like a milk-bone biscuit. ♪ say it with milk-bone. right now on msnbc, unanswered questions. >> do you have plans to subpoena records from anybody else? >> we need their documents first so we can understand what took place and then bring them in and ask them questions under oath. >> who would have thought that you would punish any elected official by closing the george washington bridge? >> good afternoon, i'm milissa rehberger in for craig melvin. in just days, the committee that exposed the chris christie scandal could lose its power to question the major players. will we ever find out who knew about the shutdown of the bridge? steve kornacki joins us with his latest report. also --

>> brought to victory and offered hope may rest in peace. >> remembering ariel sharon. we are live with more on the legacy of israel's controversial and iconic former leader. do not use tap water for drinking, cooking, cleaning, washing or bathing. >> we're not taking any chances. i gave them all a water bottle. >> toxic tap water. a factory dumps chemicals into a west virginia river. we're on the scene with new reports of illness in this state of emergency. and a new battlefield for wounded warriors. after ending their military careers, veterans are fighting a new target on the homefront. it is today's big idea. plus, powerhouse, the female lawmakers who are real-life roommates on capitol hill. they will be joining us live. but first, it's being called the biggest scandal of new jersey governor chris christie's career. a traffic jam last september

that left people stuck on the george washington bridge between new york and new jersey for hours and lasted over four days. here are the latest developments at the hour. the speaker of the new jersey assembly, a democrat, has called for a special session next thursday to reauthorize a key committee's subpoena power to continue the investigation two days after they lose that power. that same committee released more than 2,000 pages of documents yesterday. among the newest revelations from that release, that someone in governor christie's inner circle who the governor has designated to be his next chief of staff was aware of the angry complaints by the head of the port authority about the bridge lane closures. i want to bring in steve kornacki, most of msnbc's "up" and bob ingle, co-author of "chris christie, his rise to power." the most significant item so far, the documents pouring in since yesterday. >> there was this infamous memo from pat foye on the new york

side. he's not on christie's team. on september 13th, he basically documented everything that was going wrong with these closures and he was totally appalled and he used very emphatic language. one of the things he said in this memo is that it may violate federal and state law. what we found out in this new dump of e-mails is that when he sent that memo, when he sent that e-mail, chris christie's pointman at the port authority, bill baroni, took that and three hours later forwarded it to a woman who at the time is running governor christie's authorities unit. she's part of his team, part of his office. she is responsible for overseeing his personnel at authorities around the state like the port authority. this is somebody very close to chris christie. who is she now? she is a woman who is tapped to succeed kevin o'dowd as his chief of staff. she's in line to become his chief of staff. now we know on september 13th

when the top guy on the new york side of the port authority said you may be breaking federal and state laws here, that e-mail was sent with priority marked high to somebody in chris christie's office. that's the biggest thing we've now learned. >> what do you think about that? does that suggest to you that obviously this made it into the inner circle? could the governor possibly have known? >> he did a terrific job of reporting and connected seven people connected to the governor who had their hands on this in some way. it certainly does -- the governor said that that woman kelly was fired because he had a meeting of his top people and he asked them to speak up if he knew anything about it. it certainly looks like she wasn't the only one that knew what was going on. the question, why weren't they fired? >> i want to listen to a sound bite right now from deputy speaker john wisniewski who has led the investigation this morning on your show. let's listen to that.

>> during that week where the traffic jam started and there was all the press inquiries and there was 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. >> bob, is it possible that the aides were able to make decisions like this on their own? >> i wouldn't say it's impossible. but anybody who's covered politics knows there are no secrets in a tight-knit organization like that. very unlikely. >> steve, the e-mail that you mentioned from bridget ann kelly from august 13th, time for some traffic problems in fort lee. let me ask you the same kind of question. is that a decision that she can make on her own? >> it is hard to believe knowing bridget kelly -- and i talked about this a little bit on the show this morning. if you know her background, she was a low-key aide to a relatively unknown member of the assembly and she's relatively new to chris christie's inner

circle. she is close, her professional relationship, close to bill stepp, his campaign manager. but hard to believe she would be giving that kind of order. another one of the most revealing things to come out in this document dump is david wildstein, who was with baroni, one of the christie appointees at the port authority, one of the things he released were text messages that the week before bridget kelly wrote that message, text messages suggested there was a meeting between governor christie and david sampson, his hand-picked chairman of the port authority. the key there is the committee -- the subpoena from the committee cold wildstein only to turn over documents relevant to the lane closures. wildstein is sending them a message by including those text messages that that apparent meeting between christie and the chairman of the port authority a week before that is somehow related to this. so that seems significant.

>> given these e-mails that you have been explaining so well, bob, what do you think about what it says about how much the public was allowed to know here? and obviously controlling what the public gets to hear? >> well, the second set that was just released yesterday clearly indicates they put a high priority over at the port authority on trying to find out who was talking to the news media. that seems to be a bigger concern to them than all these thousands of people who were backed up at the george washington bridge. and about that memo that we were just talking about, if steve sent me a memo and says, bob, time to cause traffic problems at the bridge, i'd write him back and say, steve, what the heck are you talking about? sounds to me like it was a plan already in place. >> well, and there was also mention of concern that somebody could get hurt here, that first responders wouldn't be able to get through in this sort of situation. >> they were slowed down. the record shows they were slowed down. and 9/11 occurred during this period that it was closed. what if there had been some sort

of emergency involving 9/11? that would have been a disaster. >> steve, i want to talk about a piece that you wrote back in 2010 about a former aide of governor christie who he fired for supposedly lying to him and then proof came out that he hadn't been lying. what does this suggest to you, how he handles situations like this? >> the guy was his education commissioner. and he and his team bungled the state's application for race to the top. and he admitted they bungled the application. but he said, i kept christie's team in the loop on the bungling of this and i've taken responsibility with them. christie had gone out publicly and blamed the obama administration for this. and then it turned out that that had not been the case. when christie then held a press conference to try to explain why he had been sort of misleading with blaming obama, he blamed shundler for lying to him.

he said, you don't lie to the governor. a few days later, shundler came out with correspondence that prove he kept the governor's office in the loop the whole time. it suggests to me, i watched that christie performance this week, i thought of that christie performance in 2010 and said, this is a guy who's called somebody a liar before and there's been documentation out there to refute that and i wonder if that might be the case here. >> didn't the same thing happen with the speaker of the assembly? >> yeah, with sweeney as well. >> they were accused of lying and turns out that wasn't the case. >> does make you wonder. there's a lot more ahead on all of this. steve and bob, thank you so much. have a great day. >> thanks. >> you can watch "up" with steve kornacki weekends at 8:00 a.m. on msnbc. it is still not safe to drink or use the water for hundreds of thousands of people in the charleston, west virginia, area where a state of emergency remains after a chemical spill on thursday. luke russert has the latest. >> reporter: from where we are

right now, 15% of the state still does not have access to clean, safe tap water. it's created a plethora of problems, as you could imagine, everything from cooking to cleaning to not being able to take a simple shower. local officials have done a fairly decent job, residences have said, in terms of setting up water distribution centers around the nine counties that are affected. as the time keeps going on, it becomes more and more difficult to just simply rely on water out of a bottle. all that being said, aside from the health impact which there were some folks over the last few days who have had to go to the hospital for symptoms such as nausea, vomiting, skin irritation, that dissipated today mainly because they started on thursday and people, they believe, are more well-informed. sa they've not touched the water in any capacity. there's an economic impact. a lot of businesses here in charleston, the capital of the state, they can't be open right now. talking about restaurants, hotels, folks missing shifts.

