"now" starts right now. chris christie talks and he's talking about a bridge to 2016. it's friday, march 28 and this is "now" live from washington, d.c. >> his first news conference since january 9. >> if f chris christie survives, this chris christie is going to run for president. >> trenton makes, the world takes. >> the fact of the matter is i had nothing to do with this. >> a lot of this is theatrics at this point. >> 2:30 on a friday afternoon, it's a good time when you want to bury a story. >> why don't you get to the question and cut the commentary back a it will. >> this new report is being slammed by democrats. >> the report discredits bridget kelly and david wildstein. >> the attacks are so sexist and gras tu technical assistance. >> there's an odd insinuation that she's a jilted woman. >> this is the most elaborate one we've seen in a long, long time. >> the performance of the lawyer. >> he looked like he was

enjoying the press conference. >> it was propaganda. it raises has questions as it answers. >> anybody who tries to game out the politics of this kind of stuff years in advance, that's a fool's errand. >> this has all the markings of a very carefully orchestrated rollout campaign. >> christie needed a credible narrative in order to take any presidential hopes forward. >> if chris christie survives this, chris christie's going to run for president. i'm luke russert in for the great ago lex wagner. new jersey governor chris christie, he just wrapped up his first news conference in eight days, the first since his two-hour q&a on bridgegate back in january 9. it comes after an internal investigation that declared christie completely indicated in the planning and execution of four days of lane closures and ensuing traffic jams at the george washington bridge last september. despite critics blasting the report as a self-commissioned

whitewash at taxpayer expense, christie defended the integrity of the investigation. >> no matter who i chose to do this questions would be raised by some quarters as to those people's objectivity. my answer to that is "look at t the report." we gave them unfettered complete access to everyone in this government. well, that report cited christie's former point -- port authority point man david wildstein and former deputy chief of staff bridget kelly as the people behind bridgegate, it failed to come up with a motive behind the closures and today christie said he's equally baffled. >> i don't know if we'll know what the motive is. as i said when i was here january 9, it mystifies me on every level why this was done on the part of mr. wildstein and ms. kelly. some type of nefarious or

inappropriate motivation. >> today christie laid a fair share of the blame on problems at the port authority saying his initial reaction to the lane closures was colored by a history of conflict that existed there. >> there was, as you can see from the report, a history of conflict between these folks at the port authority. we believed it was an operational issue with the port authority that they needed to deal with and we told them deal with it and that's where it ended. so part of the problem with all this is that all of us -- you, me, and everybody -- is now looking through the retrospectroscope. you're always smarter and you always know more when that you have. >> christie announced today in light of the internal report's findings that he wants to examine whether or not to split the massive bi-state agency into two. and that he's accepted the resignation of port authority chairman david sampson. the timing of that resignation is raising all sorts of

questions, particularly since sampson and his law firm chose not to cooperate with the internal bridge gate inquiry and is under investigation on separate issues of alleged conflict of interest. christie claimed today sampson wanted to retire for some time telling him more than a year ago that he's "tired." joining me now nbc news investigative correspondent michael isikoff and senior political reporter for nj.com, daryl isherwood. thank you so much for being on the show. mike, i want to go to you. we went through another christie press conference, long in length and still it seems that after this $1 million investigation it's unclear what the motive was behind the closure of those lanes at george washington bridge. >> right, still a lot of unanswered questions here but i have to say, you know, the main take away from this press conference is this is the old christie. he's got his game back, he's chipper, self-confident, combative with reporters, belittling their questions. clearly he feels emboldened by

this report. it's sort of like you got nothing on me here. that's the sort of -- you know, what he's trying to convey. but that said i was a little surprised that reporters did not drill down on what remains the biggest unanswered question and this is what did david wildstein tell christie when they -- in that september 11 memorial event. we know from the report that wildstein has said he told the governor something about a traffic study or a traffic issue. christie says, according to the report, he doesn't remember it. but, you know, until we hear david wildstein's account the questions about bridge gate are going to remain out there. the other point i want to make about this you know the news here was david sampson resigning and i've got to say, in some respects that state ledgety committee may have blown it because they did not call david sampson until now, we know he

