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tv   Up W Steve Kornacki  MSNBC  January 11, 2014 5:00am-7:01am PST

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elp right away if you have symptoms of a heart attack or stroke. use caution when driving or operating machinery. common side effects include nausea, trouble sleeping and unusual dreams. i had to quit smoking to keep up with this guy. [ male announcer ] ask your doctor if chantix is right for you. direct link to governor chris christie's office in the bridge scandal e-mail chain. we're going to get to who's who guide to all of the major players in the chris christie scandal in a moment. everything you need to any about everyone involved. but first we have some breaking news to report this hour out of israel. nbc news has confirmed that former israeli prime minister has died at the age of 85. he bill his reputation as a tough leader. when he became prime minister in
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2001 he used those skills to end many years of violent palestinian uprising. but then he surprised everyone when he said it was time for change. he understood that israel would have to give back some of the occupied territories. sha roen suffered a massic stroke in 2006 which prevented him from leading israel down pa path, left him in a permanent coma and now at the age of 85, he's passed away. >> after that we're turn now to what the biggest story of the week. a catastrophic moment in the political career of chris christie. we don't know yet if the revelations of one of his stap staffers was involved in a scheme to shut down the access lanes to the george washington
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bridge will end up sinking christie's presidential ambitio ambitions. we don't know that and we don't know a lot of other things because for every question that was answered this week, ten more new ones were seemingly raised. christie obviously is at the center of this story but right now it involves other key players, at least five other key players who words or actions or whose lack of words or actions in the coming days and weeks will determine if the scope of this story expands. and if the words that christie spoke during a marathon press conference on thursday will come back to destroy him. >> 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. >> now, if you've been watching this story play out on this network this week web then you know i'm a little bit more than
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a curious onlooker here. i got my start covering new jersey politics. i lived and breathed it for three years of my life and i've never completely separated myself from it. politics in new jersey is like a soap opera. it never reaches a peak or comes to an end pit it just keeps going, one surprise after another year after year. well the person who told me that is one of those key players in this story. he was my boss, he was my editor, he was the owner of a nonpartisan political news site where i got my start back in 2002 and now he's smack in the middle of this scandal. he's played an important part in my career so it makes all of this a little awkward for me. but at the same time since i know him and i know so many of the other people who are in a part of the story, it gives me a chance to give you some context of who all of the key players are, how it fits together and
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what it might mean for where the drama is going to go next. i'm going to do my best to explain them to you. we're going to start with bridgett kelly. the world learned her name on wednesday morning when e-mails leaked out in which she wrote the now notorious line, time for traffic problems for fort lee. >> this morning i've terminated the employment of bridgett kelly effective immediately. i've terminated her employment because she lied to me. >> now until thursday bridgett kelly me was one of his deposit hi chief of staffs. it is the most political job in the governor's office. her job was to be christie's point person in dealing with mayors, municipal council members and christie with the words that he spoke on thursday
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all but declared kelly the ring leader to clog up the traffic in ft. lee. i know bridgett kelly. he was the chief of sfaf to a moderate state assembly man of bergman county. she was in that position when i was covering the state. that assemblyman she worked for, that was one of my favorite people to cover. she was one of my favorite people to talk to. and it wupt just me who thought this. i heard from a new jersey democrat who i've known for a while who remembered her as issue drirch, she struck me as a moderate republican. in it for all of the right reasons. if you don't know her, it might be easy to swallow what christi said this week, that kelly had can sooefd and lied to him, kept him totally in the dark on all of this until this week. but if you know bridgett kelly, that's not quite as easy to
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swallow. she's relative now knew to christie's or bit. it's clear she's involved in this but it's hard to believe that he concocted this and it's harder still that she had the authority to order it. the state legislative committee that's looking into this next week has not technically subpoenaed her. will she show up and talk in those are the questions in the immediate feature. next up we have david wildstein. this is the guy who used to be my boss, gave me my start in journalism. he's one of those people whose records were subpoenaed. now david wildstein we signed from the port authority a month ago. if you've heard about him or read about him, you've heard him described as christi's long-time friend or high school buddy. here is what christie had to say
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about that on thursday. >> david open i were not friends in high school. were not even acquaintances in high school. we didn't travel in the same circles in high school. i was the class president and athlete. i don't know what david was doing during that period of time. >> here's what i can say about that. i can pretty much vouch for that. because no one who knew christie and wildstein in their high school days describes them as friends from back then. i can tell you that when i worked with wildstein, tl was never any reason for me to suspect that he had any kind of a relationship with chris christie. we were tough on chris christie plenty of time. more to the point, there's this. a few years after i left that site for a job in washington, d.c., david wildstein sold it to someone named jarod kushner who was the young rich son of someone named charles kushner. he was a new jersey real magnet and a top donor who christie
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prosecuted and put in jail when we was u.s. attorney. do you know what he prosecuted him for? it was the ultimate only in jersey scandal. he was having a business dispute with his brother-in-law so he hired two prostitutes. he had one of them so deuce his brother-in-law, then he had a videotape sent to the brother-in-law's wife. i swear this is completely true. charles kushner did two years in jail for that and it was the kushner family that was totally and completely humiliated by chris christie. it was that family that david wildstein sold his new jersey website to. the idea that they have this close partnership that dates back decades, i don't buy it. this is also by the way the most significant development this week might have come later on thursday after christie's press conference when wildstein appeared before the sate assembly. he took the fifth. you probably know about that by now.
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but at the very end of the hearing his lawyer also dangled this in front of the committee. >> if the attorneys general for new jersey, new york and the united states were all to agree to clothe mr. wildstein with immunity i think you would find yourselves in a far different position with respect to information he could provide. >> that's your job. we just want answer to our questions. >> understood. i'm suggesting a way you can get there. >> so to be clear, wildstein is not a long-time christie protector and he is apparently looking for immunity. that's important to keep in mind. i worked for him for three years from 2002 to 2005. of all of the people involved in this i think he's the sharpest, i think he's the savviest and i think he is by far the most strategic thinker. he doesn't do anything about thinking ahead, without considering the possible outcomin
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outcom outcomes. maybe you're asking if wildstein and christie weren't that close, if wildstein sold his media operation to a family that despices chris christie, why would christie send him to the port authority in the first place. that's a good question. and the answer has to do with this man. this is bill ba roe any. he also resigned last month. he's the one who told a state assembly committee, this is not when with us under oath. he told the committee that the lanes had been closed because of a traffic study, a study that has never been produced and multiple port authority officials have said never existed. his e-mails and texts were also subpoenaed and released this week. he was a rising star in new jersey politics a few years ago. he's an lawyer who got elected to the state assembly. in 2007 he went on to get elected to the state senate and
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in 2009 he did something politically core ray jous. he cast the sole republican vote in the new jersey senate for gay marriage. it didn't pass back then and exposed him to a ton of heat from the right in his own party. so when christie came to power, he offered him the gig. and he took it. he told christie that he wanted to bring somebody with him. he wanted to bring his friend, david wildstein who had also been in politics before he'd started that website that i worked on for him. that's why wild stooep was at the port authority. and the question now is whether he's going to hear again from that assembly committee, if this time they're going to demand that he come back and testify under oath about that supposed traffic study that he talked about at the end of november. will they call him? will he take the fifth? those are the major questions about him right now. now we go to the fourth name.
