on the facebook page of the relative, by the way, who i e-mailed today. and i said i want to talk to you. he goes for what? that was his response. even when it was on his page there, was no outrage. it was cool. oh, my gosh, this kid is funny. finally when the police association put it up there people were outraged not

necessarily by the behavior of the adults in the video but because the video -- >> i think everyone is outraged by the behavior of the parents. i think that's not fair, don. everyone is outraged by the behavior. >> but people are upset if you talk to people they're mostly upset saying oh, my gosh this was racist. this should never have been put up. no one is saying oh, my gosh this is horrible. [ overlapping speakers ] >> it's not just about the black community. this happens in all communities. >> no, it happens mostly in the black community. when you label someone a thug, this video was posted by the police union to label this child as a thug. >> they labelled him a -- thug in your diaper. do we have the sound bite? thug in your diaper. who's labelling him a thug? is it the police? >> who has the color of law behind them to arrest or detain, to take people's children, to take liberties? >> police did not take the -- >> i'm not talk about all the police. because obviously this was the

association, not omaha police. >> it wasn't police who took him into custody. child protective services. health and human services who came in. >> i agree. and i'm so happy that they did. >> according to the police department said hey, listen, don, we want to make sure you understand that this video was not the reason the kids are being taken into protective custody. there was additional safety concerns. this is an opportunity to help the family, not to penalize them. they have already -- people from child protective services have already been trying to help this family. the family did nothing about it, did not change their ways. so child protective services had to go back in there. >> that was my point. >> go ahead. >> i'm sorry. go ahead. >> that was my point. that we are in that home now because there are other things going on in that home that led us -- this video was only an entry point for us to get in. this happens a lot in many homes. we don't see it. the only way we got in this time was because we had a viewpoint inside and we had a window.

otherwise this family may not have been able to get the help they need. >> that was not the purpose of the video. i think that's the problem. that's why people are outraged. it was not purpose of the reposting of the video. >> i agree with you. >> the video was reposted to show what these police said that they go through on a daily basis. they reposted and they victimized this child. if you think the parents abused this child in that video, they revictimized this child by posting the video instead of offering him services. >> what i said is, they should not have identified the child. i agree with you on that. but the ultimate good in this would be to help that child. >> thank god. >> so people should be more outraged by the conditions that this child was living under, whether or not this was racist by the police department. all that rhetoric is not going to help the kid. here's what i want to say. >> it's not about helping the kid. >> yes, it is and helping other kids. >> i agree with that. i don't mean that. what i mean is that the outrage is not about that. the outrage is the perpetuation of stereotypes.

>> no that was the outrage. >> it's about the perpetuation of stereotypes and labelling a 2-year-old who doesn't even understand what he's saying as a thug. that was the outrage. >> that's part of it. but it's also outrageous and very painful emotionally for anybody to watch what's going on behind closed doors. >> i agree. >> we all know abuse exists. >> listen. i want to say that police also say that subsequently that a family member put it on the tv. that's why they went to the home and it was picked up by national media. they mentioned cnn and one other network. they said they were referred as the toddler thug video because the family called him a thug in the video. they did not call him a thug themselves. thank you. we'll continue this conversation. i've got to go. we'll be right back. >> thanks, don. two things -- cook what you love, and save your money. joe doesn't know it yet, but he'll work his way up from busser to waiter to chef before opening a restaurant specializing in fish and game from the great northwest.

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in 1987, 156 people died when flight 255 crashed. 4-year-old cecelia was the only one to survive.

now 26 years later she breaks her silence for the first time. sole survivor airs tonight 9:00 p.m. eastern on cnn. i'm don lemon. thanks for watching. "ac 360" starts right now. be releasing nearly 1,000 pages of documents collected as part of its investigation. now, this ended a day that began with the man who polls say could be the next president of the united states taking on the scandal. chris christie's marathon session with reporters on revelations that a top aide and a close political appointee ordered up four days of epic traffic jams on the world's busiest bridge as political retribution. this morning in state capitol trenton governor christie apologized to the people of new jersey, said he was embarrassed, humiliated, blind-sighted. he announced the firing of the deputy chief of staff kelly and asked his campaign manager to step down as consult an to the association he heads. that was the first of many developments today. a short time later long time

christie friend david willstein appeared before state lawmakers. he's the port authority figure who resigned in the wake of all this. when questioned about the affair, he took the fifth amendment. he didn't walk. willstein is the former port authority appointee who allegedly caused the traffic jams by closing lanes to the george washington bridge from the city of fort lee, new jersey. late today governor christie did cause a traffic jam of sorts in fort lee when he arrived at city hall to meet with the mayor, mark sokolicz you'll hear from shortly on this program. we want to you an extended look at governor christie facing the music. >> i come out here today to apologize to the people of new jersey. i apologize to the people of fort lee. and i apologize to the members of the state legislature. i am embarrassed and humiliated by the conduct of some of the people on my team.