didn't cooperate, simpson with the -- with christie's own investigation. now there's no way they're going to get his testimony, he's out of office, he doesn't have to testify, he'll invoke his fifth amendment rights so the last remaining public official out there who could have answered questions about this is sort of outside the orbit of of the state legislative committee and, you know, some people are going to say why didn't they move quicker? why didn't they get sampson, try to lock him in his testimony while he was in office. >> daryl, i want to pose that question to you because something that happens here in washington, interestingly enough, a member of comes comes under investigation for the ethics committee, a lot of times they magically retire or say they're taking on other interests. david sampson, his retirement here, what does it suggest about this investigation and, as michael just said, does this throw a real wrench in the plans of any investigation that was going to be done on the local or state level? >> david sampson had to go, there was question about it.

it's become a huge distraction on this thing. report after report after report has surfaced of potential at least alleged conflicts of interest in his deals with his private law firm and port authority. he had to go at some point. it was a matter of when and i think they were trying to engineer his exit so that it didn't make him look guilty. you know, when the first instances surfaced, first allegations surfaced if he retires that day and says i'm out of here that will make him look guilty and it got the point where they had no other options. he was continually a distraction. as for legislative committee, i agree. i don't know that they were getting his testimony given what randy mastro said. he just basically declined to cooperate. i think christie said today he used his representation of clients as his excuse. i don't know that they were getting anything out of him anyway but that's absolutely a missed opportunity. he's gone now. they're never going to hear from them. the funny thing is, there are so many unanswered questions and there's four people who can answer them, nobody has spoken

to any of the four of them, maybe three people and four if you count sampson, five if you count bill barony at the port authority as well and nobody's spoken to any of them. i don't know how we can declare anything over, shut, done, exhaustive, comprehensive without speaking to those four people. >> and interestingly enough, a lot of the impetus is put on this report and its objectivity comes from this guy mastro. i want to play a clip he said on fox. >> i've held regular press briefings throughout my administration -- >> sorry, we don't have the clip i wanted. basically, mastro has taken on this role which some have speculated is like a defense attorney for chris christie, saying "i've worked for folks like bill de blasio, i'm completely objective." is that is right of the idea of the rehab of chris christie. you saw he had pep in his step today. did we see the launch of 2016 chris christie today? this is the idea, go back against the media, go on the

information contained in this report and basically call everybody else who's questioning the validity of this as somebody who has an agenda out to take down the governor? >> yeah, i think michael said it at the top. this was the old chris christie, he was back, he was battling with the media, he was sparring, he had that pep in his step. and i think the strategy here in terms of his 2016 strategy is this. he get this is report today that exonerates him. now we wait for the u.s. attorney to come forward and do what he's going to do. my understanding is, you know, and if you think this through, the u.s. attorney doesn't care about the politics and optics of what went on on the bridge. we care about the law. if there was a law broken maybe they charge somebody. if not he's going close his investigation and it goes away on that front. if christie gets that all clear from the u.s. attorney, now all he's got is this partisan witch flunt the legislative committee and that's an easy fight for them to pick. he's got democrats who are pushing the narrative. his criticism all along has been the rush to judgment, the

partisan attacks. if he's got two reports out there -- one being mastro's, the other being the u.s. attorney -- that exonerate him, that third front is a fairly easy one for him to take on and as i've heard a lot of people speculate, that's red meat to the right wing. that's red meat to the people he wants support from for the presidency. you know, the democratically -- the liberal media is after me, the democrats in the legislature are after me. >> so one-two punch. the liberal media mixed with the corrupt state legislature that's ruined new jersey forever, they're trying to take me down because i instituted change. it's a brilliant political strategy if the u.s. attorney one is not that bad. michael, i want to go to you on this top chick has come up which is the issue of sexism pertaining to bridget kelly's treatment within this report. i want to read some quotes the "new york times" picked out. they said quote "she seemed emotional. she was habitually concerned about how she was perceived by the governor. a boyfriend had ended a