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this is bill. until this week he was one of christie's closest most trusted and talented political lieutenants. he had managed christie's campaign in 2009 and reelection campaign in 2013. he was slated to become the state republican party chairman and serve as an advise tore the republican association. bill was also set to play a mayor role in the 2016 presidential campaign that everyone has been assuming that christie will run. but he pops up in those e-mails that came out wednesday too. one of them he ridicules the mayor as an idiot. there was nothing in those e-mails that showed he had any advanced knowledge or role in planning the traffic jam but christie threw him overboard too and here's why >> reading that it made me lose my confidence in bill's judgment.
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you cannot have someone at the top of your political operation who you do not have confidence in. >> now, talk to anyone in new jersey politics privately know and they'll they will you there's an awful lot of suspicion around bill. he's connected to the other players. his first big break came in 2003. ba ro any was the only nonincumbent republican who won a legislative race in new jersey that year. so that election made him a rising star and i also made steppian, who managed his campaign a rising star. so from there steppian went on to work for george w. bush's reelection campaign in 2004 for john mccain and then he got his real big break. he won christie's successful campaign for governor in 2009. it's the first time in 12 years that a republican had won a
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governor's race in new jersey. steppian is a start to understand bridgett kelly's role in all of this. it was during that 2009 race that he, who was then a relatively unknown aid to a relatively unknown politician, provided key held top the christie campaign and to steppian in particular in bergman county. they grew close in that experience. and when hi won the election, he brought her with him to trenton to join the administration. steppian's job in the first two years of that administration was the same job that kelly had until this week. he was christie's local enforcer. steppian earned a reputation for aggression, i for playing rough, for diving into seemingly petty political matters. when he left that job bridgett kelly took it over for him. bill steppian's character has now been challenged by chris
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christie on national television. his career trajectory. he was going to play a leading roll in the 2016 presidential campaign. that career trajectory has now been derailed. will he be subpoenaed? is his records? does he want to get anything out? there's also one more name to include in our wheel here. kevin 0 doud. hey's the chief of staff. and on thursday christie talked about how he leaned on kevin as the story began to gain steam. i put to all of them one simple challenge, if there is any information that you know about the decision to close these lanes in ft.lee, you have one hour to tell either my chief of staff, kevin were or my chief
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council charlie mckenna. >> but did he know anything himself in did christie interrogate him at all? he's the nominee fb the next attorney general. u under a cloud like this should christie's chief of staff be placed in a place of power? now democrats are saying wait a minute, the state senator judiciary committee was supposed to start the confirmation hearings next tuesday. now they've been postponed. that was the full wheel of key players in this. at least it was until the latest e-mails for dumped yesterday and pouring over them reveals two additional names here. one is david samson, he's somewhat of a grandfather figure. he's in his 70s. he's known and respected by a couple of generations.
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actually his respect has gone across party lines in the past and he was christie's choice to serve as the chairman of the port authority. what we're learning from the new e-mails is he aggressively pushed back against a withering critique of the lane closures at the port authority as they were playing out. the other new name in the mix is regina, christie's current pick to replace kevin as his chief of staff. but her job before this has been the director of what's been called christie's authorities unit. she's part of the governor's office. and in that role as the head of the authorities unit we know now she was forwarded on september 13th of last year a copy of that same withering critique of the lane closures that were written by new york officials. so we with now say that someone up side the governor's office was alerted to the sere yois concerns about the lane closures four full months ago and that
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someone is chris christie's current pick to be his next chief of staff. so that brings us now to seven characters at least for now who are most crucial to what comes next in story. there are connections between some of them. others connections are more recent. all of these people have legal worries, worries about their reputations right now. they are facing a raft of questions from the press, from the public, from everyone who's following this story in any way. there are now mechanisms in place, there are mechanisms in motion that could compel them to produce more information, more revelations to add more names to this mix to produce some of the answer to the key questions that now hang out there. the u.s. attorney for the state of new jersey is considering whether to launch an investigation. the u.s. senate commerce committee sniffing around. then there's the state assembly committee that's been looking
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into this brought those e-mails to light this week. that forced david wildstein to appear own thursday and expects bridgett kelly to do the same next week. to talk about where all this is going, in just a moment we're going to be joined by the man who is leading that state assembly committee. state assembly john. he joins us right after this. [ male announcer ] this man has an accomplished research and analytical group at his disposal. ♪ but even more impressive is how he puts it to work for his clients. ♪ morning. morning. thanks for meeting so early. oh, it's not a big deal at all. come on in. [ male announcer ] it's how edward jones makes sense of investing. ♪ to prove to you that aleve is the better choice for him, he's agreed to give it up. that's today? [ male announcer ] we'll be with him all day as he goes back to taking tylenol.
