most people, their gut tells them that he's lying. >> at some point he's going to have to step forward, and it's not going to be pretty. >> i would love chris, as a good friend of ours, to come out swinging and explain why he had nothing to do with this. >> this is so nixonian. >> really represents what may be his deepest flaw, that he's a bully, mean-spirited, he's arroga arrogant. >> what is chris christie going to do about the growing scandal? we'll hear from him next hour. plus republicans on the hill

say they, not the democrats, have the solutions to income inequality, and helping the middle class. what about the folks who aren't getting unemployment benefits right now? dennis rodman apologizing for being drunk during an interview, how his attempt a basketball diplomacy has taken yet another bad turn. good morning i'm chris jansing. in one hour new jersey's governor chris christie will hold a news conference. what he says will be scrutinized by every major media outwill you and could determine his political future. it started with the traffic on the george washington bridge, something so small and local, but it's turned into a major political issue. new documents released yesterday show his staff blocked traffic on purpose. now, it's unclear exactly why and if governor christie knew about it. democrats say it was to get revenge because the mayor of fort lee, a democrat, didn't endorse christie for reelection.

susan page, alex burns, politico's senior reporter. good morning. >> good morning. >> we know chris christie has national political interests. susan, how important is what we see from him one hour from now? >> you know, i think this is the critical moment. this is definitely become a scandal, a damaging scandal, but not one from which he could recover, but the whole political world will be tuned in in an hour to hear what he says, how he says it, what his tone is. can he take an apologetic tone? that's kind of not his standard operating demeanor. can he explain how this could have happened among senior officials in his office? >> new jersey democrats are just incredulous about this. here is what some of a few had to say last night. >> well, what was revealed was what we have all suspected, but not had proof, that this was a political operation.

>> the credibility level is getting reduced and reduced as this story continues to move on. >> alex, has the damage already been done? let me show you the front page of "the trentonian." and he has that love loy cone on the top of his head. >> chris, i think it's funny to hear the new jersey democrats trying to it strike this we're so disappointed tone, because this is christmas for the guys. el certainly some damage is done, but when you look at where the folks in the legislature are in this, this is just getting started. i agree with susan that today's performance by christie is extremely important for the way he is perceived nationally. in the state it almost doesn't matter what he says and does today, in that the tame assembly, they'll be investigating him for the foreseeable future. >> we should give some context. it was democrats who subpoenaed the documents, the e-mails, text

messages that were heavily redacted, by the way, between members of christie's staff and transportation officials. time for some traffic problem in fort lee, and david wild steen wrote back, got it. i mean, susan, for a lot of people, that does not -- it sounds like something was going on before that. >> man, who does stuff like this? an episode of "the sopranos." it goes to every stereotype of chris christie and new jersey politics. it's petty, small, it's retribution. it hurts the people constitutionality in the cars for hours and hours on the george washington bridge. you cannot make this stuff up. >> you point out the real-world consequences. one of the text messages later after the mayor of fort lee was

complaining, quote -- is it wrong i'm smiling? i feel badly about the kids. i guess they are the children of voters, it does point out the real world consequences. it wasn't just school buses. it was emergency responders, newjersey.com says ambulances were delayed trying to get to four different patients. they were gloating about this, alex. >> yeah, and chris, i think the story you just mentioned is where this goes to a whole other level politically. it's not just a matter of people being stuck in traffic on a bridge, but a matter of essential services being disrupted. that opens the door to a whole other set up legal -- that people could sue the state for damages related to inconveniences that harmed them

in some way, and then you go through discovery, and then more documents come out. this is again, really only getting started. it raises the bar to an almost unnaturally high level. this has to be a really definitive moment for him. >> one of the problems he's facing is as he gets ready for this news conference, initially he was making fun of all of this. >> i worked the cones, actually, matt, unbeknownst to everybody, i was the guy out there. i was? overalls and a hat, i actually was the guy working the cones. you really are not serious with that question. >> that kind of snarkyness has worked for him on more than a few occasions. we can't see that today, susan. >> now, those very words, he's just going to be eating crow today to explain. for one thing, why was he so sure of himself, so definitive when this was going on in any office. did he not do due diligence

