next day they did lose here in washington. finally warren buffett betting $1 billion. quicken loans is offering a billion dollar prize to the fan who submits a perfect bracket. if there is one it will be paid out by buffett's company. the odds are slim because there are more than 9 million trillion ways to fill out the bracket. good luck. >> remember you can always follow what is going on in the situation room on twitter. tweet the show. "crossfire" starts right now. tonight on "crossfire," chris christie starts his second term under a cloud.

>> all of us may be one yes away from our miracle. >> will it end in the white house or in trouble? >> he is one e-mail away from a disaster. on the left van jones. on the right newt gingrich in the "crossfire" brad woodhouse and republican ken cuccinelli. chris christie's political future unlimited or road blocked? tonight on "crossfire." welcome to "crossfire" i'm van jones on the left. >> i'm newt gingrich on the right. in the "crossfire" guests with different opinions of chris christie. first we have breaking news about another, quote, scandal involving republican governor. late today the former virginia governor bob mcdonald and his wife were indicted on charges of illegally accepting gifts. he calls it a false indictment

and this may end up being another example of overreach by president obama's justice department. this news broke shortly after chris christie was sworn in for a second term. in an impressive speech christie rose above the bridge scandal at least for today. >> okay, newt. here we go. you guys can try to posh this up. i think the republican party is in real trouble tonight. during the shutdown they say we have these strong governors. now we have governors in trouble. in the "crossfire" we have democratic strategist brad woodhouse and republican ken cuccinelli. let's go to you. you have worked very closely with governor mcdonnell. a lot of people said his troubles held you back in terms of your own race to be the governor. what is your reaction to the indictments tonight? >> certainly they cause challenges for us all of us in

virginia. we talk about virginia and new jersey tonight. we like to think of a etpretty smooth running clean state. doesn't mean it goes the way we want it to all the time. this puts a dent in that. i agree with newt's comments especially when i see a first lady indicted. i want to see more of the details. feds not sharing the details of this when they are pursuing it. >> you started your own investigation as an attorney general looking at some of the gifts. you look at the list of the gifts, very long list of gifts. the allegations are the first lady was helping to facilitate the relationship. from my point of view i am curious how did this -- i mean, you were on your way to being governor. how do you feel seeing this go this far?

>> i don't think any of us are surprised to see an indictment come out largely because this is leaked thoroughly since the summer. leaks suggest almost unintentional. i'm not sure that is the case. it has been bleeding out for more than six months. >> are you saying obama administration trying to make this worse than it is? >> i don't think make it worse than it is. it is what it is. but certainly to drag out the pain and the death by a thousand cuts. >> i think every american has to be worried about the power of the government if they decide to come after you. and in this case the fact that they have indicted the first lady which i'm not sure of other cases where the person is not an office holder, doesn't have the legal obligation. >> you mention the gifts investigation that i began. the person with the obligation with respect to gifts is the office holder.

>> absolutely. >> as a former prosecutor you admit if there is a conspiracy to solicit the gifts that is a bad thing. you think that is bad. >> of course, it is a bad thing. >> i think if you saw the statement today he didn't really challenge the charges. he said his conduct wasn't illegal which raises real issues about the law in virginia if you are allowed to go out and solicit these types of gifts and accept these types of gifts. i think the bigger problem for the republican party is what van eluded to. it was a year ago that the rnc came out with a rebranding effort and a reportt that they were going to do more outreach and be more open to policy. they also said we need to look at states for laboratories and republican governors for

leadership. the past two chair men of the republican governor's association, one is under federal indictment and one, chris christie, is under federal investigation. they might have to look elsewhere for leadership. >> i realize since christie was the one candidate who was beating hillary clinton there is a particular eagerness among democratic strategists. isn't it a fact that what you have right now is a very tiny problem compared to the normal problems of large governments? you have several of his people who were really stupid who did something for four days that is really indefensible. it is hard to imagine that chris christie is going to be caught up in having personally directed closing the bridge lanes to punish the mayor. >> first of all, i don't think anyone that waited in the traffic or waited for an

ambulance or first responder thinks that was a minor incident. i think it stretches to think that the person that is your deputy chief of staff across the hall from you that toured the state with you the day the lane closures occurred just did this. >> just want to put this in motion for a second. i'm not making light of the people. i saw somebody two days ago caught in the traffic. i'm not making light of it. the administration with over 5 million americans writing letters saying they are losing their insurance. it is hard to look at the scale of chaos of obamacare and this chris christie guy you have to worry about the bridge problem. >> i think the bridge -- now he is trying to intimidate msnbc and has the official office calling for the ouster of the

chair in the state senate who is running the investigation that he said he would cooperate with. i think this goes farther than the bridge. >> i agree with that. it is not just us saying this. also the polls reflect it. i want to show you these numbers and get your reaction, ken. you are seeing an implosion here. you mentioned hillary clinton was neck and neck with christie. he has dropped down eight points now. isn't this a big problem for him? from your point of view --f you are a political professional. when mcdonnell got in this much trouble he abandoned. should christie say i have a state to run and i have an investigation. should he give up on presidential aspirations and let people know whhe is focused on e

