it could get close to record-setting heat again. >> gorgeous sunset right now. thanks for joining us. we'll see you at 6:00. broadcast tonight, damage control. chris christie says he was blindsided by his own staff as he scrambles now to contain the scandal. tonight, the fallout and potential trouble ahead. paying the price. a warning for anyone on medicare about something that is happening to a lot of patients, and the problem is the fine print that could cost you a fortune. and the salute from a badly wounded american soldier. the photo that inspired so many people. and after following this veteran's journey, for the first time tonight we hear from him. "nightly news" begins now. good evening, the governor of new jersey, chris christie, said today he is angry, he is embarrassed. he is humiliated, but he is

innocent. he was talking about a monumental multi-day traffic backup on the busiest bridge in all the world, the george washington bridge, which connects new jersey with new york. we now know it was orchestrated by a member of the governor's senior staff, a political appointee who apparently wanted to use heavy traffic as a political payback. but today during an epic almost two-hour-long news conference, the governor, who is one of the big stars of his political party said it wasn't him and he didn't know what his own people had done. we begin tonight with nbc's kelly o'donnell who took part in the questioning today. she is live in ft. lee, new jersey, tonight. kelly, good evening. >> reporter: good evening, brian. chris christie fired a top aide, a chief of staff and cut ties with campaign manager, saying they had betrayed him. he said he gathered all of his senior staff around and had been wrongly told nobody was involved.

so he apologized for his words, denials he made, even jokes he made about the traffic jam story. his trademark in your face style, tempered today by scandal inside his own circle. >> what they did hurt the people of new jersey and hurt the people of ft. lee, and the person who needs to apologize for that is me. >> reporter: appearing contrite, sometimes mournful. and in his words, embarrassed. >> i am humiliated by the fact that i did not know this and that i was deceived. and that's an awful way to feel. >> reporter: facing more than 20 cameras, dozens of questions in a marathon news conference with his national political future on the line, governor chris christie insisted he never knew about and never okayed what he called a political vendetta. >> let me tell you everybody, i was blindsided yesterday. >> reporter: christie said he learned only yesterday about a series of damaging e-mails which he called stupid and callous, he has now fired deputy chief of

staff bridget anne kelly, seen here with the governor in september, wrote "time for some traffic problems in ft. lee." today, the man who responded got it. he appeared at a state assembly hearing. >> on advice of my counsel, i assert my right to remain silent. >> reporter: david wildstein who already resigned from the port authority, refused to answer questions. >> same answer, sir. same answer, sir. same answer, sir. >> reporter: the e-mails suggest there was a deliberate political motivation behind four days of snarled traffic last september at the george washington bridge. >> the delays at the gw bridge are a solid hour. >> reporter: aimed at the democratic mayor of ft. lee, who did not back christie in the reelection. christie said he does not lead a culture of political payback critics say this shows you are a a political bully, that your style is payback. are you? and does this compromise your ability to serve? >> no, i'm not.

listen, kelly, politics ain't a beanbag. and everybody in the country who engages in politics knows that. on the other hand, that's very, very different than saying that, you know, someone is a bully. i am who i am, but i am not a bully. >> reporter: the governor promised action and headed to ft. lee to apologize personally to the mayor, who was resistant at first. >> we would ask that he delay his visit here today. >> reporter: but christie came anyway. with lots of coverage of the coming and going of their private meeting. >> very good, very warm, very productive. >> reporter: and the mayor said after that meeting that he does take the governor at his word that he was not personally involved. christie says more facts need to come out and likely will as inquiries continue. and one of the things that was unusual about today, brian, especially for chris christie, there was very little conversation at that news conference about his presidential aspirations. brian? >> kelly o'donnell starting us

off on this incredible televised chapter that played out on live tv today. kelly, thanks. bears repeating, gw bridge is the busiest bridge in the world. think about the impact this had on all those lives in all those vehicles, the doctors appointments, people late for work, anyone with an emergency. and don't forget, it was the first day of school. nbc's stephanie gosk is also in ft. lee, new jersey tonight, the town after all hit hardest by all of it. >> reporter: the people of ft. lee are no strangers to traffic. the backup on the bridge happens every day, but not like that week. how bad was it? >> it was terrible. >> it was very bad, worse than ever. >> reporter: this is just an average day for ft. lee. this is just regular traffic. you can already see how difficult it is for emergency responders to get where they need to go. the real traffic mayhem started on september 9th. >> wreaking havoc at the george