before he came out and took questions from reporters? i think that is one of the more serious aspects of this politically. it goes to questions about his own management of his own office. >> well, the general feeling about the management of his office is that he runs a really tight ship and that this deputy, who was in the middle of all of this, you know was, whatever, three, four, five desks away from his. he says, though, alex that he talked to everybody in his office and they told him there was nothing to this story. let's listen. >> i've spoken to everybody on my staff, and asked anybody around here, and my campaign manager if they knew anything more about this that we didn't already no. they have told me no. so, you know, the chief of staff and the chief counsel assure me that they feel comfortable that they have all the information we need to have. >> i mean, is the worst -- obviously the worst-case scenario is he either lied then or it proves that he lied, but

even if that was the case, the best-case scenario, he really didn't know what was going on? this is a former prosecutor, somebody who prides himself, as i said, on running a tight ship. >> and i think in fairness to governor christie, if he didn't know anything about this, where this gets so tricky going forward is it's hard to prove a negative. do you have to release literally every piece of paper, make every staff member available for unlimited questions, in order to clear the bar? that's awfully difficult to do. >> but it's part of the conversation, really. he is a former prosecutor. is part of the conversation what would i want if i were investigating this? and then give it? >> i think it probably is part of the conversation, especially if we do end up in a a federal investigate situation, it's not just an abstract speculative part. >> there's always a question if

this was done with government resources, on government time, and there were we know real world consequences to this. are there charges to be brought? much more to talk about. susan page, alex burns, thanks sovereign. as-- so much. we'll have the press conference live on msnbc. checking the news feed this morning -- that's "today's" savannah guthrie as gabby giffords took a giant leap forward. she went skydiving three years to the day after being shot in the head. savannah said giffords was as cool's a cucumber. >> what do you want people to know about gabby giffords and how you're doing now? >> um. >> hard to find the words. >> yes, hard words. so slowly, a little by slowly, a little bit slowly.

>> how is your outlook on life? >> pretty good, yes. pretty good. >> optimistic? >> optimistic. >> giffords and kelly have turned their attention to gun control, forming americans for responsible solutions. in a "new york times" op-ed, giffords write -- our fight is a lot more like our rehab. we must wake up resolved and determined. we pay attention to the details, look for opportunities for progress, even when the pace is slow. big blow for democratic efforts to retake the house. representatives carolyn mccarthy and mike mcintyre won't run for reelection this year. president obama issued statements saying he admires mccarthy for her determination and personal strength, and the president called mcintyre a strong advocate for our men and women in uniform. a ship stuck in the ice, and it was another ship to the rescue. this was not antarctica, but the hudson river between new york and new jersey. a ferry got stuck in ice flows.

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in just hours, president obama will launch his latest weapon in the fight against income inequality -- promise zones. the plan calls for a federal/local government partnership along with businesses to offer tax incentives and grants to fight poverty. there will be five promise zones -- philadelphia southeastern kentucky, san antonio, los angeles, and oklahoma's choctaw nation. both political parties have made inequality a focus in 2014, but

they've got very different ideas about how to accomplish fixing it, including what to do about an unemployment benefit extension and boosting the minimum wage. joining me now, senator tom harkin. always good to see you, senator. good morning. >> good morning, chris. >> you've been leading this effort to boost the minimum wage to $10.10. where does that stand right now? >> we'll have it on the senate floor hopefully in about two weeks, around the first of february. right now we're focused on increasing the unemployment compensation for people out of work. we're focused on that right now, but probably early february we'll be on a minimum wage bill. >> and the fact that john boehner says he's opposed to raising it right now? >> he says he's opposed to it, but that can't stop us from moving ahead, at least on the senate side, to try to address this huge inequality in the american workforce.