there's no doubt in my mind that the conduct that they exhibited is completely unacceptable and showed a lack of respect for their appropriate role in government and for the people that were trusted to serve. i believe that all of the people who were affected by this conduct deserve this apology, and that's why i'm giving it to them. i also need to apologize to them for my failure as the governor of this state to understand the true nature of this problem sooner than i did. this mornings, i've terminated the employment of bridget kelly, effective immediately. i've terminated her employment because she lied to me. but i don't want any of you to

confuse what i'm saying this morning. ultimately i am responsible for what happens under my watch, the good and the bad. and when mistakes are made, then i have to own up to them them and take the action that i believe is necessary in order to remediate them. i had no knowledge or involvement in this issue, in its planning or its execution. and i am stunned by the abject stupidity that was shown here regardless of what the facts ultimately uncover. this was handled in a callous and indifferent way, and it is not the way this administration has conducted itself over the last four years and not the way it will conduct itself over the next four.

>> so i'm just asking, what do you ask yourself about it? they either thought this is what the boss wanted or this as a group they were willing to go rogue and try to cover it up and lie to you. >> listen, obviously i said earlier, john, i'm heart broken about it. and i'm incredibly disappointed. i don't think i've gotten to the angry stage yet, but i'm sure i'll get there. but i'm just stunned. and what does it make me ask about me? it makes me ask about me, what did i do wrong to have these folks think it was okay to lie to me? believe me, john, i haven't had a lot of sleep the last two nights. and i've been doing a lot of soul searching. i'm sick over this. i have worked for the last 12 years in public life, developing a reputation for honesty and

directness and blunt talk. one that i think is well-deserved. but when something like this happens, it's appropriate for you to question yourself. and certainly i am. and i am soul searching on this. but what i also want the people of new jersey to know is that this is the exception, not the rule. >> that's chris christie today answering every question put to him, some more than once. nearly two hours in all. an army of fans, critics and fact checkers scrutinizing every word obviously. big items raising questions how he could fire his deputy chief of staff without having just spoken to her at all about what he fired her for. he said he fired her because she lied but didn't question her about the details of the whole bridge closure. he said it would have been inappropriate for her to do that. small items as well, the governor says he couldn't pick fort lee's mayor out of a lineup nor could he remember ever meeting him though he said it's possible he did.

an event two years ago governor christie on the right and the mayor on the left. in any case as you saw at the top they meet again today. here's what governor christie said on the way out. >> we had a very good and productive meeting. i have great respect for the mayor. we had a very good conversation. >> could you tell us what was said during the meeting? >> i just did. a very good meeting. >> governor, do you feel better now? >> yes, i do. >> did he accept your apology? >> that and the breaking news about tomorrow's document dump capping quite a day, an apology, two firings, early beginnings of a federal investigation. a central figure taking fifth. supporters and skeptics alike going over each and every line of the governor's actions so far. a lot to talk about with chief national correspondent john king, shawn bro berg who broke this story in the panels of the bergen record. >> what did he accomplish? what didn't he accomplish today? >> what he did not accomplish was end all the questions. because you're going to have

this legislative investigation, the federal investigation likely to be even more investigations. what he did not do is leave himself any wiggle room. he said he had nothing to do with this, he knew nothing about it. he said he didn't have a climate that sanctioned this kind of behavior or encouraged this kind of behavior. so he followed the crisis 101 playbook when a politician or ceo is in trouble you come out and repeatedly apologize, say you're embarrassed, humiliated, you promise to hold those people accountable. he did a very good job as a pretty good politician in making that case today. and if the facts support what the governor did today, there's a chance he could turn this coal into a diamond and people will say he decisively handled the crisis. but these investigations are in the very early stages. you mentioned the documents dump some 900 more pages expected tomorrow. this is going to go on for days and weeks and likely months, anderson. >> i want to tell our viewers i've gotten online a report now a class action lawsuit was filed today against governor christie, one of his former aides, the bridget ann kelly who was fired and two former christie

appointees saying the lane closures forced people to arrive late for work, be docked pay and endure other economic hardships. shawn, you broke the story of these e-mails. for you what are the remaining questions you would like to have answered? >> well, i think governor christie addressed the immediate and most damaging concerns, and that is he denied that he had any involvement. what's left unresolved is how this came about, who was involved. he didn't do much to explain the broader narrative of how this could happen, especially within the confines of his inner circle. so i think that those answers will be sought both in the press in various investigations that unfold over the coming weeks and months. >> and shawn, the fact that there are heavy redactions in the documents you received, is that raising eyebrows in new jersey? do you know who made those redactions?