home field. >> if the goal is to be the best governor you can be that is done better by setting everything else aaside. let me finish it out. he can do that, really sincerely do it and come back in a year and reassess whether he is in a position to step in -- >> would you advise him to do that? >> the best credential for being promoted is how you did in the last job. >> he is struggling there now. >> that is my point. he has to recover that before he is in a position to move on to anything else. and to newt's point let's face it, this is pretty petty. this is really petty. it is one of the things that i think people across the spectrum look at and get upset about. on the republican side we are sick of petty and we like to blame it on the democrats in charge of washington right now.

>> we are not in charge of all of them. >> that doesn't mean -- >> you are a former prosecutor. are you going to tell me that if it is true -- we have to have an investigation -- if it is true that the governor of the state was allowing this sort of stuff to happen or staff that was doing this stuff that that is petty? what is your vision of government that shows that abuse is petty -- >> the president brings people with him. if this is what you are going to bring. christie one of the things we appreciate about him is he is blunt. if that brashness rolls through your staff and they think they can independently operate on it, you lose control. i don't mean control in a bad way. i mean control in a good way. >> wouldn't that be dangerous in

the white house to have that bluster with somebody in charge of the nsa, et cetera? >> that kind of bluster. that kind of openness at nsa i would be appreciative. >> this is like your earlier comment of msnbc. obama doesn't try to intimidate msnbc because they adore him. >> part of the persona of chris christie was developed on "morning joe." >> untail he was the nominated. >> we can agree or disagree about the severity of what took place. the hoboken shake down charges are even worse for chris christie if proved to be true. it is clear the polling and the reaction to governor scott in florida, it is clear this is having an impact on christie

politicly. rick scott in the past three years at some point was the least popular governor in all of the united states of america. he wouldn't be seen or photographed with chris christie in florida this week. that tells you there is real political damage here. >> i agree with you on that. more damage for the republicans. i think republicans trying to have it both ways on a whole bunch of issues which we will talk about next. >> probably the first time. >> next i will ask you, what is the difference between governor christie and president obama? ♪ [ male announcer ] what kind of energy is so abundant, it can help provide the power for all this? natural gas.

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welcome back. we have brad woodhouse and ken cuccinelli. today chris christie got a 2 1/2 minute standing ovation at his inauguration. i hope republicans plan to cheer that long at president obama's state of the union.

republicans used to attack the president for not knowing everything that is going on. obama has to oversee 2 million employees. somehow these same republicans are giving wild applause to chris christie who claims he didn't know what two of his top aides were doing in the next office over. is christie a liar? or just incompetent? or maybe the reckless attacks are the overreach republicans now claim to hate. don't you think republicans look hypocritical and republicans should hold chris christie to the same standard they hold obama to? >> first of all, i think everybody ought to be held to the same standard. your lead in was totally unconnected. each of the people is judged on their own terms and own position and they can both get negative marks or positive marks.

>> how can you say when it comes to obama who has to deal with 2 million employees anything he doesn't know he is a liar or incompetent. you have chris christie who can't keep his own aides in the barn and he is not a liar. >> he is paying a price for it. >> i don't hear the pushback that you are describing. you are equating the two and they are not eequivalent at all. look at the irs. other people suffer for that. other people suffer for that. the sandy relief victims don't suffer, the people in the cars don't suffer? >> they are very specific. you have the two sort of batches of people who have been victims of one sort of pettiness or another. there is a reason we say don't make a federal case out of it because everything is bigger out

there. >> i agree there has been untold number of republicans that have gone out, giuliani did it this weekend to say the president and the irs. there has never been an e-mail found from david axelrod or bill daily or rto suggest irs should investigate more political groups. i think that distinguishes these two quite a bit. >> go down the whole list. the total fiasco of the website after hundreds of millions of dollars leaving people in some states even today -- >> that was incompetence. >> who has been fired? >> more than incompetence. days before they were saying it is ready to roll. they knew it wasn't ready to

roll. >> i think that was -- there was no one person saying we can't go, that it is not going to work. it was incompetence. this was political retribution. the remaithe e-mails say it was >> by the way, they were fired. he stepped in and fired them. let's say the people who advised the president to lie to the american people about obamacare, have they been fired? >> there is no evidence -- >> a lot of people have retired. >> a lot of people are retired. >> the contractor was fired over the holidays. >> you are doing a great job of defending chris christie tonight and i wish i could say there were a lot more people. you know who you remind me of,