people who are making the minimum wage, chris, i'm telling you, they have lost a third of their purchasing power just in the last 30 years. people who go to work every day, and they work hard, some of these people work hard all day, and yet they're living in poverty. that shouldn't be allowed in you're country. >> you mentioned the unemployment insurance and got through the first vote, but what happens now? >> well, we'll see what happens. today we're going to try to vote to move ahead on the bill, and we'll see in republicans will support us on that. again, i can't believe the intransigence of republicans here, the harshness against people who have lost jobs through no fault of their own, who are actively looking for work. you have to do that in order to receive unemployment payments, who paid into the system when they were working, into the insurance program, and yet republicans want to pull the rug out from underneath them at a time when there are three job seekers for every job opening in america. now is a time not to pull the

rug out from underneath those people. >> the response is, senator, we don't want to pull the rug out. we just want to pay for it. in fact they've taken on this whole incoup inequality mantra. "new york times" has taken a notice, an article today. here's a quote -- republicans are introducing a series of proposals to help more americans rise out of poverty. attaching or reinstating work requirements to safety net programs, streamlining federal policies, improve training and education initiatives, and offering tax breaks to the needy. what do you make of that approach? >> well, probably some of it is okay, some of it is not. i have a bill, the workforce investment act, came out of my committee last year. we'll see if the republicans will let us bring it on the floor of the senate and move that big. so far we haven't had much luck. and secondly, this idea that somehow we're going to pay for unemployment compensation by

taking it out of some other pot that helps those very people. in other words, what senator mcconnell wants to do is take it out of the affordable care act, and then pay for unemployment compensation. these are the very people that are being helped by the affordable care act today. so you're just taking it out of one pocket, putting it in another pocket. that's not helping people at all. what's your level of optimism that this is going to get done? >> look, chris, we have to do what we can to make sure that our society is fair and just. we have to work on that every day. we can't let somebody's we can't say we won't do it because they say they don't want to. we have to try very hard to

respond to these human needs. >> before i let you go, i want to ask about these reports that you're close to a deal on funding the government, which runs out of the money on wednesday. house and senate proposing leaders are holding face-to-face talks right now, what can you tell us about how that's going? >> slowly, but we're working on it, day and night. i know my staff, my appropriations staff are working day and night on this. every day we meet too try to work out our differences. there are still some differences, but we're getting closer, and hopefully we can get this done by next week, that will have the appropriations bill on the floor hopefully before we leave a week from now. >> senator tom harkin, always good to see you, thanks for coming on. >> thanks, chris. an apology from former nba star dennis rodman, who's making his fourth visit to north korea, one tieser has cut ties. what was he thinking? details coming up in the reputation report. ♪ whoa, who-o-o-a ♪ one, two, three, four!

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this is where we'll hear from governor chris christie, under fire that members of his state of deliberately snarled traffic in a political retribution move. what did he know and when did he know? we'll waiting for that at the top of the hour. meanwhile, dennis rodman on his self-proclaimed basketball diplomacy is apologizing for suggesting that kenneth bae is to blame for his only imprisonment. in a statement he said he had been drinking after a stressful day. his antics will already been costing him. he's been dumped by wonderful pistachios. >> the secret to world peace is pistachi pistachios. >> dennis rodman does it because he's nuts. it would be so easy to say speaking of nuts, but instead i'll just say -- listen to this.

♪ happy birthday to you okay. with a throaty version of "happy birthday." they played a north korean team. time for "the reputation report, a look at who's hot and who's not. here with as exclusive analysis howard bradman, vice chairman of representation.com. good to see you, howard. >> good morning, chris. many are calling him a tool for the oppressive north korean government. let me play what elliott engle had to say on the floor of the house the other day. >> bringing american basketball there and sitting down with a dictator like mr. kim would be the equivalent of taking agolf hitler to lunch. >> so how is dennis rodman doing on social media? >> not surprisingly he's really

way down, depending on which filter you use and the most damning filters. the ethical filter, he's almost 3:1 negative. i got curious and asked who are the people supporting him? and why do they like him? number one, he has a limited fan base. number two, people think sports is a great unifier. the one filter we didn't apply that i would have liked to, is the idiot filter, because i think he would have done well. >> is there a filter -- >> i'm going to create one. >> there are people who may not understand the implications of what's going on in north korea. not surprising that he's down. let's talk about, shall we, the polar vortex. we certainly had a time of it. millions of americans endured subzero temperatures. our nbc affiliate in atlanta and cleveland, had to sit in an ice desk. the poor anchors were outside.