>> that came up in today's hearing. the explanation by david wildstein's attorney was that these documents and the redactions weren't pertinent to the requested information in the subpoena. there will be some scrutiny of that. and i think there's going to be some conversations between legislator's attorneys and mr. wildstein's legal representation to get reasons behind the redactions. >> gloria why exactly a deputy chief of staff would take it upon herself if in fact she did to do something of this magnitude, to try to pull off messing with such a major bridge. >> right. and that's the key question as far as i'm concerned that the governor did not answer today. she is only a deputy chief of staff. she clearly doesn't have the authority to tie up traffic this way. she was clearly acting in concert with others or under the

direction of others. and the governor's answer to that question was, you know what? i didn't fire her directly. and he did not talk to her directly. and that's presumably, anderson, because he was walled off by attorneys so he couldn't be seen as tinkering with any kind of investigation. but the question that the public will be asking is, did he create an environment in which people think they thought this would actually please the boss? people like somebody who's tough and strong when he's working on your side against the big bad guys, but when somebody is working to tie up your traffic and make life difficult for you? they don't like it so much. >> shawn, this is actually been going on locally in terms of a story -- you broke this story for more than 100 days. so it's been covered for awhile. the governor today was talking about the idea that there was

some sort of traffic study being done, which was one of the stories apparently he had been told. but is there any evidence that at any time over these last more than 100 days he requested from his staff evidence like the results of this alleged traffic study or that there had even been, i don't know, a requisition for a traffic study? >> no. i think those are some of the lingering questions. this has not been a quiet issue here in new jersey. and the governor has actually made pretty forceful comments in public in the past that this was a traffic study, backing up his close association who testified that it was a traffic study. so i think that there are going to be some remaining questions about how he came to those conclusions, whether he did his due diligence, whether he inquired of his staff adequately. the other issue here that we should keep in mind for people who do not know the port authority, it controls the area's airports, its brings and

tunnels. it's an independent agency, bi-state agency that is not directly controlled by the governor's office. they appoint people to run it. so that makes this even more remarkable that someone within his inner circle was exerting or seemed to be authorizing some sort of traffic study, even if you believe that on its face. her very involvement raises questions. >> john, for governor christie to give this massive press conference, two plus hours, as categorically deny any involvement whatsoever, either he's telling the truth -- and if he's not telling the truth, there's no way to come back from today's press conference. either what he says is true or this can have devastating consequences for him, correct? >> correct. anderson, if he's not telling the truth about something material, if he missed some tiny fact that's irrelevant to the conclusions that's one thing. if he's not telling the truth

about something meaningful and material this quick sand turns into a trap door for him politically. consider the moment. he's about to begin his second term. he just won in a landslide, thinks had he has a mandate to push his agenda through new jersey, a blue state and he's a red republican governor and wants to travel the country supporting republican candidates in 2014, to use that as his springboard to 2016. if he becomes nuclear, meaning he can't get things done at home and these things dog him on the road, it changes everything. what he hoped to do today is to begin to slam the door shut on his personal involvement. his team has to hope these investigations go as quickly as possible and they prove him right. if people get nervous -- two weeks ago we'd be having a conversation about chris christie rock star traveling the country. every republican wants to hug him and be seen with him. tonight that's a question mark. he needs to make the question mark go away, both for his success here at home and his viability on the national stage. >> we got to leave it there. john, gloria shawn, great to have you on the program.

next more on the question that could secure chris christie's future or seal his fate, is he a blunt straight talker or a bully? also former new york mayor rudy giuliani on his fellow republican and his view across the river.

more on the new jersey bridge scandal, a class action lawsuit has now been filed against governor chris christie. top aide bridget ann kelly and two christie appointees to the port authority which operates the george washington bridge. the suit claims people were forced to arrive late for work docked pay and endure other economic hardships. late word we'll be getting more than 900 new documents tomorrow related to this whole affair. we have yet to see how they affect the arc of the story and whether any speak to a big question, namely whether the governor's well-known sharp elbows i guess you could say and short temper contributed to the current scandal. at the news conference today, governor christie addressed the issue. >> i am not a bully. and what i will tell you is that the folks who have worked with me over a long period of time would i believe tell you that i'm tough, but i've shown over

the last four years in the tone that we've set here that i'm willing to compromise, that i'm willing to work with others. and the campaign showed with all of the folks who came from the other side of the aisle to support us that if we weren't willing to have relationships with those folks, it would have never happened that way. >> governor christie today suggesting he's not the kind of politician who pushes people around. keeping them honest, there is plenty of evidence he may be including his reaction to a doctor who publicly questioned his medical fitness to serve. >> this is just another hack who wants five minutes on tv. if she wants to get on a plane and come here to new jersey and ask me if she wants to examine me and review my medical history, i'll have a conversation with her about that. until that time she should shut up. >> his critics say he's thin skinned. his supporters say he's direct, honest, a straight-talk kind of guy. tom foreman has more. >> reporter: born in the state with a long history of heavyweight brawling, chris christie learned early that his combative ways could be costly.