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. 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. >> here to discuss the latest development in all of this. he's the chairman of the transportation committee that
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has led the investigation into the lane closure. thank you for joining us. i'll start with the very simple question because i've talked about this on the air this week, that is the subpoena power of your committee expires next tuesday because the current legislative session expires next tuesday. >> correct. >> there's a new spoker coming in, a product of this alliance that chris christie has an informal alliance that he has with some pro-christi democrats. there was speculation that he would not extend your subpoena power. the you guarantee us that after next tuesday you're still going to be able to issue subpoenas. >> yesterday evening i asked them on the day we reorganize, january 14, our first order of business ought to be to adopt a resolution to reauthorize the committee subpoena authority going forward for the upcoming legislative session so there's in gap in the ability of the
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committee to do its work. his staff said they would get back to me. >> i can't imagine the heat he would face from democrats if he didn't reauthorize. not just from democrats, anybody who has any curiosity about the story. >> i'm confident that the new speaker will do the right thing. i think it's important that there not be a gap in the committee's ability to do its work. there's no much that needs to be looked at right now with the revelations of bridgett kelly, regina, kevin, bill steppian, the list goes on and on. and to have the committee stop and pause and then get back to work at a later date would do an injustice to the entire investigation. >> right now you guys subpoenaed records from wildstein and ba roen any and all of these r revelations we're seeing are from that. >> i don't want to issue a
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subpoena today or tomorrow before the 14th because whoever gets the subpoena will run to court and say the committee's authority thaz expired. i don't need to comply. >> so you're waiting until next week to make sure you have the authority to do this? >> we could issue a subpoena before then and it would continue into the new session. but we need documents from bridgett, from bill, from regina, everybody you mentioned in your wheel there. we need their documents and then we need to bring them in and ask them questions under oath. >> let me ask you about david waldstein. i thought this was an amazing moment at the end of the hearing when his lawyer said we're look fg our immunity on this. are they trying to send you a signal of there's stuff we are ready to tell you if you can give us some protection? >> i think that was a signal. clearly the e-mails are very curious. he made a point during the hearing to say what was provided
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was specifically responsive to our inquiry about the bridge. so the reference to the meeting between the governor and david samson -- >> let's talk about that for a minute so people understand this clearly. david samson is the chairman of the port authority. there's a reference in the records that david wildstein provided to you that a week before this time for some traffic in ft. lee e-mail went out, a week before that a meeting was arranged between chris christie and samson and you're saying wildstein is trying to tell you that's significant. >> they specifically said we've redacted stuff that was not significant. what we don't have an answer to and we tried to get a answer, what is the significance to a reference of setting up a meeting between the governor and david samson. we don't know if the meeting happened. if the meeting happened we don't know who else was at the meeting. we don't know the topic of the meeting. but i think the committee needs to have the information. >> and just watching this, you
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know, christie was up there on national television calling bridgett kelly a liar. i mean in situations like this maybe when people are put in situations like that do you think somebody like that is more likely now to maybe cough something up, to cooperate? does this give you an opportunity to get revelations from people who have been cast overboard like this? >> the list is growing. you started with wildstein and went to ba roen any and now you've got kelly and steppian. with this interesting caveat, being cast overboard without being asked a single question. when we talked about wildstein's termination and we asked pat foi, did you ask him what happened? the answer was no. governor christie when he announced that he was terminating bridgett kelly, did you ask her what happened? no. it's curious that people are being thrown under the bus and no one is asking them any questions. i want to know if they're afraid
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of the answers they're going to get. >> do you have a sense in your mind of when chris christie knew about this in. >> well, i know that his senior staff, bridgett kelly knew about it august 13th. but during that week when the traffic jam started and there was all the press inquiries and the attempt to cover it up and spin it, clearly his senior staff knew and his senior staff don't do a lot of things in this administration without checking in with the governor. and so i believe that the governor had some knowledge of what was going on during that week. >> no. that's the part i'm having trouble with here if they knew for four months and he didn't find out until he was at the gym this wednesday. i find that impossible to believe. we're hoping that the subpoena power gets reauthorized next week. that will be the next key test in this. i want to thank you, the chairman of the transportation committee open i'm sure this is not the last time you will be on this show or other shows here. a panel of new jersey experts
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four weeks ago when i had them all in that office and i said, if any of you have any information about this that i don't know, you need to tell me me, kevin or charlie now. that was the last time i raised my voice in that office. >> all right. here to talk about all of the latest news from the garden state, developments in the story we have the democrat state majority leader, her district includes ft. lee. blake is a kol lem nis acolumni. eleanor cliff who is a contributing editor with the daily beast. senator weinberg, this is your district. i'm going to start with you on this. the basic claim from chris
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christie that he's completely in the dark. where do you believe that the truth lies. >> i would assume over the four months the governor never read the newspaper. this story was in our local press, on our local tv. at least for three and a half if not four months. i went to four meetings of the port authority personally to ask each of those men who are commissioners on the port authority questions about this. and they all looked at me -- i've never heard one voice -- i wrote a personal letter to one of those commissioners mid september. never got an answer back. so this has been in the newspaper. so the governor finally found out two days ago that this was a big issue that put thousands of residents that i represent and that he represents in jeopardy. and when i just saw in your earlier segment where he said what did i do wrong to make these people lie to me?
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the question should be what did do wrong to make these people think that this is appropriate behavior. and that's the question that the governor really has to answer. >> and let me just follow up on that with you, though. because the why did this all happen, not the line to the governor but why did the traffic thing happen really sort of haunts me in this. the idea of -- the one thing i kind of bought in what christie was saying there on thursday was he wasn't that obsessively concerned with the endorsement of the mayor of ft. lee. do you have an idea, any sense in your mind what was driving this? >> well, you know, part of it is conjecture because we don't really know yet. and that haunts me too, steve, actualfully the same way. from the time i first heard about this story who would have thought that you would punish any elected official by closing the george washington bridge? it's the busiest bridge in the
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world. it was the week of 9/11. it was the first day of school. i cannot get my arms around the mentality of anybody or any group of people who sat together and said, gee, i've got an idea. i mean, it's so bizarre. ft. lee is the gateway into new york from new jersey. the george washington bridge is in ft. lee. we've gone through several months of news reports. we went through a coverup done by bill baroni. if these people who spent half their time trying to cover up the story, keep the press in the dark, telling me that i'm obsessed somehow or that i don't have -- i have too much time on my hands to follow up on this story, if they spent half the time trying to get to the bottom of it, we'd know all of the answers. >> ingrid i want to ask you
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about the culture of new jersey politics and the culture of the governor's office. we had in some of the initial e-mail that came out there was a reference to david samson, the chairman of the port authority maybe retall yath when all this happened and the new york side of the bridge was saying this is a disaster, adopt do it. there's answer answer from the christie saying he's retaliating. in the latest trof we got overnight we got this. this is and e-mail talking about a "wall street yournl" talk about this. it confirms foye being evidence of the leak, stirring up trouble. he distances himself from an issue in the press and rides in on a white horse to save the day. in this case he's playing in traffic, made a big mistake. here you have the chairman of the port authority completely dismissing the korns, all of these very valid concerns being
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raised by the director on the new york side. is this a window into this administration? what is this telling us? >> well, first of all, i don't think anyone and probably across the country would think that you could blame a mayor or a legislator if something goes wrong with huge infrastructure. you close down the interstate or a bridge. it's sort of curious why anyone would have thought you could in effect hurt somebody in that scenario. you can speculate about a lot of these things. what's really interesting is that chris christie and his administration and administrations before that has enacted good reform ethics codes in new jersey for state officials and legislators. and this has not come up in this whole discussion after what is your responsibility if you are work in the public sector. you're doing it for the public, not for yourself.