so all this is creating a perfect storm which is brought life to a standstill for people in these nine counties. on top of that, it's anyone's guess as to when the water will be back and safe. officials are testing it periodically. the parts per million number of that irritant that's in the water must get down to a certain level before it's deemed safe. even after that, the system must be flushed entirely. so as we move forward, you have an economic impact, a health impact and most folks, though, just want to be able to get back to their daily lives. that includes clean water. >> luke, thank you. other top stories we're following this saturday, target revealed tens of millions more customers may have had their information stolen in last month's massive security breach. the retailer says hackers stole the names, the phone numbers, e-mail and mailing addresses of an additional 70 million customers. that is on top of the 40 million who had their credit and debit

card data stolen. neiman marcus says it was the target of hackers. it was informed of potentially unauthorized credit card activity. it is working with the secret service to notify its customers. and new york yankees third baseman alex rodriguez is suspended for the entire rest of the season. he received the suspension for the scandal that led to the suspension of 12 other players. remembering ariel sharon, the former israeli prime minister died earlier today. up next, nbc's foreign correspondent will join us with a look at sharon's controversial life and legacy. and ukyou could call it a d. sorority. they're making fun and having friends while sharing a house in washington. but would they ever rent to a man or maybe even a republican?

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former israeli prime minister ariel sharon died today at the age of 85. sharon fell into a coma eight years ago after suffering a severe stroke. he'd been hospitalized since then. martin fletcher reports on the life and career of this controversial leader. >> reporter: ariel sharon symbolized israel's iron fist, born in palestine to a farming family, he was a fighter all his life. in 1948, wounded in israel's war of independence, 1957, after the six-day war, he suppressed violence by palestinians and occupied gaza. 1973, a war hero turning back egypt's surprise attack. general sharon's military reputation, brutal and brilliant. his nickname, the bulldozer.

>> we have to hold the sword in one hand. not because we want it but in order to defend ourselves. >> reporter: but in 1983, he was banned from ever again being defense minister after lebanese christians and an inquiry showdown sharon indirectly responsible. he reinvented himself as a farmer, family man and politician. becoming israel's prime minister in 2001, he later stunned the nation yet again with talk of a deal with the palestinians. >> for real peace, we are ready to make compromises. >> reporter: this keep some of the west bank, he believed, israel would have to give up most of the occupied territories. that included gaza where the israeli army forced out about

9,000 jewish settlers. he founded a new party. he was on the verge of leading israel into new political territory. but in 2006, he fell victim to a massive stroke. in a coma, ariel sharon clung to life for years before finally losing his last battle. martin fletcher, nbc news, tel aviv. >> for more on the legacy of ariel sharon and how he affected today's middle east, let's bring in nbc news foreign correspondent ayman mohyeldin who is based in the region and we are fortunate to have him with us in the studio today. first time meeting you in person. we've talked so many times. obviously you're aware of the situation and its impact on the middle east. he was a very controversial leader. he was reviled by many palestinians but then later as prime minister, as we just heard martin fletcher say, he did almost an about-face. >> the about-face has to be put in context. it was more in israel's interest once it realized it could not continue to colonize and occupy the gaza strip, it shifted its

strategy away from trying to control it. keep in mind, this isn't in the eyes of palestinians and many in the arab world, a withdrawal. and even ariel sharon called it more of a redeployment in the sense that israel still controlled the lives of 1.5 million palestinians inside gaza. they just moved the settlers outside. but that was really more of a strategy to shift his focus on trying to take more land and settle more land in the west bank. that has been the policy of israel since the disengagement of 2005. more israeli settlements have been built in the time of ariel sharon than anyone else. >> the current israeli prime minister, benjamin netanyahu, who served as sharon's foreign minister back in 2002, his government announced additional settlements announce in east jerusalem and the west bank as well. what does that say about any sort of progress or lack thereof? >> it really highlights the vision of ariel sharon that israel still wants to control and maintain the west bank and really has this demographic problem on its hand.

a lot of critics are saying that israel has to make a hard choice. it cannot continue to occupy the west bank and the lives of nearly 4.5 million palestinians while at the same time trying to espouse being a democratic jewish state. this is an issue that israel hasn't resolved. this is an issue ariel sharon thought he could resolve. and so far no israeli leader has been able to address it because politics is shifting more and more to the right. and on the other side, it's making it more difficult for palestinians who are seeing more and more of their land being confiscated to try and negotiate a settlement. they don't have the adequate resources. their state is in complete disarray. palestinians are divided. that is what is making it even more difficult to try and achieve a peace process. >> what do you think his lasting legacy will be, from a palestinian and israeli standpoint? >> the israeli world look at him as a war hero. the legacy of this man is the fact that israel continues with the policies that he set in

motion, particularly the expansion of israeli settlements in the occupied west bank and very much the legacy from the perspective of palestinians is in fact that he is a man who has a lot of arab and palestinian blood on his hands from the massacres in lebanon that we heard about, gaza, west bank and so many of israel's wars both in the occupied sinai when israel was in the sinai peninsula and elsewhere. but at the same time from an israeli perspective, he will be seen as a man who fought tooth and nail to protect the jewish people under his watch, israel in the eyes of many was safer. israel became the most dominant military force in the middle east. and so they feel that he defended his country up until the very last day that he was in office. >> nbc's ayman mohyeldin, thank you for joining us. good to see you right here. >> good to be here. thank you very much. update on jahi mcmath. she's been moved to an unnamed facility. she's been hooked up to

breathing and feeding tubes. the oakland teen was declared brain dead by doctors after suffering complications following a tonsillectomy. you're watching msnbc. [ julie ] i've got to credit my mom.

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oh are we early? [ male announcer ] commute your way with the bold, all-new nissan rogue. ♪ more than half the nation's states are reporting widespread flu activity amid shortage of children's tamiflu. the cdc says the number of states reporting high activity has gone from 25 to 35 states and taken a deadly toll in st. louis where it's killed nine people in just one hospital. i'm milissa rehberger in for craig melvin. here's a look at some other top stories making news now. a foster farms chicken plant in california is reopening today after federal inspectors approved a plan to eradicate cockroaches from that facility. inspectors from the department of agriculture closed the plant on wednesday after detecting the insects for the fifth time in five months. a group of wealthy hunters will gather in dallas tonight to bid on a permit to hunt and kill one of the world's most

critically endangered animals, the black rhino. organizers at the auction have garnered criticism for months but they say it is for a good cause, to raise money and awareness for saving the animal. the permit is one of five offered by namibia each year. and the white house decided to end its relationship with cgi, the tech contractor responsible for building the trouble-ridden healthcare.gov website. the administration has signed a new $90 million deal with accentu accenture, one of the world's largest consulting firms. is the american dream now just a fantasy? what it really takes for people to move up the economic ladder and why most people cannot. [ coughs, sneezes ]