in 1995, he tried to charge through the republican old guard to win an assembly seat and was crushed at the polls, leading to years of quiet work in the political background. yet after being elected governor in 2009 and re-elected in 2013, the tough guy once again took center stage. >> maybe the folks in washington, d.c. should tune in their tvs right now, see how it's done. >> christie has famously battered reporters. >> did i stay on topic? are you stupid? on topic. on topic. next question. >> if what you want to do is put on a show and giggle every time i talk, well then i have no interest in answering your question. >> voters are fair game, too. >> aisle ask you where you send your kids to school. don't bother me about where i send mine. >> he spoons out advice like bitter medicine. >> let me tell you something. after you graduate from wall street you conduct yourself like that in the courtroom your rear end's going to get thrown in jail, idiot. >> and through it all, he walks

a political tight rope. >> some people won't like his style. they'll see him as too tough, too angry, too obnoxiousious. >> reporter: so there is a risk in being this brusque and brash about things. >> absolutely but that's more than outweighed by his reputation as a straight talker, straight shooter, not your typical politician. in this day and age that is a huge plus not to be a typical politician. >> i don't hide my emotions from people. >> reporter: so although christie is apologizing over the bridge incident now, sorry ace word that fits him like a bad suit, and one he seldom says. tom foreman, cnn, washington. >> let's dig deeper now with another politician who's both enjoyed and at times suffered from a reputation as a take no prisoners political leader, former new york mayor and presidential candidate rudy giuliani. a short time ago i spoke with him today. >> what did you make of what governor christie said today? >> what i made of it is pure

chris christie. a straight guy. big mistake in his administration. it happens. it happened to me more than a few times. >> you have no doubt that he had no involvement? >> i'm absolutely positive. i think chris christie is one of the most honest, straight guys you're going to meet. also i think had he known about it he would have never acted this way. had he known he had some involvement in this he never would have treated it lightly the way he did. he didn't act like a person who had knowledge before the fact. >> it does seem looking at the press conference had he been involved in any way, if he had anything to hide, this is not the press conference you would give. >> right. i think that's absolutely true. we've seen people who hide things, five, six months. all these stages. all these stages they go through of being a little bit more transparent, a little bit more transparent. just don't go out and open themselves up completely. plus i know chris really well. he's a good friend. and in the last couple of weeks he wouldn't have acted the way he acted if he knew. even if he had some knowledge, an inkling of it, his remarks

would have been different kinds of remarks. >> he was belittling reporters who brought it up. >> no way if you knew about it. >> attacking them for even suggesting. >> having run a very complicated administration, sometimes it's impossible for people to believe it but you really don't know. i know when a mayor says i didn't know people find it hard to believe. your closest aide or your closest friend. my closest friend was my first deputy mayor peter powers. we went to high school, college and law school together. he ran my campaign, got me elected mayor. he probably could do more things on his own without telling me than people who weren't as close to me. he felt the most degree of i can make decisions for the mayor. >> there are those who say this was his deputy campaign manager, sending this e-mail saying time for a traffic issue at fort lee or whatever it was. >> right. >> even if chris christie didn't orchestrate it, wasn't involved in it, didn't know about it in advance or didn't know about it subsequently, there are those

who say the fact this woman thought this was the kind of thing he would like that says something bad about his leadership style, about what goes on behind the scenes. >> politically stupid things, political pranks that turn bad all that other stuff? don't tell me this doesn't happen in the obama administration, in the clinton administration, in the bush administration. >> if this was something that governor christie knew about, again you don't believe it and there's no evidence that he did, is it something -- do you think it's a big deal? er or is it just one of those vindictive things that politicians do? >> it's a big deal because of the consequences. if there hadn't been a person that died, then it might not be as big a deal. and of course, whether it's a big deal or not it becomes a big deal once he says he didn't know about it. at this point if he knows about it it becomes a very big deal. but i'm quite convinced from the way he's acted today and in the lead up to this he didn't know about it. i think it becomes something