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any self interest is considered a conflict. and the other piece of this is there's always the campaign issue that comes up. and we know at the federal level, as well as at the state level, you're supposed to separate entirely your work as a public official with your campaign activities. and somehow this has not come up as a way of looking at this or for holding people responsible. >> there's clearly a bleeding over that's taking place here. i want to broaden this out and talk about this because we have some folks who are not from new jersey looking at this from a slightly different angle. i want to bring them into the conversation right after this. is it keeps the food out.
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before those little pieces would get in between my dentures and my gum and it was uncomfortable. [ male announcer ] just a few dabs is clinically proven to seal out more food particles. [ corrine ] super poligrip is part of my life now. look, it's one of two things, either the governor is lying or he's incompetent. but my prediction is. this he will be leaving the governor's office his term is up but it won't be to run for president. >> that's barbara bruno
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predicting this will be the end of his governorship and presidential ambitions. i have to say, the thing i've said on the air on this network a lot this week is i think there might be a gray area that exists between he knew from the beginning, he this was in on it and he was completely duped pen open the day area is willful ignorance. he did not want to ask questions, did not have any curiosity. i tell you what, in this dump op documents last night, something really jumped out at me. we can show you. this is september 13th. this is when pat foye from the new york side of the port authority has this memo that says we're breaking potentially federal and state laws here. it is guarded you can see from bill baroni three hours after that memo goes out it's forwarded to regina egea. she's very close to him. she is his current choice to be
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his next chief of staff top to believe that chris christie was not told about this by her for four months, that part i'm really having trouble getting my head around. the willful ignorance things i'm starting to doubt myself. eleanor, watching this from outside new jersey, watching this national political figurer 'em broild in a national scandal, how do you make sense of what you're seeing. >> vi a brother who lives in new jersey. >> everyone has a relative in new jersey. >> and watching the cast of characters develop it also reminds me of the iran contra hearings in washington and they issued book lets. this has the potential to really grip the political imagination outside of new jersey and new york. it's abuse of power. while i think barbara bruno some of her language is strong, she's suggesting he can be impeached.
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if more information comes out that shows that he really was in the chain of custody in some way, i mean i think he is in serious legal trouble and i think that may be why he didn't question any of his staffers. everybody is getting lawyered up. so we're going to learn a lot more here. this is as much a psychological exploration as it is after the facts and i come down to one word. hugh brus. i mean this is the summer leading up to this election where they're rolling out these huge victory pps he said they were going after all of the local mayors. she's got that number in his head. and you have kelly in charge of recruiting all of these mayors. she's really irritated maybe at this ft. lee guy. it gets out of hand. you have to look at the personal connections between all of these people. does it go beyond kelly and stepien or does it stop there. >> i think the thing everybody
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think about is the nixon thing. you look at water gate and you go, why? you were going to beat mcgovern by 40 points. it really didn't matter. a there are all these mechanisms in place now. we have the state assembly committee. the chairman told us something interesting that he's not sure the subpoena power is going to get extended. so a lot f durcht ways that more information can come out of this. >> absolutely. i think it's important to differentiate between this scandal and other scandals that we've had recently. there's been a tendency to talk about them as if they're all kind of the same. mark sarmford committing indy dellty is not the same as this. this is very different. this is the government turning on the constituents and putting lives in danger. people's lives were put in danger. people who needed emergency
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service vehicles couldn't get them. school kids who may be five years old are waiting in traffic for two hours. people are late for their jobs. this is very serious business. this is a much bigger deal that other people's scandals. i think it's time we should there think about it in that way. now that i'm off my soap box i can actually get to your question. when we talk about the investigations, we need to be careful about the standard we're talking about. if we can see christie is directly related to this in terks mail, then he's toast. you're not going to see that. >> see, i might make a bet with you. okay. >> you may not see that but i argue you don't need to. i worked in many governmental offices and campaigns. i never worked in an office where the culture where anybody would have thought this was okay. this was an office where this was clearly con doend. this e-mail that you put up on
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the screen in the previous segment, the last sentence was he made a big mistake. that tells you everything you need to know about the culture of this operation. it's reprehensible. >> we're going pick that up in the next block because i know senator weinberg you've had some personal experiences with how this administration deals with people who cross it. so i want to talk to you a little bit about that. and i want to get into the issue that chairman wisniewski raised earlier. this is investigation going to go away next tuesday? we'll get that right after this.
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i want to talk to you about chris christie made the statement on thursday, he said this kind of thing is the exception, it's not the rule. and i know there were a lot of other stories out there. some of which you've been involved in that suggest no, this kind of behavior, this kind of culture is the rule for the christi administration. i wonder if you can talk about your experience in dealing -- if people don't know this.
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the most infamous line of chris christie's governorship is he was talking about you at a press conference and he said somebody ought to take the bat to loretta weinberg. >> which ochk is always followed by my age and the fact that i'm a widow which i find a little troublesome from time to time but that's okay. in fact, in some ways sort of as i've gotten further away from it i treat it humorously. i have in my office two bats one with his name on it and one with my name on it. mine is much larger than his. but it gave you ininsight into the way this man operates. there has been this culture of fear. look at the mayor of ft. lee. even when the governor came to see him the other day, the first thing on his mind was i need an assurance from the governor that
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he will not wreak any vengeance on the residents of portland. why should the mayor feel that way? how about the 30-year port authority employee who manages the bridge who told us under oath, in essence, that he feared for his job. >> he was scared to answer the questions. >> and chris christie didn't know that. that was all over tv. what kind of an atmosphere is it. a 30-year professional employee probably been through heavens knows how many governors and directors at the port authority was fearful that he was going to luz his job if he didn't follow what he knew was completely inappropriate directions. >> that was at the state assembly hearing on this. you know how new jersey politics works. i wonder what you make of the conversation we had with john wisniewski that we had at the beginning of the show. next tuesday, the new speaker
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who is the product to have pro-christie alliance comes in. he says he is not sure that's going to be extended next tuesday. do you think there's a chance that this power goes away? >> i think under the circumstances that the democrats are seeing they're above the fray, they're going to do this in the correct way. they're going to get to the bottom of it i don't think that the subpoena power will go away. i think it will be reenacted and the new person waelly wants to be in charge of making that new decision. i really that the democrats are seeing that being organized, thoughtful, ethical is the way to go. and so i they're defer to these new speaker. he'll come in and make the decision. >> the question of the subpoenas is a critical po point. the republican saying christie acting swiftly and deice ily, he did all of right things. no he didn't. they ran out the clock until the
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spa pena power was going to run out. he got rid of the two people he had to politically. we'll see what he does next. >> we got to take one more break. we'll be back right after this. [ woman ] ring. ring. progresso. 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. if you have a business idea, we have a personalized legal solution that's right for you.