what has social media been saying? >> well, clearly people are not happy with the polar vortex. again, this is something that's tracking about 3:1 negative, and who are the positive people on the polar vortex? i've seen it from three fronts. a lot of young people are like, hoar ray, i don't have to go to school. >> understandable. >> number two, the people who manufacture down coats are having a very good week. you have a filter for down coat manufacturers? >> no, but we're looking at some of the tweets and things coming out. number three businesses have been hurt, billions of dollars, but actually online retailers have made a small bump because of the weather, and people shopping from home. but overall, thank god for 240 million americans, this is over, the worst of it is over now, and we can get back to the balmy 25 degree weather in new york. >> in the meantime out in vegas,

the consumer electronics show, they've had everything from the enormously huge tvs, wearable tech, texting, appliances, is social media paying attention to? >> social media is paying attention. you can imagine people who love social media love technology. they're embracing it in huge number, 3, 4:1 positive. it's interesting. some of the negative comes from people, you read the tweets it's like oh, no, i have to replace my phone again. people understand it's very extensive, but it's kind of a glimpse of the future, what we're seeing at ces today, we'll see in stores, probably as soon as christmastime, and people are downright gleeful about it, chris. >> thank you so much howard bragman, always getting up early out there in los angeles. speaking of the consumer electronics show. if you read only one thing this

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[ male announcer ] that's handy. ♪ i just served my mother-in-law your chicken noodle soup but she loved it so much... i told her it was homemade. everyone tells a little white lie now and then. but now she wants my recipe [ clears his throat ] [ softly ] she's right behind me isn't she? [ male announcer ] progresso. you gotta taste this soup. right now the question of the day is what will chris christie say scheduled just 30 minutes from now. expected to do some political damage control. what did he know about the closure of the lanes at the george washington bridge? when did he know it? the 2016 presidential contender and new head of the national governors association needs to navigate the next few hours, days and weeks very carefully. >> there's only one thing for governor christie to do, and i mean this, get to fort lee,

pronto, pronto. go up there, have your press conference, walk around, apologize to people, and do it as quickly as you can. don't hide behind the statement, not legalisms, not anything. you've got to do that. he's got to get in front of this. >> zerlina is contributor to theg thegrio.com and john feehery. so christie taking some of james carville's advice, because he's having this news conference. what does he need to say? >> i agree with james carville. he's got to apologize to the mayor, because obviously the mayor was the target of this thing. then he also has to take responsibility. he has to know the buck to bes with chris christie. he second quarter wiggle around here. he's the boss, and what happened

in his office is his responsibility, so take contrition and take your lumps. in the last hour on "the daily rundown" what senator mccain said about this. >> put everything on the table, an every question, if it's a three hour conference, answer every question and comment and then move on. the last thing you need is one of thinks things to be dragged out. i can say that from person experience, my friend. >> absolutely. he has a tough time showing empathy and staying calm. i think this story fits. but one of the things that's important is he has a reputation also as a micromanager. he needs to sdplan why he didn't

say anything and launch his own investigation, because the story broke in new jersey six weeks ago. yesterday according to his statement he learned of this yesterday. he has a lot of explaining to o do. >> i mean, that does have a lot of people incredulous, john. do you think that he's really got a formidable hill to climb? whatever really happened here, to explain how something like this could be happening down the hallway, and he didn't know anything about it? >> yeah, that's a tough one. i think that's why he's got to say, listen, i take responsibility, i'm the leader, i'm the boss, if i didn't know, i should have known, and this is how we're going to fix it. >> and fire somebody? >> he's got to fire a bunch of people, whoever is involved, whoever had any of those e-mail chains, i think that's what he's doing right now, figure out who e-mailed what and when, and when they did it. so he's got to fire those