that it's obviously never going to be a plus. the only way it becomes a slight plus for him is the way he handled it today, which is about as open as i've ever seen a politician. >> you don't think this has some sort of long-term um packet on governor christie? >> if the story remains the way it is absolutely not. the negative he had a couple people who were bad people -- i shouldn't say bad people people who made bad mistakes. but learning about it as open as a politician has been washes out. >> when he said today i'm not a bully, there is that whispers about him talk about him. >> there are two things that create that image. one is he's a big man. two, he comes back at you pretty hard. well, that's just the way people react. i don't see anything in his background that suggests that he takes advantage of people, that he pushes them around, that he's nasty to them, in terms of his personal contact. i've been with him and his family many, many times. i don't see anything different

about him than most of the other people that i know. but it is a stereotype. and unfortunate thing for chris is, tis is true with me, if something happens that reinforces your stereotype it becomes a big deal. on the other hand, if you make some other kind of mistake, people ignore it. i remember when i did a press conference, if i in the slightest way sounded annoyed, the story was mayor lost his temper. tell thought i had a bad temper. sometimes i'd walk out of a press conference and i would have completely screwed up something in the budget, screwed up a date and i'd say to my press secretary, i'm going to get ruined for that. they'd say no no no that's not part of your stereotype. they know you're smart. they just think you have a bad temper. i see this not suggesting somebody's a bully a stupid political prank that backfired, which could happen in any administration to anyone based on an aide who just misinterpreted things and went further than you should go. >> mayor giuliani, thanks very much. >> thank you. >> as always you can find more of the story on cnn.com. ahead talk to the guy governor

christie said he wouldn't be able to pick out of a lineup, fort lee's mayor joins us on the program ahead. later families fight to honor a brain-dead pregnant woman's wishes. they say a texas hospital has turned her into a human incubator for a fetus. dr. sanjay gupta joins me ahead.

as we said before the break, governor christie apologized in person today to fort lee's mayor just hours after saying he wouldn't be able to pick the man out of a lineup. the two men have appeared together. governor christie acknowledged it's very possible they had appeared before. this was taken in a news conference in 2011 when christie spoke with several mayors about sick pay reform posted on the governor's web site. christie's opening line when he met with sokolicz today. as for the marry whose city was thrown no chaos by the bridge scandal he called the meeting productive. he told wolf blitzer he didn't need an apology from christie but the rest of the city did.

>> do me a favor. don't call me. but call the families who were weight three, four times longer for emergency service agencies when their loved ones were having heart palpitations or their loved ones had extreme chest pains and were waiting for our ambulance corps to afive. >> that was the mayor of fort lee yesterday. was today's apology sufficient we wanted to know? fort lee mayor mark sokolich joins me tonight. >> mr. mayor, governor christie characterized your meeting as productive. would you? >> i would use them as productive. i felt there was a heart-felt apology which we accepted. and we took governor christie at his word. i mean, i'm not so sure we have much more of a choice. but we did. it was a sincere exchange. >> as far as you're concerned, is this over? or still is this just one chapter that's done? >> there's mounds of documents that still need to be gotten through. there's a lot of folks, there's

a large ensemble that's apparently involved in this. there are names that were redacted from the test in the e-mails. so i think any reasonable person would reach the conclusion that there's more to come or more stuff to find out about. >> when you read that e-mail from bridget kelly to the port authority saying we need to have a traffic problem for fort lee and the response was got it. when i read that it sounded as if the person on the other end of that knew instantly what that meant. and i'm not sure why the person on the other end of it would know instantly what that meant unless there were previous discussions about it. >> absolutely. and when you say "got it" you don't just come up with a statement like that out of the clear blue without something transpiring or something that precedes it. i agree with you 100%. that "got it" was a ratification or confirmation that everything that previously transpired was acceptable. i know my instructions and i'm going to move on them.

>> does it seem odd to you that the governor had been told that there was a traffic study being done, and even though the story continued to bubble up it seems like at no time did he ever ask anybody on his staff to see the traffic study or to see a requisition form for the traffic study. does that seem odd to you? >> there was never any traffic study. there will never be any traffic study concerning that shut down during that week in september. that's clear. that's unequivocal. i don't know why we keep talking about a traffic study. i think that's something that they need to grasp and deal with. you don't shut down the busiest bridge of the world without months and months and months of due diligence before you do it. >> and for a staffer to have felt like they had the leeway to do something like this, do you believe the governor would have had to have created some sort of a culture in his office that allowed staff to behave this way or to think this would be okay? >> i think it's one of two option.