washington bridge. >> reporter: the next day, ft. lee's coordinator wrote a letter to the mayor. over the past two days, we have had delayed response times due to the traffic. he describes several cases including a car accident with multiple injuries. favia says he was forced to jump the curb in order to avoid the stand still traffic. school children got caught up in the mess, too, the first day back from summer vacation. some did not reach the classrooms until noon. >> out of the blue, it took me two hours to get into work. other staff member, it took them a long time. students were impacted because they were late going to class in the first day. >> reporter: today the u.s. attorney in new jersey announced the opening of an inquiry into whether or not federal law was broken, while in the plaza diner just at the foot of the bridge, some of the regulars watched their governor explain and apologize for nearly two hours. >> he tells it like it is. >> reporter: did you find him believable? >> no. >> reporter: can you tell me why? >> for governor christie, he was a little too humble.

i almost thought he was trying a little too hard. >> reporter: jerry leibovitz thinks governor christie lied today. >> i don't think he had any trouble doing it either, his whole political career is on the line. >> reporter: governor christie's political future depends on who believes him. convincing the people of ft. lee who sat here in bumper-to-bumper traffic for hours is one of the governor's biggest challenges. brian? >> stephanie gosk at the gw bridge toll in ft. lee, new jersey. stephanie, thanks. and because politics is a huge part of all of this, let's talk about that with our political director and chief white house correspondent chuck todd. chuck, all day long i heard folks this your line of work say if he got any of this wrong, any little bit untruthful, he's done. but let's say it all holds up, what kind of shape is his political career in right now tonight? >> well, it's certainly not in very good shape, but it is a survivable scandal, if it truly is a full-blown scandal like we assume it's going to be over the next year. but that is the problem he has

now. let's assume all of what he says is true, 100% true. okay, that is fine, he will deal with the drip, drip, everybody is going to look at the -- forget the endorsements, the retributions for somebody that didn't endorse. what about people that did endorse. did they get special favors? it is not just the democrats having fun with this, oh, look, the republican party, the biggest threat that the republican party has to upending the democrats' dominance in the white house would be chris christie, it's other republicans who don't want to have to face chris christie in the primaries. they're feeding this. so he is going to feel it from both sides. so the shine was off. he was exposed today as just another politician. and that, in the long run, could be the worst thing that happens to him with this scandal. >> chuck todd part of our team covering this out of nowhere story that blossomed today. again, thanks. on the day after the 50th anniversary of lbj's declared war on poverty, president obama announced a new initiative in that battle today. the president named five

so-called promise zones around this country, areas that will receive tax breaks and other assistance aimed at creating jobs and improving education and housing. the first of them will be in philadelphia, l.a., san antonio, southeastern kentucky and the choctaw nation in oklahoma. we have more tonight on the crisis currently playing out in africa. there has been new violence playing out in the last 24 hours in the central african republic, it's been happening since a coup took place last march. some foreign troops are there, mostly french and other african forces but not enough to keep order. a million people have fled the fighting, triggering a humanitarian disaster. ann curry is in the capital city of bangui with the remarkable story of two women who came to help. >> reporter: the scene is almost surreal, people take shelter under the wings of an abandoned plane.

this is bangui airport, now the country's biggest camp for displaced people. 100,000 fled their homes to escape the violence and came here. and in this desperate place, linda tries to manage the unmanageable. she is from norway, a former producer of that country's "who wants to be a millionaire" before she had an awakening. >> at the end of the day it is just a tv show. and i wanted to do something more with my life. >> reporter: she is now with doctors without borders, tending doing everything here from building a 50-bed hospital to tending lost children to overseeing thousands of vaccinations. >> in a camp like this with density this massive and hygienic conditions like this, a high, high risk of epidemic. >> reporter: she also runs a makeshift clinic that treats 400 people a day. it was there where we met tara boyles, a dr. from seattle who also left her old life behind. after her 12-year marriage ended in divorce, she discovered her calling. >> it is difficult, it is

challenging, it's stressful, but it's very rewarding. >> reporter: why? >> because you can make an immediate difference. >> reporter: she deals with everything from the casualties of war to pregnancies. >> she is eight months pregnant. >> reporter: newborns. >> he is not breast feeding very well. >> reporter: and her own struggle to stay hopeful. a 7-month-old child died here just this morning. >> every time you lose a child every time you lose a patient, it's always difficult. >> reporter: but in the chaos here, she has found clarity. >> if you can make an impact somehow, some way, even one-on-one in this grand scheme of chaos and all the terrible conditions, to me that's meaningful. >> reporter: finding meaning where lives hang in the balance. ann curry, nbc news, bangui. >> still ahead for us tonight as we continue, a whole lot of hospital patients caught off guard, and it's costing them a lot of money.