people. then he's got to accept responsibility and accept contriti contrition, this is a guy whose main political strength was to reach across the aisle -- the whole idea that this could happen, the idea of political retribution flies in the face of one of the things that people really liked about him. >> absolutely. i think the narrative that he is someone who was hugging obama, and working with obama during hurricane sandy, i think that's belied by his history in new jersey. for example, a professor at rutgers didn't support republicans in redistricting, and so christie cut funding to rutgers university. so he very much has a very long history, you can look up a timeline when he did seek retribution and abuse his power.

>> new jersey freshman senator cory booker also obviously something he knows, calling the revelation deeply troubling, congressman bill pascarel predicts more scandal for christie ahead by saying "the worst is yet to come." is he out there by himself, john? are there republicans who are going to -- to sort of weigh in on this and try to get him out of this mess? as i want in the beginning, this isn't just a governor, this isn't just a local problem. this is the head of the national governors association, and obviously we're a little ahead of the game, but was ahead of hillary clinton in a hypotheticalal matchup by two percentage points. >> chris christie is a tough guy. there is a lot of tough people in new jersey, so the idea that he plays hardball is probably not that big of a surprise. the idea his people would go out

of the way to screw up traffic, that's the thing that's unforgivable. people would forgive him for playing hardball. >> that's something relatable -- >> i think it's very relatable. >> this is something that -- >> right. >> this is the putsiest bridge in the world according to the port authority. who can't relate to become stuck in traffic? >> know they have proof. >> ze reform lina, we're waiting for that news conference. thank to both of you. checking the news feed this morning, president obama meets with lawmakers today to discuss the controversial nsa spying program. white house officials say that he's gathering information before any final decisions are made on how the nsa moves forward, but the president is expected to restrict the nsa's access to foreign records. he could announce the changes as early as next week.

a chicken plant in northern california has been shut down over concerns about cockroaches. this is the same facility that dealt with salmonella last year. foster farms plans to sanitize the plant, but then reopen after the inspection. here's something you don't hear at the state of the state address. vermont as peter shim lynn devoted his entire speech to what he called a full-blown heroin cries in his state. the governor said nearly twice as many vermonters died last year from heroin doses as the year before. since 2000, there's been an increase of more than 770% in treatment for people addicted to opiates. he wants to encourage treatment and support rather than punishment and incarceration. glee it was a report holiday season, sales climbed 2.7% over last year, the report $266

billion. mandy drury is here with what's moving your money. good news overall. >> you could say the employees of two different retailers, right? we have macy's, did have a strong holiday shopping season, but is cutting 2,500 jobs as part of a reorganization, they say to sustain their profitability. some of those workers will be reassigned or trfrds, there might even be positions added as part of this whole reorganization, macy's does plan to close five stores, but open eight others it says the moves will save it $100 million per year but then you have discount retail loamen's that was the third time it will begin liquidating its inventory. there's just too much competition.

you have tjmaxx, it's a real pity. it goes all the way back to, apparently freda speaking of competition. the global beverage business to take over the tequila brand. it's a 50/50 partnership. he became the face of the vodka brand ciroc back in 2007. they say sales have grown from 50,000 cases back then to nearly 2 million today. however we'll have to see who is better.

>> who doesn't? >> he ace cute. i don't know who has the better tequila, though. >> i'm not a big tequila drinker, but hey. i will say this, both of the bottles are very attractive, if that matters what's sitting on your bar. >> that's a very nice way of putting it. i want to finish up by saying there's lots of celebs out is there. remember brad pitt and angelina jolie that came out with a rose? "wine spectator" have ranked theirs on the top 100 wines of the year. it was the only rose to make the list. we'll be right back. e house. you stopped by the house? uh-huh. yea. alright, whenever you get your stuff, run upstairs, get cleaned up for dinner. you leave the house in good shape? yea. yea, of course. ♪ [ sportscaster talking on tv ] last-second field go-- yea, sure ya did. [ male announcer ] introducing at&t digital life.