it's either a loose cannon on the decks, and that could certainly be possible somebody is out there act on his own. apparently not. reading the text there is more than just wildstein there. the guy that called me an idiot was involved. so there's other folks. but yeah, it would appear that there was latitude that was either implied or delegated that would -- i don't want to say promote something like this but but almost condone something like this. >> how often -- there are photographs of you guys together in sort of group situations. the governor said maybe he had met you at a group situation but he couldn't have picked you out of a lineup. did that surprise you? how often had you actually met him? >> in defense of the position he's taken, i'm sure he meets thousands of people. so i certainly -- i guess i'm a guy that's relatively forgettable. i'm not so sure anymore. but back then i guess i wasn't

noteworthy. >> he could certainly pick you out of a lineup now. that's sort of an odd choice of terms for him to be using today. >> you're not kidding. and you know, just in passing at the end of our conversation with the governor, i did say to him, i guess a little sarcastically. governor am i now on your radar. he chuckled. his response was that fort lee now gets its own radar screen. so we're hopeful that that screen is going to well in advance let us know if there's retribution coming our way. i don't think it's coming and we hope it doesn't come. >> mayor sokolich, appreciate your time tonight. thank you. >> thank you. >> joining me now is former white house press secretary ari fleischer and cnn commentator paul begala. ari, what did you think of how governor christie did today? do you have any doubt with the two plus hours press conference he is hiding anything? >> no. it's impossible for somebody to give a news conference like that if you knew you were involved, you had some inkling this was

going on. if you thought your staff was deceiving you why would he have done all the things he did before the press conference let alone a suicidal press conference like this. i thought he was believable, humble, usual blunt self. i thought he dealt with it very well today. >> congressman, certainly a lot riding on that press conference. was that your take as well? >> absolutely. from what i know of governor christie going back to my undercover days working public corruption in new jersey, this is a man of honor and integrity. i think he was sincerely hurt. his staff disappointed him, especially people he really trusted. they broke his trust and made him look bad. they embarrassed him. i think that's what you saw today. you saw an honest, open governor that does show his emotions. that's why people may call him a bully because his passion often comes through. and it's not that he's bullying it's that he passionate. a strong advocate for new jersey and the causes that he believes in i think that came across very very well today. most importantly, he took ownership.

and i think that's bold leadership when one, someone can admit they were wrong which he did, and two, take responsibility for it. and lastly, he actually took the proper action immediately to terminate those that he knows was involved. >> paul, you said that christie had a choice to make today between being a crook or a snook. what did you make of how he did? >> well, he clearly took the right choice. and i do think obviously he's entitled to the presumption of innocence. no evidence he knew anything about this in advance. i think we should grant him that. the problem is then he's left with a choice that gee, i didn't know. now, this is a man as the congressman pointed out who was well-known as a tough federal prosecutor, a u.s. attorney, where he specialized in cases involving public corruption abuse of power. i think he had something like 130 convictions of corrupt politicians in both parties. so he knows about how to go after abuse of power. these lanes in this bridge were shut down. and there was an outcry right away. he did not act like a guy who wanted to get to the bottom of it, did he?

he said today in his press conference, i called my staff in and had my chief of staff look into it for an hour. a one-hour investigation? really? in the middle of that he certainly seemed to believe his staff because he called the governor of new york. when the new yorkers on the port that right board, port authority board reopened those lanes. these e-mails mr. christie's appointees were very upset about that. the wall street journal reported that governor christie called governor cuomo to complain about the fact that those lanes were reroped and that the guy who runs the port authority was too serious about getting to the bottom of this. that's the "wall street journal." >> you're saying a lack of leadership running up to today is what he showed? >> well, yes. and i think that sort of lacks credibility. because a guy with those kind of prosecutorial chops should have handled this a lot better. also as a political guy, this seems and locks in permanently

the definition of christie as a bully. it's exactly what rudy giuliani was telling you. anything that feeds the master narrative is going to stick. and christie is a straight talker. he is a tough talker. i like his no nonsense style. that's his positive narrative. his negative narrative is he's a bully, a guy that took away the security protection from a form governor after the former governor criticized him. a guy who line item vetoed the funding for programs at rutgers university run by a professor who had voted against the republicans on some state board? this was all reported in the "new york times" over the christmas holidays. there's a long pattern of this guy being a bully. and i think that politically is his problem. i don't think he can recover from that. >> ari, in the run-up to this, this has been going on, the public maybe nationally knows about this just in the last day or two. this has been covered in new jersey for more than 100 days. did the governor do enough in the run-up to this to investigate it? >> probably not. i think if he had thought this was going to be the staff lying to him he would is said to somebody else, you need to come, in investigate this.