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of hope. and he said the government must step in to change that. >> our task is to help replace their despair with opportunity. and this administration today, here and now, declares unconditional war on poverty in america. >> and on this 50th anniversary of the war on poverty, we hear a similar call from the current president. >> i will mobilize the country around the national mission of making sure our economy offers every american who works hard a fair shot at success. anybody in this country who works hard should have a fair shot at success, period. >> but the facts are sobering. the economy added a modest 74,000 jobs in december. this number, though, could be later revised upwards. well see. and the labor force participation rate fell to

62:8%, the lowest number since 1978. nearly 350,000 people left the workforce in december. for many, it remains a dream. eric holds a masters degree in library science. i'm also joined by bob herbert, a distinguished senior fellow at the public policy organization. and erin courier joins us as well. the pew trust recently completed a series of studies saying that most americans never managed to climb the elusive ladder. quhi do some manage to make it while others do not? >> our research shows there are a lot of factorings at work here. one of the key drivers of mobility from the bottom is a postsecondary education. americans able to get that

four-year degree are much more likely to leave the bottom than americans that do not. another key element is having a second earner in fact household. i want to be clear this is not necessarily about marriage. you can have families that are married where only one spouse is working. but more and more in this economy, families need that second source of income to really experience any kind of upward mobility. and then a final piece of the puzzle is just economic security broadly. families that had savings and assets and homeownership are more likely to leave the bottom than those who don't. >> the battle for upward mobility seem stalled. the lack of quality jobs and wage growth and some say political indifference as well. i want to read an opinion piece by a brookings fellow. quote, inequality is a political choice rather than an economic fact, taking money from the successful to help the strug slg close to an un-american idea.

but president obama noted that it's rested upon the assumption of shared opportunity. the trouble is america is now not very equal in terms of opportunity either. have we as a country being okay with economic inequality? >> the leaders of our country certainly have. what we've had over the past few decades is a phenomenal transfer of wealth from the middle class and the poor to those who are already very wealthy. that's redistribution of income and wealth. but you cannot talk about redistribution of income and wealth if you're talking about redistributing it back to the middle class and the poor. unless we begin to address that issue, we won't be able to restore upward mobility. one more point is that the essential issue in this problem in terms of poverty and upward mobility is employment. the american economy does not create enough jobs that pay

enough for people to move up the income ladder. >> eric, tell us your story. you're highly educated. you have a postgraduate degree. you have expertise and training. tell us about the experience you're having. >> well, to begin with, i worked for 16 years in the title insurance industry before the real estate market collapsed. so from that point on, i'd gotten my degree. i used it as an opportunity to create a new career, basically in records management. and what i did is i basically went back into the job market, i thought i had enough skills because i was working kind of as a records manager in the current job. but it was very difficult because my background was in real estate. and therefore a lot of it was, well, okay, we want experience but in this specific thing.

and that's really the difficulty of it. there are a lot of jobs that i know of because i go out to the websites every day and there's a ton of them. the problem is that all of these jobs that are available want specific information -- specific experience than doing one specific thing. and the problem -- >> how do you get that experience if you don't get the job? >> that, too. but also a lot of this is computer knowledge which i have experience in computer knowledge, maybe not with that specific program. but this is something that you have to be able to be taught and to be trained. that's how it was when i got out of college. nowadays, it's like employers seem to want that very specific thing. and that's the part i always found to be a bit unrealistic. >> bob, the president announced five locations for his economic promise zones as he's calling them. republicans are also now moving ahead on their agenda to try to

lift people out of poverty as well. senator marco rubio called for less of a federal role, though. let's listen to that. >> what i am proposing today is the most fundamental change to how the federal government fights poverty and encourages upward mobility since president johnson first conceived the war on poverty 50 years ago today. i'm proposing that we turn over washington's anti-poverty programs and the trillions that are spent on them to the states. >> that you think states are better equipped to handle this? >> no. two issues, one is to provide some assistance to people who are struggling with poverty. so try to imagine what would have happened after this last great recession if, for example, we didn't have medicare or we didn't have medicaid or we didn't have food stamps or the school lunch program. the situation would have been for more dire than it was. and it was pretty bad as it was.

but you have to separate the idea to help people who are struggling with poverty versus providing a pathway to the middle class for people who are poor. that requires more than an anti-poverty program. that requires a certain policy. >> for somebody like you when you see all the talk going back and forth in washington, what does it make you think? >> it's kind of difficult for me to put any blame onto either state government or federal government. corporations have to understand if they want to get somebody for specific positions, they're going to have to do some training. and that's not going to come necessarily from any kind of government. i don't see them really wanting to put unemployment down because, frankly, they're in a buyer's market right now. and they feel -- it's like, if we can hire somebody for as little as we can, what's their

incentive, really, for decreasing unemployment? that's how i feel about it. >> well, erin, bob and eric, thank you and good luck. >> thank you. hope you didn't blink watching the season finale of "alpha house" or you might have missed some special cameos. that's anthony weiner as himself and chris jansing. we'll talk to three congresswomen who live together on capitol hill. you're watching msnbc. [ male announcer ] research suggests cell health plays a key role throughout our lives. one a day men's 50+ is a complete multivitamin designed for men's health concerns as we age. with 7 antioxidants to support cell health. one a day men's 50+.

bob will retire when he's 153, which would be fine if bob were a vampire. but he's not. ♪

he's an architect with two kids and a mortgage. luckily, he found someone who gave him a fresh perspective on his portfolio. and with some planning and effort, hopefully bob can retire at a more appropriate age. it's not rocket science. it's just common sense. from td ameritrade. this is the creamy chicken corn chowder. i mean, look at it. so indulgent. did i tell you i am on the... [ both ] chicken pot pie diet! me too! [ male announcer ] so indulgent, you'll never believe they're light. 100-calorie progresso light soups. wounded veterans turn forensic analysts. it is today's big idea. a new program is helping wounded soldiers transition to civilian life by giving them a heroic new assignment, tracking down child predators. 17 special operations veterans are participating in a one-year internship using computer forensic to help track child

pornographers. oscar zipada is participating in the program. brad bench is the special agent in charge of homeland security investigations in seattle. and they both join us now. thank you. special agent bench, i want to start with you. what led to the idea of getting wounded veterans involved in something like this? >> it started last year and it was a joint operation between special operations command, department of defense, the project corps and the homeland security investigations. and it's just a way to give these wounded veterans some skills applicable not only to our investigations but hopefully skills they can use for the rest of their lives in the workforce. >> staff sergeant zapada, why did you decide to get involved? >> as i was transitioning out of the military, i didn't know exactly what i was going to do. as well, my advocate, jim

adcock, contacted me, gave me a description of what i would be doing and jumped all over it. it's an awesome opportunity for me to help other people out here in the united states. >> how is the transition going so far? >> it's going great. i've been in combat and now i'm here. it's a totally different battlefield here in the u.s. it's a great opportunity to be able to do computer forensics for homeland security. >> special agent bench, once the internship is over, will these veterans be able to get a permanent job using these skills? >> our hope is that homeland security investigations will be able to give these veterans permanent paid positions within our own agency. if we're not able to do that, we are working with state and local agencies to try to get them placed there. >> staff sergeant zapada, what are some of the skills you're picking up in the internship and what are your goals going forward? >> the skills i picked up, i was never an i.t. guy. so i got to do ten weeks of

computer forensics in fairfax, virginia. i got a-plus certified in software and hardware. every day i'm imaging files and videos and images. and the long term is i want to hopefully land a job with homeland security and continue to do computer forensics. >> well, i wish you both the best of luck. i think it's a great idea. i really do. staff sergeant and special agent, thank you so much. do you have a big idea that's making a difference? tweet us or e-mail us. and it's time to flash back now to 1964 when a game-changing report by the united states surgeon general found that cigarettes cause illness and even death. >> out of its long and exhaustive deliberations, the committee has reached the overall judgment that cigarette

smoking is a health hazard of sufficient importance to the united states to warrant remedial action. cigarette smoking is related to higher death rates in a number of disease categories. >> that report kicked off a new era of awareness about the dangers of smoking. this week, dr. luther terry's son marked the 50th anniversary of his father's milestone announcement. >> they made a big mistake because they underestimated what a team of top-notch scientists and committed staff members and professional public health services people could do. with e monk fruit in the raw. it's made with the vine-ripened sweetness of fruit, so you can serve up deliciously sweet treats without all the sugar. get recipes at intheraw.com. we are the thinkers. the job jugglers. the up all-nighters. and the ones who turn ideas into action. we've made our passions our life's work.