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i can't believe this hour went so fast and there is so much more i want to ask all of these people about. i'm sorry we have to cut this short and say, thank you to loretta weinberg, ingred reed, blake and eleanor are going to be back a little later for some fun. but form morning we're going to have some new context into chris christie's claim that he was shocked that someone on his team would lie to him. stick around, that is right after this. [ male announcer ] this is the story of the little room
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teammates look like mid gets. patrick e winning is 7 feet tall. ma mute he was 7'7", george is 7'7". how about rick submits, the dutch man, 7'4". right now the oklahoma city thund have one playing for them that is 7'3". the nba always have seven-footers. because when a player is that tall, it doesn't matter how old they are or how good they are, coaches always find a place for them on the bench. last season a 7-footer jason collins played center for the boston celtics. he's had a long career not scoring that many points. but he's always been tall, he's always been intimidating and a team somewhere for his entire
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career flew last year made a space for them. this year collins is not playing anymore. he's not retired. it's simply that no one has offered him a contract, not even one of those ten-day contracts. do you think it might have anything to do with this. he said i didn't set out to be the first open by gay athlete in the american sport but since i am, i'm happy to start the conversation. lots of athletes have come out. in april, jason collins came the first to do it while still playing. >> i had a chance to talk to him yesterday, he seems like a terrific young man and i told him i couldn't be prouder of him you know, one of the extraordinary measures of progress depress that we've seen in the country has been the recognition that the lgbt
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community deserves full equality, not just partial equality. not just tolerance, but a recognition that they're fully a part of the american family. >> is jason collins fully a part of the american community if six months after coming out he no longer has a job with any team? at the end of the year gq magazine named collins their game changer of the year 2013 but how much of the game really changed? former punter for the minnesota vikers say he was released from the team in may for being a gay rights advocate. he also accused some of his coaches and general manager of using homophobic language during the team meetings. vikings are investigating his claims. there's not to say there aren't some signs of progress. this week a mayor soccer player returned to the pitch. just started playing again for
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the los angeles galaxy. the women's team sports don't seem to have the same problem. there's two women on the u.s. soccer team, phoenix star came out last year before the draft. why is it that jason collins can't find a job in the nba and how is it that football players still make allegations that an nfl locker room is still a place to slur. i want to welcome wade davis who spent multiple seasons with the tightehi titans. anita marks, member of the new york giants broadcast team. she's reported for three different nfl teams and knows the ins and out of nfl culture. sue wicks a long time player in the wnba pep and thomas rogers who is no strange to msnbc
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viewers. he wis taking over the anchor chair this coming monday. he will be enjoying, as i do, getting up at 4:30 in the morning. >> this is a first so i like it. >> with a steve like steve kornacki they mess up my name all of the times. welcome to all of you. i appreciate all of you joining us. i guess we'll start with the basic question and wade maybe i'll ask this to you. look at the jason collins situation and when he came out last spring, the headline was it's the first active male team sport athlete to come out, except the season was over, he was done there, the new season started, he hasn't played. so that designation doesn't really fit anymore. i thought when that happened that david stern, the commissioner on the nba was going to find a way to make this
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work, somehow get it signed somewhere. has it surprised you that jason collins hasn't been sign snd. >> in a lot of ways i think it has. wu i don't think he would want to be signed by a team because he's gay. he's an athlete too. i think part of the problem is it's a conversation. there's a luxury tax issue. he's 35 years old. he's been with 12 different -- six different teams in 12 years. i do think that all of the sports leagues are doing a lot to make their locker rooms more conducive to this. >> i remember when he came out i think it was mike pesca from npr was on the show and he told us he looked back at players who are jason collins size and age and in relatively good health and he found 16 who were
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unsigned fre agents, all 16 of them ended up on a team next year. i'm pretty sure basically there was a sound statistical basis to expect that somebody like jason collins would get signed by a team. do you think there's an element of teams looking at this saying yobt know, we're not comfortable with him in the locker room, we're not comfortable with the press? >> he's definitely a valuable asset from a character standpoint that's the guy you want in the locker room and the courage that he has and the way he's respected across the league. maybe there is. i don't know what goes on but i know that there is a lot of attention that would come with jason coming to a camp and for a ten-day contract. that's ten days of media that's taking away from a team that would sign a veteran like that that wants to steady a boat. that's what he would bring to it. so then you have the other thing you're bringing into the story, the media, the constant
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attention to that. and then asking your players to think about it a little more deeply. what about this? how do you feel about that? then they start thinking about other things other than what they're doing and that's playing basketball and trying to win a championship. >> thomas, from a media standpoint, there's a couple of numbers we can put up on the screen. this was a nationwide survey from gallop in february of last year. percentage of adult americans who identify as lgbt. the number is .5%. if you take that number and apply tight the major male team sports, you should have 60 gay nfl players, 42 major league bible, 16 in the nba and 26 in major league soccer. we have right now zero, zero, zero. from the media standpoint i wonder, it's true, if jason collins got signed somewhere the
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media would be all over this story. the press pool for these teams games would be flooded and it could in a way create a distraction wouldn't it? >> rob we rogers is a great example of somebody who is living in it right now although that soccer or european football is not that big of a story in america. he's a ground breaker and a pioneer. sometimes when it comes to lgbt issues in this country, sometimes you only get to break the ground and then it's on to somebody else to advance on your shoulders. so jason might get to break the ground on the issue in the nba and it's going to to be up to somebody else. growing up as a gay kid, we don't have sports role models that we can talk about in this country that we looked up to. and so as a kid we are segreg e segregated from being able to integrate our own confidence in
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being an athlete with then being a good person. those two don't systematically meet up until much later life. now that we have a jason collins and a robby rogers, now that we have the examples, they're leading the charge. they're clearing the field to allow these hits from the media to come first for people to get used to put and then kids are going to come up with a much different identity and confidence about how they are an athlete, how they can perform and how their personal life is something they can be proud of in comparison to their professional life. they don't have to be mutually collusive. >> in the houston chronicle there was a story about the 19934 houston oilers. they were a really good team in 1993. this was the year buddy ryan threw a punch at the offensive coordinator who just left the
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giants under some interesting circumstances. it was kind of a crazy team. they were a really good team. but the story came out in the paper two weeks ago, you had players saying they had gay teammates, they knew this. this is a quote from a linebacker on the team at the time. listen, those guys we're talking about were unbelievable teammates. everybody knew things were not exactly right but when they strapped the pads own and got in the field, we were going to war with these guys but they were unbelievable. nobody knows who the two players are but it thought attention. now we're looking at 20 years and the houston oilers had a great season and apparently this was a total nonissue for them. >> anita, what's your sense of that culture. >> i'm not going to date myself but i've covered three mayor nfl teams and i will say in all three teams there were gay athletes in that locker room and