i don't believe my staff. i think you have to take it at face value he had reason to believe his staff, that's why he was so angry today about it. paul's partially right here. what you've got now going forward, the gate and bridge gate is starting to fade. no gate unless christie lied today. i don't think that's the case. you'll have the regular bottom line usual scandal. e-mails get revealed. other things about this staff or that staff. reporters staking out people on lawn saying did governor christie tell the truth today. they'll try to find the deputy chief of staff and do that to her. it won't fully go away. what you just heard is the first superpac add of the 2016 race if christie is the candidate for the republicans. the democrats will cling to this. i don't think calling somebody a bully is exactly a disqualifying charge for the president of the united states. there are a lot of issues out there. i don't think in the republican primary this amounts to a hill of beans. he dealt with itted to as he needed to with good authority. >> congressman, do you have any

doubts that more names will come out of this? 900 pages of documents released tomorrow. that there are more people around the governor who mutt have known about this? >> well, to be honest, i wouldn't begin to speculate. i don't think that would be fair. the documents will disclose whatever they will disclose. do i disagree with the panel. listen, i think chris christie in the end comes out of this looking like a breath of fresh air that he's honest and he's open and he can deal with a crisis. and when something goes wrong he owns up to it. i don't think we see enough of it. i think even in the current administration you have a lot of passing the buck. you have all types of scandals from the irs to benghazi and so on, fast and furious, no one gets fired, no one knows what's going on. i think the american people will realize in the end that the governor accepts mistakes, he apologizes for them, and that really he's a real person which matters a lot i think to the american people. >> we've got to leave it there. congressman graham, ari fleischer, paul begala thanks very much. as the battle -- dr. sawn

gupta weighs in. a rare moment of contrition from dennis rodman for what he said about a political prisoner in north korea and basically for being drunk on cnn's air the other day. we'll be right back.

new developments in another story we've been following closely. attorneys for the family of marlise munoz are said to be preparing to take legal action. she's the 33-year-old brain-dead woman connected to life support machines despite her known wishes and her family's. she suffer add apparent blood clot in her lung. no one knows how long she or the

fetus she's carrying went without oxygen. the hospital says its hands are tide by a texas state law that says a pregnant woman can't be removed from life support. our chief medical correspondent dr. sanjay gupta joins us with our -- mark geragos and sonny hostin. sonny, the family says she might have gone an hour or longer without oxygen after her collapse. she also underwent cardiac resuscitation with electricity. do we know what kind of damage that could have done to the fetus? could the fetus itself be brain-dead as well? >> that is a concern. i mean when you think about what happens in a situation like this, she had a pulmonary embolism, went to her lungs. that means that there wasn't enough oxygen in the blood that was moving around the body. that's why organs start to fail including the brain as you were just saying in the case of the mother. the concern is could that same thing have been happening to the placenta and the fetus obviously as well. i've talked to several experts about this over the last couple of days.

this is an unusual situation as you know. as so no one can say for sure. but the idea this there was low blood flow to the brain. the brain is usually the organ that's preserved in the body. if there wasn't enough oxygen-rich blood get together brain there's a good chance the placenta and fetus were affected as well. >> right now the fetus is in its 20th week. originally in its 14th week when she collapsed. the hospital says there's a heartbeat but that's all they know at this point. when would doctors be able to test its health and viability? >> as a general guideline, doctors talk about around 23 or 24 weeks of gestation before a fetus is what is known as viable. able to live outside of the womb, outside of the uterus. that's a general guideline. before that it's really hard to know much more. even with regard to brain death in adults, a lot of it's a clinical exam, being able to examine the patient. with the fetus you could do scans, ultrasounds. if the brain had had a period of

time without blood flow, you may be seeing signs on those imaging that the brain's not developing properly. but beyond that it's very hard to say for sure that in fact what has happened to the brain or not happened to the brain. >> okay now let's turn to sonny and mark from. a legal standpoint does any of this matter? sonny, in your opinion you believe she should be kept on a ventilation if there's a chance the baby is alive and can be born? >> i think the law provides for that, anderson. i also think we keep on hearing her wishes are clear. i don't believe that. i can't imagine -- i believe they did have sort of this end of life directive discussion. i've had that with my husband who's a doctor. i can't imagine -- >> her husband said she never wanted to be on a ventilator. >> but i can't imagine they discussed being on a ventilator while she was pregnant. we know this was a wanted pregnancy. she was already 14 weeks into her pregnancy. she is a mother. again, i can't imagine that given those sets of circumstances they had that discussion. and i do want to say this, mark geragos was earlier making fun of me because i have my legal