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>> that was the political comedy "alpha house" based on the real alpha house. but there is a female powerhouse on capitol hill. three congresswomen living together, representative debbie wasserman schultz, carolyn maloney and terri sewell. they join us now. ladies, let's have fun with this. anybody answer whatever feel like answering. first of all, i'm curious, how did it all come about? looks like fun. >> i'm a member of congress and i was used to a husband, two daughters, a cat, all kinds of excitement and fun when you came home. i was coming home to an empty house. so i finally bought a house and looked for roommates. it's not the same as your husband -- >> so it didn't just happen by accident.

you all decided it sounded like a good idea? >> i bought the house and i looked for roommates and found two wonderful ones that are living with me now. at one time we had five women in the house. we had congresswoman hokel and congresswoman bean. now we have terri sewell. fredricka wilson also lived with us. >> tell us about fun stories. do you fight over the remote? is one person messier than others? how does it all work? >> first of all, we all have our own bathroom. >> we fight over nothing. >> that is essential. >> very important. >> that was really the key -- >> i'm sorry. go ahead. >> the key thing is we all have our own bathroom. that's really key. >> we have our privacy.

everyone has their own room but we share the ground floor, which is a living area and a kitchen. >> right. >> so what happens around -- >> the nice thing -- >> do you take turns cooking? >> we're not usually home at dinnertime. our day as members of congress really starts -- we all have flying out of the house at probably about 7:30, 7:45 in the morning and we don't get home to anywhere between 9:00 and 10:00 at night. most of the time we're eating out. although carolyn found me cooking the other night. and it was so unusual that she said, what is going on here? she's cooking, oh, my gosh? >> all of us went downstairs when we had the smell. i think popcorn is what we mostly bond over. microwave popcorn late at night. >> do you have fun all gathering around the tv? is everybody -- well, you're not there. but if you were all there, would you be watching the golden

globes or something like that tomorrow? >> i think we sit on each other's beds at night. >> we're very focused on our work. so it's a wonderful support system to have two brilliant strategists and legislators that you can share concerns, strategies, elections, fund-raising strategies, political strategies. >> that's exactly right. >> it's a mentoring support system that is helpful with the challenges that we face. >> congresswoman wasserman-schultz, lots of people probably want to be a fly on the wall in your house. what were you saying about new jersey governor chris christie and the buzz around that whole situation? >> well, we have an opportunity as girlfriends and as colleagues to talk about the news of the day, to make sure that we're able to be there for each other, in addition to the company that it is for one another. it is tough. i have three kids and a whole bunch of dogs and my husband.

and so i've always even as a state legislator lived with other colleagues. it makes for a really warmer environment. and so, yeah, we have lots of gossipy conversation about politics mostly. we're going to just leave it as inside-the-house gossip, that's probably best. >> absolutely. >> i often say that -- >> we're more like the zeta house. >> listen, i think that -- my staff always says if ever we wanted to get out of politics, we could actually pitch the show to bravo, the real congresswomen of d.c. of course, none of us would probably get reelected. >> check it out. we have an idea of what it would look like. i love it. >> it's really nice that we're able to give each other advice. >> actually, we have a republican living in the basement now. >> how's that going? >> and a male.

maybe we should add him to our strategy sessions. we're for bipartisanship, right? exactly. >> absolutely. >> we could solve the world's problems right in our house. >> exactly. i'm the most newly elected. i'm in my second term. and i can tell you without a doubt that carolyn and debbie have been instrumental in helping me get on the committees i'd like to get on and helping me figure out leadership and strategy. so i'm eternally grateful for being a part ft o house. i have to tell you, interviewing with those two to become a member, the newest member of the house was tougher than pledging any sorority. >> we have to ask who is the republican in the basement even if you don't want to answer it? >> you should get him on the show next time. but he wants to be secret, to respect his privacy. he may not want people to know he's living with three democratic congresswomen. >> he wants secrecy and yet he moved into a house full of women? >> right.

>> do you all watch "alpha house" and "house of cards"? you mentioned that you do. >> i watch "house of cards." as i said, we're more like a zeta house than an alpha house. we have a lot of fun together. we've been through tragedies together. my husband passed away while climbing the sixth largest mountain. debbie confronted a fight with cancer. it's been wonderful to have friendship and support through these personal tragedies and support for the legislative battles and goals that we have, what we want to accomplish, not only for our families and our communities but for our districts and for the country. >> is this kind of situation -- >> we also travel to our -- we've also traveled to each other's districts. i've traveled down to terri's district, as well as to carolyn's district. when i published a book in october, carolyn had me up to

her apartment and brought all her women together and we had a really great book party. it extends beyond the boundaries of our house. it's really a sisterhood. gives us an opportunity to be there for each other, to promote one another, to give each other advice and to just make sure that in our home away from home, we have a family environment that at least when all hell is breaking loose, you know you can come back to our house and you have two women, two girlfriends who are going to be right there for you. it's really pretty awesome. >> absolutely, absolutely. >> i would imagine it's an incredible arrangement. i can only imagine what the conversations must be like. >> well, we did have a writer from "sex and the city" who was interested in doing a sit-com on the house. it's not the image we wanted. but in any event, we have a lot of fun and we have a lot of work and we support each other and mentor each other and hopefully we become better legislators, better mothers, better friends, better activists for our

districts. it adds fun to the job. >> i can't thank all of you enough for coming on and sharing this cool story. it's been a lot of fun. thank you and good luck with everything as you go forward. >> thank you. >> thank you. >> thanks so much. >> happy new year. a little bit late for that. >> thank you, you, too. let's move on to the christie scandal. officials are running out of time to question the major players on the record. the new jersey reporter nicknamed the dean of the statehouse joins me live. and holiday hackers hit neiman marcus just like target. more than 100 million americans have their e-mails, phone numbers, even their home addresses available to scammers. , you're not doing anything as fast as you used to, which is funny, 'cause i still do it better than her. you know, i don't think i was meant to sweep. it's a little frustrating. look. [ zach ] i can't help out as much as i used to. do you need help? [ doorbell rings ] let's open it up. it's a swiffer sweeper. it's a swiffer dusters. it can extend so i don't have to get on the step stool.