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i will say that players no that locker room know who those gay players are and they don't have a problem tw them on their team. they warriors on sunday. they take on their opponents together and they're team mates. the problem -- so i really think you hit this on the head. i think the problem is, not really a problem. i am in the media. i don't think it is a problem. but maybe an organization thinks it's a problem, once it becomes public, the way that the national media will handle that team, the questions that are going to be asked and posed in that locker room and how players, teammates are going to have to address the issue publicly, that's where i think the concern is. but make no doubt about it, there are more than 60 nfl gay players active players in the nfl right now. guys in the locker room, their teammates know who they are and they don't have a problem with it. >> well, you know, wade you've been there. we've got to fit in a break here. we're going to ask you a little
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anita was just talking about her experience saying there are more than 60 gay players in the locker room. i do want to put -- there was an interesting survey. i don't know the scientific value of this. no many athletes were surveyed. but espn did this and asked opinion on the legalized gay marriage and it with overwhe overwhelming yes. i was much smaller in baseball. so it suggests there may still be some measure of resistance. i'm wondering, your experiences in an nfl locker room, just what
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was it like for you? >> to be honest, when i was in the nfl looker room, and i was on five different teams, i rarely heard any homophobic language. but i would say also that one of the big issues that was talk about also was a lot of internalized homophobia that many lgbt people face that keeps us in the closet, to have to deal with the shame of being gay and the denial of it. if you' not out in high school and college, then you're definitely not going to be out in the prosports league. how are we teaching kids what it means to be lgbt and those narratives they match on to you and stay with you for a long time. >> were you -- did your teammates know about you? were you -- >> i don't believe -- i think i was a really good liar.
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so i don't think anyone knew about me. and that was really because i really hated who i was. you know. and if i didn't love myself, how can i come out and tell the world who i am when i don't really know yet. i think when we start to talk more about this issue then we'll see hey, a lot of these athletes have been in play bookance they haven't really addressed this idea that they have so much shame about being gay. >> you addressed it during your playing career. it was 2001, 2002, i think you were playing for new york liberty at that time. >> yes. >> what led you to decide to say it publicly? was there a difference preand post? >> it was so simple. we have our beat writers all of the time and they wouldn't ask you that type of question. but you get youd, someone from "time" magazine they would ask a question like that, are you a please beeian and i just answered yes. so there was no agenda if. >> there was no dramatic press
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conference. >> i was 35 at the time. i went through the whole process of being ashamed of myself and hiding it when i was young. but then i had a long process of coming to terms with it and it was yes. a you're standing on the shoulders of a lot of giants like martinez. and to be in new york at the time when so many people are fighting and they risk their lives. for me to lie about that, it was imboss zblbl and the culture, we're talking about men's teams here. many more out-female professional athletes. what is the difference there in the culture that accounts for that? >> our culture the very small in sports. it's very similar in the locker room. it really comes down to content of character and that's how you see a person. you know longer see the color, their religious or political or
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sexual orientation. it is who you are and what you bring to the table as an athlete. for me absolutely on the highest level that's what hps. but there's always people that are, you know, operating on a lower level and it does come -- wade you touched on something that's so important. it's language and how we even just think, language informs our culture aub your culture influences or language. homophobic words are so quick and slide out of the mouth that it become as bad thing. and the shame is just one word away from keeping everyone in the closet. it just happens that quickly. so if we think more about how we speak i think the moral courage that jason has to say that. you're right, i hate to say something like he's the guy that storms the beach at normandy, he's dead, that's it, but he opens the way for other people, a little easier path for them to slide down. >> the great thing that jason
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collins has done, there was a picture you guys had, he spoke at the u.n. i got to moderate that panel. we had other out-athletes talking about homophobia in sports and the culture that goes along with that. how to change that. this is a world conversation now. that's the great thing. this is an international conversation that we're all having and it's because of leaders just like sue and jason who have decided that this is about time. we need to have these conversations because there's nothing wrong with sue being a great role model or wade being a great role model or jason collins. i now the nfl as we see with the you can play campaign, they have every team now, every professional team is involved with that organization. they have made a commitment and an investment to show that homophobia is not going to work any further going forth with that organization. so i think that's a huge step forward for hockey.
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>> nhl athletes being a lot more accepting of gay marriage. there have so many canadians in the nhl. >> we opened up this topic talking about why isn't jason collins on an nba team. i thought he was going to play on the brooklyn net because of his relationship with jason kidd. new york a great environment for him. it didn't happen. and i think another reason why it didn't happen is because we're not talking about a major top starter in the nba. for example, irving, for example. if a player like that of his magnitude was to come out, the nba would have no choice but to till have him be a part of the team. whether it's in the nfl or major league baseball, if a star player, i think that will make the difference. if a star player comes out and a league does not have really a choice to decide, well, should he be on a team, shoul he not be
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on a team, should we sign him, should he not. no he's a store player. we need him. we're going to handle pr, marketing, we're going to handle the fact that this is a homosexual player because his talents and what he h brings to the table outweigh all that we have to handle in regard to the media and marketing. >> we talk about media though and i think that we've seen just recently there had been discussion over the summer in the nfl of players coming out. we run a risk of this whole witch hunt kind of thing of potentially scaring off valuable players who are in the prime of their careers who are not at the point of feeling kplet ccleatly integrated. i think that for everybody it's in their own unique time. but i do think we run the risk of pulling off witch hunts on certain players who are very
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dynamic and pull a lot of head lines. and then it forces them into shameful outfront statements of i'm not gay and we run a tough -- >> yeah. i want to pick up on that after this break. that story of the nfl players who supposedly were organizing to come out last summer and then there was a recent statement from a star nfl player. we'll talk about that when we come back. ♪ if i was a flower growing wild and free ♪ ♪ all i'd want is you to be my sweet honeybee ♪ ♪ and if was a tree growing tall and green ♪ ♪ all i'd want is you to shade me and be my leaves ♪ grown in america. picked & packed at the peak of ripeness. the same essential nutrients as fresh. del monte. bursting with life™. the same essential nutrients as fresh. my dad has aor afib.brillation, he has the most common kind... ...it's not caused by a heart valve problem. dad, it says your afib puts you at 5 times greater risk of a stroke. that's why i take my warfarin every day.