a new warning about something everyone on medicare should be aware of. and later, the wounded veteran pictured in the salute seen around the world tonight. tonight he tells us the story behind it and talks about the long journey since.

back as promised with this new warning for everyone on medicare. specifically, it is about the words that appear on hospital forms and small differences in the fine print that could mean thousands of dollars in payments down the line. we get details on this story tonight from our national correspondent, kate snow. >> reporter: 79-year-old m.j. is doing physical therapy after a bad spill in september. she spent three days in the hospital. she got the same care as an in-patient, but she wasn't classified as one. instead, her chart said she was only under observation. >> i mean, it's illogical. i had a broken leg. it just didn't make sense at all. what were they going to observe?

>> reporter: and here is what she didn't understand, that lane, "under observation" technically made her an out-patient and that means that medicare won't care for her rehab in a nursing facility which costs $28,000. >> the whole thing is so outrageous, and it's not right. >> it is a huge problem. there are over a million, almost two million people a year who are stuck in this observation status alice in wonderland world. >> reporter: the number of patients under observation has increased dramatically since 2006. and just last year, more than 6,000 cases were like mj's, patients in the hospital for three days or more but not eligible for coverage. >> to the patients, our viewers, frankly it seems the hospitals share at least part of the blame for this. >> sure, they're in the hospital, they will think all of this is a hospital decision. much of this is out of our hands. >> reporter: rich, who represents most of the hospitals in this country says they're being squeezed by medicare.

in-patients cost more so medicare aggressively audits the classifications given. >> if you make the wrong decision, if you admit a patient to in-patient status, and then they determine after the fact, sometimes years later with additional information the physician didn't have, they will take that payment back. unfortunately, the patient does get in the middle of this. >> reporter: we wanted to talk to medicare, but they denied our request for an interview, citing pending litigation on this very issue. the hospital that treated mary jane wouldn't talk to us either, but gave us a statement saying it is obligated to follow medicare rules when assigning patients to their appropriate level of care. m.j. finds the whole thing unfair. she and her husband, who has had parkinson's for 20 years just moved in with their son in dallas to save money. >> i worked my whole life. and i'm just appalled. >> reporter: now, any money they can save will go to her rehab. so far legislative proposals to fix this problem have gone nowhere.

advocates ahead care patients who end up in a hospital should make sure they have been admitted as in-patients and aren't just under observation. and if all else fails, ask to challenge the decision with medicare. brian? >> kate snow, thank you. we'll take a break. we'll be back in a moment with a surprise appearance today that is getting a lot of attention.

it has been a while since we last saw him in the latest photo of fidel castro is shocking, it shows him looking very drawn, walking with a cane at a havana art center opening. he has been out of public view for almost a year now. he is 87 years old. and in all the years since he came to power, the u.s. has had 11 presidents, from ike to obama. the governor of vermont, peter shumlin did something highly unusual this week.

he devoted his entire state of the state address to a single topic. and it might surprise some folks in other parts of the country, he talked about what he called a full-blown heroin crisis that is gripping the state of vermont. the number of those seeking help for opiate addiction there is up over 700%. the governor is calling for more emphasis on treatment rather than a focus on punishment. here in washington while the approval ratings for members of congress fell to an all-time low this past year at least they're all worth co szg

. nbc by area news starts now. right now at 6:00, flu deaths mounting across the bay area. within the past hour we've learned of two more. good evening everyone. >> this is the new information we're getting just into the newsroom. more deaths connected to the flu. and the peak of the flu season is just getting started. so far, nine reported deaths spread across seven local counties. the new deaths are in santa

clara and alameda counties. >> reporter: it's too early to tell if it's higher this year, but the primary concern is h1n1. and you can understand when you take a look at some of the ages of the people who have died here in the bay area from the blue just this season, including three women in their 40s and a 23 year old who was reported to be healthy just before. experts are saying it is because of h1n1 being the first novel strain. it disproportionately affects young adults and kids. >> very concerned about a lot of the myths that have been out there about vaccines. >> reporter: one of the doctor's biggest worries? people choosing not to get the flu shot because they feel it's not safe. >> it's a, you know, it's a virus that changes a little bit every year. that's why we