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their trust. >> a managed mess. good afternoon. i'm milissa rehberger in for craig melvin. you're watching msnbc. new documents show chris christie's top aides ordered the scandal to be covered up. but what about christie himself? will we ever get the whole story? also ahead -- >> he spent his life defending israel. >> today, he departed peacefully with his loving family at his side. >> remembering ariel sharon, the 85-year-old former israeli prime minister died today. we are live with more on his legacy at home and abroad. and also this -- >> i think it's happening every place, unfortunately. i was very thankful that i paid cash during the holiday season. >> store insecurity. neiman marcus joins target as victims of massive data breaches. more than 100 million americans are at risk of full-blown identity theft. how to protect yourself ahead. plus the 'em battled nfl.

right now, a fan is suing the league over ticket prices for the super bowl. this as thousands of ex-players say a multimillion-dollar concussion settlement is simply not enough. but first, we are continuing to follow the investigation into that massive traffic jam last fall on the george washington bridge that has shaken up governor chris christie's administration and potentially his political future as well. here are the latest developments. the speaker of the new jersey assembly, a democrat, has called for a special session next thursday to reauthorize a key committee's subpoena power to continue the investigation two days after they lose that power. the same committee released more than 2,000 pages of documents yesterday. among the newest revelations from that release, that someone in governor christie's inner circle who the governor designated to be his next chief of staff was aware of the angry complaints by the head of the port authority about the bridge lane closures. michael aaron is chief political correspondent for n.j. tv news

in new jersey. he joins us live on set. let's start with next week's special session. bring us up to date on that. >> the incoming speaker of the assembly who takes office on tuesday has decided, i think by the preponderance of weight of all the pressure on him to continue the subpoena power that expired midnight this monday night. there's a change in regime, basically, in the state assembly in trenton. everybody wants this investigation to continue. he'd be crazy to say, i'm going to discontinue subpoena power. so he has called a special session for thursday so that the assembly can vote to continue the investigation. >> so you don't see any scenario here where it will not be continued? >> absolutely not. >> the biggest revelation so far today is that a member of the governor's inner circle, regina agia, knew about the complaints about the lane closures? >> nobody wants their names mentioned in any of the e-mails.

but just because your name is mentioned doesn't mean you're guilty of anything, necessarily. there are several new names that came out in the past 24 hours mentioned prom dentally in the documents. regina agea, the longtime press secretary. david sampson, distinguished former state attorney general, the chairman of the port authority, their names are now -- they're in e-mails. and you don't want that at this point in this investigation or this scandal. but they're not in e-mails in any way that necessarily prove that they did anything improper yet. we'll see where it goes. >> but does it raise your curiosity, though, considering that some of these people are rather high up in his inner circle? does it raise the question more in your head that he could have known more than he said? >> absolutely. it raises a lot of questions. it raises questions whether

these individuals i just named knew that the traffic study was more or less bogus. it raises the question of whether the governor knew. it raises the question of whether some pretty high-up people in his campaign who have not yet been mentioned publicly in this also may have known. bill steppian was the campaign manager. two or three other people who were very high up in that campaign, we're waiting to see if they knew. >> as you said earlier, this is under investigation. so we'll find out more as we go along. but one of the possibilities is, could this be governor aides doing what they think their boss wants them to do? >> yes, it certainly could be. at this point, that's what chris christie wants you to believe -- he doesn't want you to believe that he created a culture that encourages this type of behavior. he says this was the exception, not the rule. but that's exactly what it could be. it could have been bill steppian

and bridget kelly deciding, let's go after this fort lee mayor and not informing anybody else ahead of time. that's where we are at this point. >> i want to show you another e-mail that we just got. here it is. i want to read some of it to you. this was just uncovered from jose rivera who held the position of chief traffic engineer for the port authority of new york and new jersey. he writes, quote, peter, my traffic operations staff has been in touch with the facility, below is an aem from bob on this morning's test. the word test is in quotation marks. does this indicate thing? >> peter ziff is the chief traffic engineer there. bob durando runs the george washington bridge. this is consistent with what we've been hearing all along, which is that the professionals at the port authority were skeptical about this test or study from the very beginning but were carrying out what they were being told to do by david wildstein and bill baroni. >> new jersey democrats have called the governor out on what

they say is political retribution. let's take a listen to this. >> who would have thought that you would punish any elected official by closing the george washington bridge? it's the busiest bridge in the world. 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. >> well, you've followed the governor. do you have any sense yourself this is something that he would do? >> i have to say that this governor has been known to be a hardball player. i'm not saying that he knew about this lane closure ahead of time. many of us didn't think it was such a big deal for a while. it now has -- in hindsight it

looks so stupid. but playing tough and retribution and vindictiveness are not totally foreign to the chris christie operation. >> interesting. michael aaron, thanks very much. >> thanks, milissa. now details in that massive security breach that left millions of target customers vulnerable to identity theft at the peak of the holiday shopping season. the retailer now says as many as 110 million customers were affected. that is significantly more than the 40 million that were reported last month. that is because target says hackers were also able to steal non-credit card-related data, names, e-mails, phone numbers, even mailing addresses from as many as 70 million customers. ben popken joins us. explain this new discrepancy in the number of people being affected so much higher than

originally thought? >> basically up to a third after americans may have had their data stolen during this recent breach. that's what target is telling us. on friday they announced 70 million had their data -- personal data stolen. that's on top of the 40 million accounts -- credit and debit card accounts we already knew about. 110 million is at the top of what it could be. but it's at least 70 million. either way, it's a really big number and a lot of people with their personal information exposed in who know's hands right now. >> did people who didn't even shop at target during that time, could they also be vulnerable? >> that's the implication from the messaging that target is giving. they said that this 70 million -- that the data was obtained during the normal course of business and was not necessarily limited to that time frame that we already knew about. so you can parse that however you want. and there are some scary ways to do that. but basically it means that

there's more to this story than we know. and maybe even target knows at this point. >> we've also learned now, of course, that neiman marcus was the victim of a security breach in mid december. the retailer is working with the secret service to notify customers whose information may have been stolen. so may are companies at such a high risk right now for these types of breaches? >> basically, we're looking at what happens when you have a credit card system that is running off a design that was made in the '60s. we basically have a cassette tape pasted to the back of a piece of plastic. elsewhere in the world, they've all switched mainly to the chip and pin system which puts an electromagnetic chip in the card and it means that breaches like this, they're not able to steal your data and monetize it and sell it on the black market and have fraudulent charges show up on your account. there are exploits in the sys m

system. a lot of accounts, a lot of money at stake. they're going to keep looking for ways to do it. >> if you're one of these perhaps 110 americans, what should you do if you feel your data may have been stolen? >> sure. frighteningly, there's not much you can do. but watch your accounts, make sure to spot any suspicious charges, report them immediately. if you do have fraudulent charges, the banks are going to eat it. you're not going to be responsible. and what people should watch out for are phishing scams. target is going to be giving free identity theft monitoring to all their u.s. customers for a year. but it's very likely that fischphis fischphis phishers may send out e-mails asking you to turn over your social security number to more hackers. >> that's terrifying. >> watch out for those and always protect your p.i.n., the