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surprise!!! um... well, it's true. at ally there are no hidden fees. not one. that's nice. no hidden fees, no worries. there was a recent statement toic up a little bit on what thomas was talking about in the last segment. wade, there was this story a couple of weeks ago, speculation out there, none of this was confirmed but it somehow got out there through the tabloid outlets, speculation that the star quarterback for the packers was gay. he said i'm not gay. i really, really like women. that's all i care to say about it. some people were thinking about that response and were thinking back i think to 2002, over ten years ago when the star player
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with the new york mets basically held a press conference to affirm that he's not gay. i feel bad for aaron rogers to get caught up if a rumor like that. but some are comparing tight that saying there's a sign that there's not been much progress. >> just the fact that aaron rogers had to answer the question is inappropriate. i think we fail to see the athlete's humanity oftentimes. we talk ownership. they're or stars, our gladiators so we have the right to know everything about them. it's unfair. >> meanwhile we have actors like josh hutcheson who's in the hunger games, george clooney people like that on a different level open field of celebrity, when they get questioned they're like yeah if you think i am, so what. i take it as a compliment. there's nothing wrong with that.
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>> james franco. so if you don't make it a big deal then it's not a big deal so you take the oxygen out of it. >> so when jason collins came out last year there was chris broussard is a basketball reporter for espn. i mean last night i was watching some of the nets game and there he was interviewing jason kidd during the time. chris broussard was one of the top nba media people. he said if you're opening living that type of lifestyle then the bible says you know them by their fruits. it's a sin. he took a lot of heat for that. he tried to walk it back with a subsequent statement. but i wonder, you know, anita if what broussard was getting at there was an attitude not all christians are home phones. there's lots of gay christians. but there's a strain of christianity that's hostile
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toward sexuality and i wonder how prevalent that is in the locker room. >> in the locker rooms that i've covered and been in i haven't seen it. ', there's fractions, there's bible study every thursday. did you do bible study. so players pray together. but again, i've been in several locker rooms and players know who the gay players are. it's not a problem. >> i heard this the other day. >> the problem is once it goes public and how the national media and the fans and how a team and the extra media and pr that they're going to have to bring in to handle the situation and how the perception market the team, money, maybe money being lost or made. so it's not a -- >> if you look at the christian principles. jesus did not say anything about homosexuality in the bible but there the's some things about
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shellfish and we do still eat it. we cherry pick what we want to use on our modern day values. being gay is natural, hating gay is a lifestyle choice. i completely agree with that. there's stuff about homosexuality in the bible. so really dork stuff about heterosexuality in the bible. but we've gotten past that. and now we are at a different point. so we're at a different value point in our culture today. if we're going to cherry pick from the bible we've got to be careful about that. and the media is going to go back and use their christianity as a plate form to spout hate. that's ridiculous. >> the other thing i want to get into a little bit. sue, before the show i read the story when you said you were a lez bee back in 2002 and at the end of the story it's said what's left to be seen is how it will affect the ens dorsmentes
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for her. did it affect the endorsements for you? >> i thought that just ruined the story because we spent two days doing this great story about me and basketball and what it went to me and now i was like now the story just changed, the headline changed because of this one facet of who i am. i don't think it changed anything for endorsements. i didn't have a lot of endorsemen endorsements. it goes over to major sports nfl or nba. the top players have the endorsements. not the lower level mid level players. there's a few select players who are brand out there. >> martina lost a lot of endorsements. there was one car company that stuck by her. >> i think to thomas' point that we oftentimes pigeon hole athletes to being homophobic because of the way athletes
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treated you in high school. i grew up. i think that we don't think that athletes, that they mature, that they become worldly, thaw's sophisticated enough to say hey, the way that i was in high school, i'm not that way now. if i see someone who is gay, i don't care. like how are they on the football field. if you can play, then you can play. >> and the other thing is the generation coming up right now, even years behind me, i look at my cousin and other people in my family that are five years younger than me, ten years younger than any, it's amaze how different the culture is when it comes to sports. i want to thank you all. come mas roberts is sticking around and he's joining contestant's row and two other brain yaiacs are lining up. it's next. contestant's row and brainiacs are lining up.
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it's next. around and he's joini contestant's row and two other brainiacs are lining up. it's next. nd he's joining conte row and two other brainiacs are lining up. it's next. round and he's joinin contestant's row and two other brainiacs are lining up. it's next. welcome back. how is everything? there's nothing like being your own boss! and my customers are really liking your flat rate shipping. fedex one rate. really makes my life easier. maybe a promotion is in order. good news. i got a new title. and a raise? management couldn't make that happen. [ male announcer ] introducing fedex one rate. simple, flat rate shipping with the reliability of fedex.
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into new jersey politics to mrpg but tomorrow we're going to arkansas, the natural state with an exclusive look at an event on the arkansas political calendar. it has a menu that is equally unusual. >> for those who have never had the opportunity to try this, we asked some cpeople to tell us about it. >> it's sweeter than beef, pork. >> that's right, raccoon. that was arkansas governor bill clinton prevegan days describing what it tastes like. since we love local traditions here, we're going to bring you a first hand account of this year's coon supper. we're going to want to talk about that top. but also raccoon, a big, big
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. >> live from studio 3 a in rockefeller usa, it's time for "up against the clock." originally from jackson heights queens, he's no stranger to fighting for her chance to speak. please welcome the great eleanor lynn. from jaer co, new york. it's blake. and from townsend, maryland, the host of "way too early" starting this monday at 5:30 eastern right here on msnbc, say hello to thomas roberts. and now it's the host of "up against the clock", steve
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kornacki. >> thank you, bill wolf. thank you studio audience. welcome to another all new edition of "up against the clock". it is nice to be back in the plaid jacket. we have a fresh batch of players with us today. blake actually trying to psych out eleanor. i don't know if you can see this at home with his t-shirt at home featuring eleanor cliff. a psychological tactic there. and thomas who got up earlier for us this morning and on monday he'll be getting up early on monday. you can catch him at 5:30 here on msnbc. a little plug for you right there thomas. >> thank you, sir. >> moving right along, you're all familiar with the rules right now. three rounds of play, 100 seconds. questions will get harder as we go along. you will be penalized for wrong answers. there are some instant bonuses
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that are scattered throughout these bonuses. i will remind our life studio audience, please remind absolutely silent during these rounds. i will ask you, are you ready? >> yes. >> we'll put 100 seconds on the clock. 100-point round begins with this. these two celebrated their 69th wedding anniversary this week, the longest marriage -- thomas. >> it would be president george bush and barbara bush. >> we can accept that. correct. 100-point question. former congresswoman gabby gifford marked the -- >> thomas. >> jumping out of a plane, sky diving. >> in an interview with nbc news on thursday, congressman paul ryan said he would give the u.s. a failing grade in its efforts -- >> poverty. >> thomas. >> poverty. >> eleanor you're giving him the
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answers. a report showed that for the first time on thursday there are now a majority of u.s. congress who are what. >> mill nars. >> black. >> millionaires. >> you're instant bonus with $464 million net worth this congressman is the wealthiest of all congressmen. >> i know. >> isa. >> he has 220 million i read somewhere. >> the assist to eleanor. 100 points. this european leader canceled most of her european plans >> merkel. >> america sl correct. in the unofficial game eleanor is cleaning out here. >> before chris christie took over the news cycle a large part of the united states was at a stand still -- >> robert gates and his new book. >> incorrect. >> i'll finish the question for eleanor and question. a large part of the united states was a at a stand still because of this --
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>> weather. >> blake? >> polar vortex. >> blake and thomas are tied with 300, eleanor officially have zero, unusually about 2,000 point. but we enter the 200-point round. easy to make this up. put 100 second on the clock we'll begin the 2000 point round with this. a former republican who won a seat in congress as a democrat -- thomas. >> charlie chris. >> hin correct. this long island congresswoman. >> carolyn mccarthy. >> i think that might be blake's home district. how many senator republicans on tuesday voted to kill a -- blake. >> five. >> incorrect. >> six. >> thomas. >> six. >> eleanor, you got to ring in. >> 200 to thomas.