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milk. washington state university researchers investigated whether it holds an advantage over non-organic. they reported organic whole milk contains more omega-3 fatty acids beneficial to heart health, and less omega-6 fatty acids which may lead to inflammation and diabetes. we're waiting to hear from governor chris christie at the top of the hour over the escalating scandal about the traffic jam that his aides ordered. did they know about it? we will have that for you live. meanwhile, in the growing debate over income inequality and the power to bridge that gap, a new documentary goes into accounting devastated by the economy, and chronicles an extraordinary transformation of one group of students. emily pillton and her partner matt miller went into a high school with the idea that throwing them into a design project could spark the create activity and intelligence they

maybe didn't know they had, especially when a lot of their learning takes place online. >> p.e.d., basically p.e. online, can you can believe it. >> an exercise log, which is 70% of your grade or something like that. it defeats the purpose of physical ed. >> designer, activist, educator is one of the subjects "if you built it" and "design revolution" and "tell them i built this." he previously directed documentaries. and full disclosure, there is no documentary on the face of the earth i've ward more times than "word play." truth. great to have you here. we keep hearing about how students in america are so far behind, behind in math, behind in reading, and in just about everything, and we cannot solve our economic problems until we

bridge this gap. so you go into this school, these kids don't like school, frankly, most of them. what were you thinking you were going to get accomplished? >> i was thinking that for me design and architecture is an amazing lens to seed world through where everything makes sense. so i was hoping to provide them with that same kind of spark, there's something real, exciting that they could wrap their head around, especially because it was something in their own community that was familiar to them. >> so you get a grant, start with this building of a corn hole game, which is kind of a beanbag toss, but i found it amazing some of the designs they came up with were so creative. and then what really blew me away, this is a rural community, so you decided they're going to build chicken cooperation. there were some of them i thought they could be like in the museum of modern art. they were so cool. let me play a clip from the whole chicken coop sequence. >> this is like the make or break. they need to start looking like

cooperation by the end of the day. >> do it. >> this is not just fuselage or sheet metal. this is a chicken coop that me, myself and kiran designed. >> let me show some of the results. did they do what you expected? well, there are some of the drawings, anyway. did it come out the way you expected? >> absolutely, i felt like the students are brilliant and aren't often giving the chance to showcase that brilliant. they exceeded my expectations, but more importantly i think they exceeded their own expectations. they had no idea what they were capable of until they realized this was possible. >> you deal with the environmental, patrick. what struck you about the way these kids respond to do these challeng challenges. the kids in our film spent all the rest of their day in front of a laptop studying online

education, when they walked into emily and matt's classroom, it was a shop class. there was paint and power tools blueprint on the wall. >> we saw welding. >> there isn't a 16-year-old in the world that wouldn't get excited about that, about putting away the pencil and the test for a moment and learning manage that they can put that you are hands on, get dirty with, roll around in the mud with. and that's what education can be, i think, if you dare to dream a little bit. >> well, the dream at the end point was that they were going to do something big, up and down they did. they build this amazing-looking and very functional place where they could have a farmers market that gave people jobs, produced businesses in this devastated town. i want to ask you both in the time we have left, what do you want people to walk away from this documentary, knowing or feeling? >> i think that anybody who

cares about education could take something away from this film. >> i think this shows how you can take a bad school and make it a good school or take a good school and make it a great school. the key is getting kids excited. >> you've since gone on to california, but what do you want people to learn? >> i think the lesson is that everything is possible, really believes in our youth, this brilliant group of people to be as successful as they can be, just going out and doing your own version of this program in your school and community, that it is possible and it's a beautiful thing to watch it unfold. emily, patrick, the documentary is "if you build it." thank you both for coming in. it made me cry. the tweet of the day is from our own steve kornacki. if christie were u.s. attorney in this situation, is there any doubt he would?