four-digit code when you go to the atm. swipe your debit card as credit and sign. don't put it in the pad even though there's no indication that pins were stolen in this breach, in the next one, you want to make sure that that data was never intrentered in their system. >> ben popken, thank you. >> thanks. former israeli prime minister ariel sharon died today at the age of 85. sharon had been hospitalized since 2006 when he fell into a coma after suffering a stroke. nbc's martin fletcher has worked and lived in the middle east for three decades now and he joins us from london. thank you for being here, martin. >> reporter: hi, milissa. >> hi. you have covered ariel sharon for years. you've met him, talked with him. how do you think he will be remembered? >> reporter: well, i think you said it, controversially, as you said. he was an army general who was notorious throughout his military career as a man who disobeyed orders or twisted them. yet he was known as israel's

greatest soldier. and he went on to be an early champion of jewish settlers. then he became the man who threw out the last settlers in gaza. love him or hate him, sharon was larger than life. i think in israel, he's going to be remembered as one of the greatest or the founding fathers of the country but never an easy man. >> how different might the map of israel look today if he had been able to stay in office before becoming ill? >> reporter: i couldn't hear you. >> how do you think the map of israel would be different today somehow if ariel sharon had been able to continue in office rather than becoming so ill? >> reporter: well, that's a great question. it was believed that when ariel sharon as the prime minister after gaza was going to make new moves on the west bank to empty

parts of the west bank of jewish settlers from there, too, but it wasn't that sharon was really focused on making quick peace with the palestinians. he was much more concerned with israel's security. and he believed that to guarantee israel's security in the future, they were going to have to make what he called painful concessions, which is a phrase that israeli prime ministers after him kept using. he kept saying painful concessio concessions. what sharon would have done, he would have moved out of parts of the west bank. but in doing so, he would not have reached a peace agreement with the palestinians. it would have been a unilateral move. the map would look different. but there wouldn't be peace with the palestinians. whatever sharon wanted to do, whatever he wanted to give would never be enough for the palestinians. so the conflict would have continued but from a position that sharon would have believed was a better security position for israel to be in. of course, sharon, the former general, former defense minister, in israel was known as

mr. security. probably he could have done a lot more than the subsequent prime ministers have done to reach an agreement with the palestinians but it would never have been enough. >> what do you expect that we will see both in israel and also the west bank in gaza on monday, the day of the funeral? >> reporter: there's going to be a lot of sympathy. first of all, there's going to be a state ceremony in jerusalem. then his body will be taking down to the farm where he's going to be buried next to his wife, lily. i think in israel, there's going to be a lot of sympathy. there's a lot of hostility towards the man throughout his career, his political career. but his recognition as a military man, sharon was one of the greats of israel's defense forces. as i mentioned before, he was known as mr. security. west bank and gaza, different story entirely, of course. there, sharon was always remembered in a much more negative terms. he was a man who many say

they're happy that sharon was dead, that his hands were washed in the blood of the palestinians. so in gaza already, there's been celebrations in the streets and probably on monday, that will continue. all around the arab world, there's a sense that an evil man died. that's the way many arabs see it. but on both sides of the divide, the israeli side and the arab side, it's obvious that each side is going to react in the way that it is reacting. but he's a controversial figure, a great person, a very controversial person on both sides of the divide, arab and israeli. >> nbc's martin fletcher, thank you very much. >> reporter: thank you. discrimination and discipline, the feds announce reforms to end school punishments they say unfairly target black and latino students. the efforts to shut down the school-to-prison pipeline. high demand and running low. a big surprise from colorado's

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bringing new attention to harsh punishments in schools. administration officials this week urge educators across the country to move away from practices that suspend students for slight infractions and unfairly target minorities. this is in hopes of keeping students off a school-to-prison pipeline. >> effective discipline is and always will be a necessity. but a routine school discipline infraction should land a student in the principal's office, not in a police precinct. >> 49% of african-american males are arrested by age 23.

robert brame is a professor at the university of south carolina. steve perry is a principal at a magnet school in connecticut. and glen martin is president of just leadership usa, an advocacy group aimed at cutting the u.s. prison population. dr. perry, let's begin with you. what are the guidelines, the new guidelines that the government is proposing for school discipline and will it really make a difference in the education of minority students? >> it's imperative that we find a way to make sure that african-american and latino males stay in the classroom. we have to retrain our educators to understand that everything that's an infraction doesn't require further action that may end the child up being suspended. we have to work harder at following the data to show our own selves that we may not be doing the best job by sending certain children out of class and ultimately suspending them.

>> nearly half of african-american males have been arrested by age 23, your study found. how does that number compare to previous years? >> well, what i would say is that the study we conducted captured people who were 12 to 16 years at the end of 1996. it's a nationally representative sample and follows those folks forward up to 2008. so every year the folks were asked whether they had been arrested for something other than a minor traffic offense. we built those histories up to age 23. and that's what we found, about 49% of black males, about 44% of hispanic males, about 38% of white males self-reported that they had been arrested. and that really was the first time anybody had compiled these particular statistics since the

1960s. so there's not a lot of previous information to compare to. >> glen, over to you, at what age do kids who are kicked out of school for something minor really start to fall prey to the criminal justice system, in your opinion? >> in the united states, we have 5% of the world's population, yet we have 25% of the world's prison population. you don't just get there overnight. you get there from having these sort of policies. if you put law enforcement in schools, what you end up having is -- if you're a hammer, everything looks like a nail f. you're a law enforcement officer and you see a schoolyard fight, you respond to that as an assault and you put people into the system. the problem with putting young people into the system, there are collateral consequences that come along with any sort of involvement in the system, including an arrest, which removes opportunities for education, jobs, voting and so on. >> drach. perry, what about

african-american girls? are they more likely to complete school than their male counterparts? >> they absolutely are. one of the bigger issues is we've criminalized the behavior of our boys all the way down to pre-k. we send our children home more often than any other population. >> glenn, why is now a time when real reform could be achieved? >> sure. i'm actually very pleased that the attorney general is finally seeing that our war on drugs is a failure and addressing all the collateral consequences that comes with criminal convictions. part of the impetus came from 2008 when the economy crashed and people started taking a look at our budgets closely and realized we were spending $80 billion to run our prison systems in the united states. it's a system that's not just not sustainable at that cost but i can't think of any other industry that would have such a failure rate. two-thirds of people who come home from prison go back to

prison within two to three years. our criminal justice system continues to operate, though. >> professor, from your research, how effective could a change in how kids are disciplined in schools be to arrest rates themselves? >> well, that's a difficult question. our research didn't really address that. but what we do know, i would echo the other comments, we know that arrests create serious baggage for young people as they make the transition from adolescence to adulthood. so there are lots of problems that flow from arrest experiences. and so as a society, we need to be very careful in thinking about whether this is the right response to the kinds of behaviors that many kids engage in. >> okay. thank you all for being here today. >> thank you. while new jersey's governor is embroiled in bridgegate, the

new mayor of the big apple is dealing with a scandal of his own. bill de blasio was caught on camera eating pizza with a knife and fork. for shame. new york natives jokingly criticized the new mayor reminding him that new york pizza is meant to be eaten only one way, that would be with your hands. time for bill to ditch the silverwear. [ julie ] i've got to credit my mom. to help me become an olympian, she was pretty much okay with me turning her home into an ice rink. ♪ she'd just reach for the bounty select-a-size. it's the smaller, powerful sheet that acts like a big sheet. look, one select-a-size sheet of bounty is 50% more absorbent than a full size sheet of the leading ordinary brand. use less, with the small but powerful picker-upper, bounty select-a-size. use less, with the small but powerful picker-upper, is a really big deal.u with aches, fever and chills- there's no such thing as a little flu. so why treat it like it's a little cold?