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arizona senator john mccain suggested this week that he would be open to running for another term in 2016. this would make how many terms in the senate for mccain? we'll call time. the correct answer was six. >> i was going to say that. >> a state of merge was declined in nine counties of this state on thursday after a chemical spill -- >> west virginia. >> blake? >> west virginia. >> on tuesday president obama's national security adviser and joe biden aid endorsed what controversial energy project? >> i don't want to risk it. >> it's the keystone xl pipeline. disgraced former congressman anthony weiner. >> on alpha house. >> the aclu and members of the
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rap duo insane clown posse sued the u.s. government this week after the fbi -- they identified the groups followers as a criminal gang. what is the name of those followers? eleanor in. >> i don't know. >> what's the name of the group? >> insane clown posse. what are their followers called? it's the jug los. what we were looking for there. end of the 200-point round. it is 500 for blake and thomas, eleanor yet to officially get on the board. the 300 point round where champions are crowned. still a chance, eleanor. we go with this. on tuesday voters in florida's 14th congressional district are nominate candidates to replace -- thomas. >> young. >> bill young is correct. eleanor. giving it away. 300 point question expected to announce he is running for
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senate in have virginia next week -- blake. >> gu les pi. >> 300 point question. i was releeld this vehicle that this former republican senator who was defeated by a tea party challenger in a primary in 2012 donated -- >> eleanor. >> richard luger. >> this is an instant bonus question to double your points. what democrat went on to capture duger's seat in the 2012 general election? >> oh, god, what is his name? murdoch. >> incorrect. no penalty. not letting onlining controversy deter him, governor chris christie will travel to florida for an rga event and to headline a fun raiser for what statewide politician. >> governor rick scott. >> correct. john mccain announced on twitter
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yesterday -- thomas. >> puppy. >> incorrect. >> he has a puppy. what president who mccain also identifies as one of his political heroes also has a dog of the same breed? time. it was teddy roosevelt. final question. despite showing a decline in violence for much of 2013, a federal judge ruled on monday that this city's gun ban is unconstitutional. call time. it was chicago. the game ends. the final score with 1100 points, blake is the new winner, thomas robert with 500 points, eleanor on the board with 300. although again it would be 3,000. >> they couldn't have done it without me. >> bill is going to tell you what you've won. >> as your champion you'll have your name printed in exquisite
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sharpie on the gold cup and you'll get to take it home with you for exactly one week. you'll receive an you'll appear week on msnbc on "the cycle". you'll play the bonus round. a $50 gift certificate to rutt's hut serving up nuj. try the deep-fried river. the relish is on snus that prize package always inspiring. you can win more if you can correctly answer this jackpot bonus question. >> help me out, eleanor. >> here it is. yeah, there's no phone a friend. before he became the center of new jersey's bridgegate scandal, david wildstein spent years working under a pseudonym. he took his name from the 36th
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governor of new jersey. name that governor. >> who is wally edge. >> wally walter edge is correct. blake, you have won the grand prize. you have won the $50 certificate to rutt's hut. congratulations. you become the grand prize winner. what an exciting match we had. you will also be eligible for upcoming challenges. thomas and eleanor, we have for you "up against the clock." >> my husband just texted me, don't come home, you big loser. >> back with final thoughts. thomas, thank you. [ male announcer ] winter olympian ted ligety can't take a sick day tomorrow. [ coughs ] [ male announcer ] so he can't let a cold keep him up tonight. vicks nyquil. powerful nighttime 6 symptom cold and flu relief.
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this new jersey chris christie bridge scandal has turned into a moving scandal.
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i know a lot of people have a lot of questions. if you want to ask me any questions, i'll answer as many as i can. you have until 11:00 a.m. you can submit them in the up on politics move at our website. we have a few seconds left. i want to know what our guests know now that they didn't know before. eleanor. >> white house is doing quiet little briefings on deep, deep background to urge the press to define success. look at the boca ruchlt we'll change how wall street operates, what he's doing with kids around the country. they don't want us to focus on congress which may be a disaster once again. >> interesting. blake, the champion, it's yours. >> in the christie scandal, they thought they could get away by using their personal earmarks accounts. turns out if you do something nefarious, they can get to your
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personal e-mail accounts. >> yeah. thomas. >> christie is not the bridge between the democratic and republican party, that's for sure. that's what i learned. >> you also learned if you didn't like getting up at 8:00 a.m. >> it's too early. morning joe, i'm going to join that gang at 5:30 monday morning. >> as we said, thomas roberts, thanks for getting up. and all of you as we say, weekday early risers, be sure to catch thomas this coming monday. he starts at 5:30 a.m. his debut, way too early but not too early for thomas. please join us tomorrow morning. we'll have new context oven chris christie's claim that someone lied to him. we've sent perry bacon and the producers to attend the gillejg
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supper. coming up next, melissa harris-perry plus special guest bill nye the science guy. stick around. melissa's next. [ woman ] ring. ring. progresso. 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.
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