my friend donald trump. i want you to hear what donald trump had to say. i hear that is good company. i want you to hear -- >> he is a friend of mine. he is a good guy. he's one e-mail away from a disaster. >> with friends like -- >> you mean one more e-mail. >> let's get back to reality here. you ran for governor. you know the importance of the republican governor's association. chris christie is now in charge of that. do you think it is fair for him to stay in that role, that key role for your party while he is going through all of this and the best help he is getting is on "crossfire" and donald trump. >> i think just from the perspective of setting aside this as an issue in other races it makes since for him to step aside in that role. he does not serve the goals of that organization by staying as chairman. t that doesn't mean any of the

charges political or otherwise are substantive or not but perception is reality. >> people have said it about chris christie this whole time it is all about chris christie, a party of one. why a chris christie who cares about >> well, frankly i think this is still relatively new. he may well step down. i have no idea what his thinking is on that. he may get counsel from other governors along those lines. >> but let me ask you something about this. gimp the imperial nomination of secretary senator, first lady clinton, this seems to be the offing. this is, after all, a family which in its first presidential cycle went through a whole series of scandals. i mean, it was unbelievable. starting in the summer of '92 when "the new york times" unearthed the whole whitewater issue. >> thoroughly debunked. >> the cattle futures. >> debunked. >> then you got --

>> i'd love it if someone debunk me making 100,000. >> all of these kept coming along and the clinton model was simple. you just -- you're like a battleship. you go straight ahead and ignore everything around you. you chant we're doing the people's business. you hire lots of people like james carville to go around and trash your opponents. one morning you emerge. why would one take the lesson of hillary clinton's entire career and say let's apply this different standard to chris christie. >> look, he may survive this. hell, in a republican primary, he may benefit from this. he's now doing the classic republican thing. he's attacking the media. i mean, he's attacking the democrats. >> who does that? >> because the democrats close the lanes. it's certainly his conduct in how he conducts himself now is the real question about whether

or not he'll survive. now, you know, he did a press conference a couple weeks ago widely acclaimed to have been effective. he said he was going to cooperate. what did he do? he attacked the investigator in the senate, msnbc. >> things change. stay here. next, the final quell for both of our guests. we also want you at home to weigh in on today's fireback question. how should republican candidates feel about campaigning for crist christie. tweet proud or embarrassed using hashl crossfire. we'll have the results after the break. hey guys! sorry we're late.

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house and ken cuccinelli. it's time for the final question. and i have to ask you this because you did a great job. what did you call the hoboken thing earlier. >> the shakedown. >> i like that. #hoboken shakedown. >> there are 565 mayors in new jersey. now, apparently 564 of them don't share this mayor's concerns. and apparently up till two weeks ago, she didn't share her own concerns. now, i really have to ask this. the other thing that came out in the last few days was a very famous athlete had been told he could led up a nonpartisan sports program and then decided to run for the state senate as a democrat and then told if you're going to be a democratic candidate, you can't head up a nonpartisan program. these are the two big new things. where's the scandal? >> look, i think if i think

mr. cuccinelli said earlier it may have been off the air but said earlier if what's alleged to happen in hoboken that you can't have sandy relief if you don't support this project of the governors, that would have severe implications. i'm going to say this. i find it interesting the attacks on the mayor. the mayor had not been a persistent democratic critic, didn't run against him for governor. if she had, everyone would say, she's just a partisan hack. but here's someone who had praised him and worked with him and said good things about him. now she's just a partisan hack. >> i wonder why is she suddenly shocked? >> you know, there are parts of this we don't know. we don't know the maybe she was contacted by federal prosecutors. i don't know what the entire story here is. and it will come out. but i don't think she would go give testimony to federal prosecutors that could get her in trouble. >> federal prosecutors are

randomly contacting all 565 mayor, that would be overreach. >> i got my final question for you. i watched the governor's speech today very closely, chris christie. i was impressed by one thing. he talked about excessive incarceration. he said they don't want to use incarceration. they believe that everybody counts. everybody matters. that really from my point of view, african-american watching this prison system get out of control, i was moved by that. i wonder if your point of view, is he blowing this thing? here's an opportunity, he could reach me but doesn't he at this point just squander the opportunity to be a national leader at this point? >> the biggest problem with things like traffic gate or bridge gate or whatever is that it gets in the way of things that matter to real people's lives. look, i argued four cases as ag. two of them were to exonerate convicted felons.

he's losing that opportunity. >> i want to thank brad wood house and ken sioux nellie. go to facebook or twitter to weigh in on our fireback questions, do republicans feel embarrassed or not about campaigning with chris christie. right now 39% of you say proud, but 61% say embarrassed. this debate will continue onl e online@cnn.com/crossfire as well as on facebook and twitter. from the left i'm van jones. >> from the right i'm newt gingrich. "erin burnett outfront" starts "erin burnett outfront" starts right now. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com next breaking news. a former virginia governor once a star in the republican party just moments away from speaking publicly for the first time since he and his wife were indicted on federal charges. plus, the rising stock of richard sherman. could the post-game rant by the seattle seahawks quarterback mean politicalons of dollars for him. and a new video emerges of a rambling