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we are just minutes away from new jersey governor chris christie's press conference. he will take questions from reporters. he's expected to speak about revelations that his administration may have closed lanes to the george washington bridge as political retribution against the mayor of fort lee, new jersey. joining me now host of "the daily rundown" chuck todd. good to see you. tough really to overstate the importance, the political implications for chris christie in this news conference? >> it's true there are some supporters that say this is typical local politics, but when you look at the image that chris christie has so carefully crafted, that he's bipartisan, he always puts people ahead of politics, that the left/right stuff doesn't get in the way of getting the job done. think about the whole sandy relief, when he was willing to

go after republicans, yet what did he do? somebody in his administration certainly put politics ahead of the people of fort lee. i think this sort of cuts at all the supposed strengths he would bring. you know what, chris, the problem he's got, even if he didn't know, if he's telling us the truth he didn't know, then he's got an office run amok. that's not the sense of a good manager. so there are no positive things coming out of this story for him. the question is how does he handle it from here? john mccain in my hour said his advice is stay up there three hours if you have to, but don't leave any question unanswered. >> i thought mccain was great on "the daily rundown." the political part is only one part. there are potential legal ramifications, and that just feeds the attorney. >> now the u.s. attorney will will open an investigation. that in itself, the subpoena power, all sorts of things that

come with that, never mind the political investigations and then you're already hearing about people stuck if that traffic, various stories about emergency vehicles held up. you can imagine civil lawsuits come i coming the legal mess, the political stuff is easy for us to see. what's coming down the pike on the legal front certainly could be messier. >> obviously a tonal question here, because chris christie can sometimes get snarky our defensive. >> that would not be a good idea today. >> but will somebody get fired? are heads going to roll -- >> he's got to look like he's taken control of this situation, that if he's as outraged as he said he was, that he's taken control, taken control of his

officers, there's some sort of investigation. it is -- he's got to figure out -- i was stunned yesterday, chris, you and i both know, he's not shy from a tv camp ra. they hunkered down and released a pay statement. that was not very chris christie-like. we're going to say good-bye for now. but you'll be sticking around through the top of the hour, thank to you. that will wrap up this hour. thomas roberts pick up our coverage ahead of the 11:00 a.m. news conference. good morning. good morning, as you've been showing everybody, the live pictures where governor chris christie is about to meet with the press, his first public remarks since the scandal hit. it's the e-mails revealing that aides shut down lanes of the bridge in an apparent act of political payback.

hi, everybody. i am thomas roberts. we way for chris christie to step up to that mike. those e-mails and the texts that have been released showed that aides to fort lee for north endorsing his run for reelection. the e-mails. in it brit and kelly wrote time for some traffic problems in fort lee. he replied wildstein, got it. it turned the town of fort lee back into a parking lot for four days, slowing emergency response time, including ambulances, perhaps contributing to 9 death of a 91-year-old woman in cardiac arrest.

texts do appear to show that aides mocked the results of the actions. wildstein responding no. and here is the mayor of fort lee responding to the revelations last night on msnbc. >> i have to read this to you and get your response to it. we have david wildstein who has since resigned, saying it will be a tough november for this little serbian. got a response to that? >> david wildstein deserves an ass kicking? sorry. there i said it. >> if you think this doesn't translate beyond state politics, thing get enagain it carries over 102 million vehicles each year. what would be the result for chris christie, he carefully calibrated brands and aspirations for the oval office? >> somebody on our staff had done this, i can tell you for myself, and i didn't know what happened? i would burn down the office until you found every cockroach

inside who was responsible for this. >> it plays to the stereotype of what everyone thinks the negative frame around christie, which is that he's a bully and thug. there's a chance this would be the end of his national political career. >> he's got to get out of in front and own this. >> welcome to the nfl, welcome to the vetting process. now that he's essential shown interest, this is what life is like. >> joining mess this hour we have new jersey democratic governor bill -- host of the daida dayy run down. \s. the inside story of his rice to power. grate to have all of you with me. if i have to cut you off abruptly, forgive me. we want to hear exact