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helping me stay more like me. [ female announcer ] boost complete nutritional drink has 26 essential vitamins and minerals, including calcium and vitamin d to support strong bones and 10 grams of protein to help maintain muscle. all with a delicious taste. grandpa! [ female announcer ] stay strong, stay active with boost. just 11 days into the mile high experiment, recreational marijuana sales are taking colorado by storm. so much so, suppliers are worried they're about to run out. cnbc's jane wells explains from denver. >> reporter: this is some grape eight for sale here at the 3-d cannabis center. they're running a little low. that's the biggest surprise. everyone new once it was legalized it was going to be popular in colorado. but perhaps no one expected it to be this popular. this is video from new year's day at this place when doored opened. there were long lines, it was crazy. they had to shut down two days this week to restock and over at

the river rock wellness center where they only sell medical marijuana, they're not going to sell recreational pot for another month to let more plants mature, assess the market and build up inventory. >> colorado is running out of pot. as you see around us, there's a lot more behind it. it's going to take a while for the supply to meet up with the demand. it's not a question of six months or a year, might be three or four years. >> reporter: really? three or four years to catch up? >> i think so, yes. it's a question of infrastructure. we need to build greenhouses. we have to build indoor grow rooms. it's an expensive proposition. we don't have access to traditional banking. so finding the financing to capitalize the businesses and increase the infrastructure has been very difficult. we have to go to private equity, to venture capital. >> reporter: how much are prices going up because of scarcity? >> 200%. >> reporter: right afterwards, he hopped on a plane to

connecticut where he is applying for a medical marijuana license there. without traditional financing to build out infrastructure, the rollout is unlike any other business you've ever seen. jane wells in denver. back to you. other top stories making news now, nine counties in west virginia remain in a state of emergency after a chemical spill left 300,000 people without tap water. as many as 5,000 gallons of a chemical leaked into the river on thursday near charleston. residents are told not to drink, bathe or wash dishes or even clothing in that water. the drug scandal continues to grow in the air force. now officers in charge of nuclear weapons are involved. at least ten officers at six different bases in the u.s. and britain are suspected of possession of synthetic marijuana and ecstasy. two of the officers stationed at an air force base in montana were launch officers responsible for nuclear armed missiles. and alex rodriguez is suspended for the entire 2014 season, that includes the postseason.

an independent arbitrator upheld the majority of a 211-game suspension that he received last august for his connection to the biogen sis scandal that led to the suspension of 12 other players. next, the nfl's fight off the field, first, a fan sues over high price super bowl tickets and now a major settlement over player concussions could fall apart. plus, christie's crisis, will the bridge crisis be a simple traffic jam or a potential roadblock to a potential 2016 nomination? own . own . it's a stationery and gifts store. anything we purchase for the paper cottage goes on our ink card. so you can manage your business expenses and access them online instantly with the game changing app from ink. we didn't get into business to spend time managing receipts, that's why we have ink. we like being in business because we like being creative, we like interacting with people. so you have time to focus on the things you love. ink from chase.

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going for thousands per person. let's start out with this lawsuit. the man's name is josh finkelman. he claims the nfl's ticket distribution practices for the super bowl make it too expensive for the average fan. i want to read this. according to his lawsuit, finkelman claims the nfl only made 1% of super bowl tickets available to the general public and that falls short of the 5% required by new jersey's consumer fraud law. how significant do you think this lawsuit is? >> well, i think this lawsuit is largely a cross between a publicity stunt and the kind of litigation tourism that occurs in response to new jersey's very aggressive consumer fraud act. the lawsuit gets a lot of the facts wrong. principally, the fact that the nfl haq allocates 75% of all

ticketses to the member clubs and they are responsible for the sales of an allocation of those tickets to those player who are entitled to those tickets under the cba, to their local business relationships and to their local fans. the nfl is only responsible for 25% of the tickets allocated by the super bowl. some of those tickets go to the host committee, for example, the new jersey/new york coast committee sponsoring the super bowl. tickets even go to the new jersey department of health who is using them to motivate a blood drive. everybody who gives blood is entitled to enter a lottery for tickets. >> i want to read a statement from the nfl. word for word because that's important -- the super bowl ticket distribution process has been in existence for years and is well documented. we have confident it is in compliance with all applicable laws. any chance the nfl will change this policy in the future? >> well, the nfl is actually

constantly improving the policy. for example, this year, to avoid scalping and other forms of abuse of tickets, many fans will have to pick up their tickets at the game so that they can't be resold. the nfl has actually lowered the price of 40% of the tickets available to fans this year so that they are under the $1,000 mark which hasn't always been the case. the highest tickets are at the highest price the super bowl has ever sold them at, $2,600. but that's not where the arch fan is getting their tickets. >> let's switch to the concussion issue. this was not something that you were affiliated with when you were in the league. but this week, the league filed details of a $760 million settlement in federal court. but some players are opting out of this because they say in the grand scheme, it's not going to be enough. >> well, at this point, nobody has officially opted out. what's happening this week is that a settlement document

approved by both plaintiffs' counsel and the nfl is being filed with the court for preliminary approval. the next step is to notify every single potential class member, upwards 16,000 nfl former players. at that point, those players can choose to do nothing, meaning they will remain in the lawsuit and be compensated through this fund. they can object, meaning they remain in the class but they want certain things about the settlement to be adjusted. or they can opt out. nobody has yet formally opted out. >> what is the risk they take with opting out? >> well, the risk for the players is actually significant. what it means is that they start litigating those claims at square one. and every single legal and factual obstacle to success on those claims remains theirs individually to try to overcome. those obstacles are significant. one of the benefits for the settlements for the players is they don't have to prove causation. they don't have to prove the nfl caused their injury, that

contact -- concussions during games caused their injuries. they are presumed to be entitled to compensation from the fund if they have a certain level of neurocognitive impairment, regardless of how it happened. >> thank you. the chris christie scandal, the news broke before his second term even began, what this could mean for his national ambitions. that's next. hey guys! sorry we're late. did you run into traffic? no, just had to stop by the house to grab a few things. 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. personalized home security and automation. get professionally monitored security for just $29.99 a month. with limited availability in select markets. ♪

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♪ just pack them in our flat rate box ♪ ♪ we'll come to your door and return them ♪ ♪ gifts you bought but never gave away ♪ ♪ or said you liked but thought were cheesy ♪ ♪ you don't even need to leave your house ♪ ♪ we'll come and take them, easy-peasy ♪ [ female announcer ] no one returns the holidays like the u.s. postal service. with improved priority mail flat rate, just print a label, schedule a pickup, and return those gifts at a same low flat rate. it is january 2014 and we could be looking at the presidential scandal of the 2016 campaign. we're talking about new jersey governor chris christie and the furor of shutdown access of the george washington bridge. we heard from him on thursday. >> i am embarrassed and humiliated by the conduct of some of the people on my team.