pad in front of me. i try to be prepared as possible. >> who comes on here with notes? >> this is not the first time this has happened. since 1982, 30 cases worldwide of women that are brain-dead have given birth sometimes of february times healthy children. a woman in hungary gave birth to a 17-week-old healthy baby. she was kept alive for almost 2 1/2 months. >> i hear your point. does it matter whether the fetus is alive or not in your opinion? >> no it doesn't. obviously this is a law that was designed by proxy to deal with the abortion issue in texas. that's what it is. so all they're trying to do here in texas in this hospital is they're misreading the law number one. they're trying to get the fetus to a period of time where or a point at which there's going to be an issue. these lawyers obviously, i think, are the lawyers for the family -- >> how are they misreading the law? >> you're saying the law is written for -- you're saying

they're misreading the law the law is for people in a persistent vegetative state or comma not brain-dead. >> right. in every state-of-the-union this woman is considered dead. she's brain did. that's condition of death. the only reason they are interpreting this law to say they've got to keep her there is that she is alive. she's not alive. under any definition in any state in the united states, because of the abortion controversy that's the only reason this thing is being played out. the sooner the lawyers get into court the better. because they don't want to get into a situation where this is going to become an abortion issue even more so than it is. >> it's sort of interesting that you're tossing out abortion and the term abortion. that's really a red herring here, anderson. this is a wanted pregnancy. she was 14 weeks pregnant. there was never any discussion of abortion. so to sort of inject that in here really intellectually dishonest. >> you don't believe this law was written in response to an

attempt to kind of put limits on abortion in the state of texas? >> no, i don't. and i think when you look at the law, and i have, they're talking about situations that oftentimes happen where you have a woman who is pregnant, there's a wanted pregnancy, and something unfortunately happens. it's happened before. >> persistent vegetative state or coma which is different than brain-dead which is dead. >> why have there been 30 cases of brain-dead women that have given birth to healthy babies? >> you can get an apocryphal story in hungary. >> hunkry, virginia, vermont. >> you've got your list. >> we'll leave it there. we'll continue to follow this. still ahead "sole survivor" incredible story of a woman four years old when she survived a deadly plane crash. plus dennis rodman's apology for his bizarre according to him somewhat drunken rant.

tonight cnn film presents "sole survivor." at the center of the story is a woman named cecelia, four years old when she was the only survivor of an air west flight that crashed in detroit in 1987. now in the film she talks about putting the pieces together. when i realized that i was the only person to survive that plane crash, i was maybe in middle school, high school maybe, being an adolescent and confused. so it was just extra stress for me. and i remember feeling angry and survivor's guilt, why didn't my brother survive? why didn't anybody? why me?

>> i was working the night of the crash. one of the guys i was with, dan actually heard a moaning. after a few minutes we saw a chair laying upside down. we picked up the chair. underneath it was little cecelia, the survivor. >> don really makes an effort to be active in my life. we talk all the time on the internet. he came to my wedding and we danced at my reception. >> i didn't think that anybody would survive. yet the feeling of it, i guess with the 156 people perishing that night, i went home with i guess a little glimmer of hope where the other guys on my crew really didn't go home with anything. >> i feel like i need to keep in touch with john because he's almost like a link to the void that i mentioned earlier where i don't remember what happened.

stay tuned right after "360" for cnn film "sole survivor" at 9:00 a missouri man accused of sexual assaulting a 14-year-old classmate when he was 17 pleaded guilty today to a misdemeanor charge of endangering the welfare of a child. matthew barnett was sentenced to two years probation. daisy coleman says barnett raped her in january of 2012 and she denied accusations her family did not cooperate with the investigation. in new york, a grand jury has indicted india's deputy counsel general on visa fraud and making false statements. but she won't face arraignment due to diplomatic immunity. >> her arrest and strip search last month drew outrage in new delhi where protesters gathered at the u.s. embassy. dennis rodman has apologized for his outburst during an interview with cnn's chris cuomo. he appeared to suggest kenneth bae an american held in north korea may have done something to deserve punishment. rodman said he'd been drinking. bae's family accepts that apology. >> unbelievable. susan, thanks. we'll be right back.

ran out of time for the ridiculist tonight. that does it for us. thanks for watching. the cnn film "sole survivor" starts now. -- captions by vitac -- cc chris christie, angry. the i'm sorry coming nearly a thousand pages of new evidence this morning. good morning. welcome to "early start." i'm christine romans. >> it's friday. it's jan 10th and it's 4:00 a.m. in the east. we're here at 4:00 a.m. because of the questions for chris christie. the biggest question is what's next no thaw he's formally said that he's sorry, very sorry for what he