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. i was blindsided yesterday morning. we have nothing to hide and this administration has nothing to hide. >> let's bring in our "brain trust." dana milbank, political columnist for "the washington post." dave weigel, msnbc contributor. and amy holmes, anchor of "the hot list" at the blaze. dana, you really didn't cut the governor any slack here. you wrote that he turned this nationally televised news conference into a forum on the virtues of his favorite subject, which is himself. >> yeah. i don't suspect that his standing in his own eyes has been diminished at all by this thing.

in fact, we did a little tally using the transcript, i think it was 680-something times he used the word "i" and several hundred other references to the first person. he'd rather not be getting all this national attention for this particular reason. but i suspect he's got enough time to recover, this is not the last we've heard of chris christie. >> amy, question to you, we have a new e-mail here. the chair of the new jersey legislative panel investigating this bridge closure said, if it is proven that governor christie was involved in this, that it is an impeachable offense. >> that may be. i don't know the new jersey legislature's rules on that case. but it would also mean that he would be finished nationally as a presidential contender in 2016. but i think we're getting ahead of ourselves. we need to look at this at the political equivalent of lapband surgery. other politicians have probably

be smiling at what's happening to the new jersey governor. >> dave, you asked your readers to help build a list of petty chris christie scandals. how big is that list going to get? >> a couple dozen. if a politician becomes this popular, some of the pettier, smaller rumors and scandals just don't become a section of his narrative. you could find pretty easily -- republican strategists have lots of stories about the christie entourage being bullying or overbearing with democrats complaining about the things he'd cut them out of. a story that got no attention last year, because he was winning, was that the former governor had his security detail taken away after a disagreement with christie. there are so many ways he's cut and stabbed his opponent and gotten away with it. since the creation of his public image, he's been popular.

what amy said is very true. people in the republican party and the democratic party are very happy these stories are getting heard again. >> dana, i want to ask you about that as well because it's been mentioned twice so far that members of his own party may actually be cheering today. do you think that is true? and what do you think are the reasons why members of his own party seem to have a dislike for the governor? >> well, he's had it pretty easy, to march to front-runner status this way, aided and abetted by the media, of course. he represents what's left of the establishment in the republican party. but the bulk of people who are really heavily involved in the party, the activists, are conservatives. and they don't like this guy one bit whatsoever. so i think a lot of them would like to say that he's toast right now. that's entirely premature. but what's really significant here is he has a u.s. attorney looking into his office now.

that's not going away for another year or so. that's going to freeze up a lot of endorsements he might get running for president. it's going to freeze up a lot of the money he might be able to raise. it's not knocked him out. but it's a very serious thing that goes well beyond a couple of traffic lanes on a bridge going into new york. >> amy, do you agree with that? >> i do. i think there are a couple of dynamics going on here. political professionals are waiting to see if another shoe drops. secondly, as dana mentioned, conservatives have had a testy relationship with the governor. but it's sort of ironic that in this case, he sort of earned the ire of conservatives and the romney campaign for embracing democrats, for wrapping his arms around president obama right before the election. now he's getting it on the other side with vindictive behavior by his staff. >> dave, who has the most to gain from governor christie's misfortune? >> i think somebody like a scott walker, somebody like a paul ryan. people we know already had

pretty close and friendly relationships with major republican donors. christie wasn't just a front-runner because the polling was so good. he had very -- when traffic wasn't bad, he could go right over the bridge to new york city and meet with david koch, meet with hedge fund managers and people who in 2011 literally begged him to run for president. literally begged him to save the republican party for president. if those guys are not confident in him, they're going to remember paul ryan's phone number and remember people who we just didn't write off exactly but didn't need to come into the conversation because christie had such a mind meld with the wealthiest forces in the party. >> amy u one more question. do you think at this point -- like we were just mentioning, that this investigation will continue. it's not really going to go away anytime soon. do you have any feelings about his political future at this point as this goes forward?

>> i think governor christie has been certainly by this episode -- democrats are going to certainly take advantage of every single single report, every investigation, every text male or text and e-mail that might point to the governor or toppling his governorship. >> guys stay right there. the house just voted to increase security on exchanges. were they protecting you or themselves? that's next. the middle east? canada? or the u.s.? the answer is... the u.s. ♪ most of america's energy comes from right here at home. take the energy quiz. energy lives here.

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we are back with our brain trust. while washington mass been talking about the nsa keeping tabs on our phone calls, there is the truly disturbing news from target that hackers may have stolen information from nearly 110 million people. dana, let's go to you.

the bill requires required the public to be notified of any breaches on that site. are they doing enough to protect the publicline? >> the overall issue is of course a serious one. but when it comes to what the house was doing this week, i hope you will forgive me for being a bit cynical in saying they're being a bit opportunistic in trying to create yet another problem for obamacare. reince priebus had a teleconference with report ther this week to unveil his plan. his first three priorities were obamacare, obamacare and obamacare. whether or not there's a problem with this health care law, that is what the republicans are going to keep front and center for everybody. >> who should be taking the lead to fight cyber crime, the government or private industry? >> everybody.

of course the republicans are going after obamacare. the government set up a web site that is apparently a hacker's web site. they need to fix the web site so that folks who go on it have their information secure. when you look at the target fiasco, this is a private company that has every incentive to have the toughest security possible for their customers. i'm sure that they are losing tens of millions of dollars in customers who don't trust going to their stores. so if target can't protect the security of their customers, are we really trusting the government with healthcare.gov? >> let's take a look at some of the stories our brain trust think were overlooked and underplayed this week. dana, let's start with you. >> i think the real problem this week was that the democrats wimped out on the unemployment insurance. they were given this gift of a terrific issue to beat up the republicans on a great populist issue and, you know what, they made a little noise but b it but they should be out there

screaming and hollering about this and forcing the republicans to accept this without paying for it with something else just like all the tax cuts during the bush years were not paid for. >> dave, how about you? >> i thought an underplayed story this week was bob goodlatte waking back up to immigration reform. he gave an interview to hispanic media this week saying he's open to a lot of what was discussed the end of last year. one group noticed on his personal web site he changed his language about immigration. so we wrote that off. immigration might actually happen in year, in reform. >> amy, quickly to you. >> a story i think has been vastly overlooked is the story of the middle east.

the borders of the middle east might be melting and it is another obama campaign promise that has gone bust. he said al qaeda was on the run and evidence is that al qaeda has never been stronger. >> thanks for watching. i'll be back tomorrow at 3:00 p.m. eastern time. among our guest, transportation ticket ray lahood but first, "dirupt" with karen finney is next. dchb sbrz as much we really wanted to take a relaxing trip to florida. you know? just to unwind. but we can only afford one trip this year, and his high school reunion is coming up in seattle. everyone's going. then we heard about hotwire...

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[ telephone rings ] [ shirley ] edward jones. this is shirley speaking. how may i help you? oh hey, neill, how are you? how was the trip?

[ male announcer ] with nearly 7 million investors... [ shirley ] he's right here. hold on one sec. [ male announcer ] ...you'd expect us to have a highly skilled call center. kevin, neill holley's on line one. ok, great. [ male announcer ] and we do. it's how edward jones makes sense of investing. ♪ . hello, disrupters. i'm karen finney. we have a lot to talk about as a massive document dumps opens up lanes about governor chris christie. it is far from handled. >> everyone's talking about it. >> i know how angry i am when i'm in traffic and i'm always wondering, who did this? >> i had no knowledge of this, of planning, or the execution or anything about it. >> either