relationship." that's in reference to one of the christie officials she was with. "the report commissioned by mr. christie and released thursday doubles down on a strategy of portraying miss kelly as duplicitous, weeping frequently and dependent on men for approval and stability." there's a lot of talk that this is a sexist play here within this report trying to discredit kelly, trying to say that she was not emotionally e dwoipt hand al decision like this and perhaps that was the reason that she was upset about a jilted lover that she closed down the bridge. how does that play, mike? >> right, i think's a lot in there that, you know, supreme found -- critics have found gratuitous, a lot of personal details about bridgette kelly, the relationship. at one point it says she was deleting e-mails because she was concerned her children might see what she had written to her ex-husband. i mean, these are kind of details that seem to have no place in the report, to shed no

light on the core issues. one thing i should point out is we haven't heard from bridget kelly's lawyer since this report came out. he seems to be keeping his powder dry but it's michael crisply, he's known as a tough combative lawyer himself. he sort of forewarned, i'm told, the mastro people that if they came dun too hard on his client he might fire back. i think that 's the shoe we should be looking for that could be the next one to drop -- the response from bridget kelly. >> daryl, one last one to you. some of the suggestions in this report shows the governor's staff should go over ethics train, there should be an option buds man. how much of that will play well in new jersey? like, oh, my gosh, we have ethics training and an impartial set of eyes on this that it could make for substantive change. >> i don't think it will matter that much. we're kind of known for our

corruption and questionable ethics. i'm not really sure that installing two new people to keep an eye on things will change the perception any. i think that's a -- there's some optics there that are good for the governor but i'm not sure in the long run -- >> 360 page$360 pages, $1 milli an option buds man. indeed. thank you so much for being on the show. just ahead, the affordable care act clears the six million mark no thanks to some meager efforts at the state level. jonathan cape heart joins me for a look at the latest affordable care act project report. but a major new need the mystery of malaysia flight 370. the crews that have shifted the search area hundreds of miles. that's next on "now."

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new developments today in the continuing search for malaysia airlines flight mh-370. earlier today, australia officials shifted their search for the missing secret by nearly 700 miles, citing new analysis that the plane was flying faster and burning more fuel than previously estimated. the new search area suggests the plane burned this more fuel in the opening stages of its flight and did not make it as far before running out of fuel and crashing. according to australia authorities, five out of ten planes in the new area spotted objects in the water, including objects that were white or light in do or will spotted by the royal nova scotia air force. that's the color of the plane. crews are awaiting confirmation tomorrow. nbc ian williams joins us from effort the latest. ian? >> reporter: good day to you,

luke. important new leads potentially within hours of a search beginning in this new area. no less than five aircraft reported seeing objects floating in the ocean. a new zealand air force plane said there were several in light or white color. an australian air force plane that went into verify that said it saw rectangular items, large blue or gray in color. photographs were taken and they're being examined overnight. the search authorities here are being cautious because we seem to have had so many false leads in this search, but a chinese ship has been tasked with going in there tomorrow and seeing what it can fish from the water to try and verify precisely what it is that was seen. now the conditions in this new search area are better. the weather is generally kinder than further south. it's also closer to the australian mainland so it's easier to get out there by aircraft and they can spend more time looking and searching and seeing what is in what is still

a very vast area, 123,000 square miles. but an important lead which we should be able to verify once that chinese ship -- if that chinese ship can find the debris out there tomorrow, luke. nbc's ian williams there in perth. thank you so much. coming up, alex sits down with the stars of the new film "cesar chavez" rosario dowson and america ferrera. they describe their experience chronicling the labor rights leader just ahead. as the u.s. and congress hold key votes on ukraine, new reports of tens of thousands of russian troops moving towards the border. "the daily beast's" josh rogan joins me next. don't go anywhere. my mother and my grandmother are very old fashioned. i think we both are clean freaks. i used to scrub the floor on my knees. [ daughter ] i've mastered the art of foot cleaning.

dawson.

five weeks after he fled kiev for russia, ukraine's ousted president viktor yanukovych made a plea to his country for each region to hold a referendum on its status within ukraine instead of a presidential election which is supposed to happen on may 25. telling the ukrainian people "don't give in to imposters." those so-called imposters, the one who protested the corruption of yanukovych's government for months on end are now running the government in kiev so yanukovych's plea is likely to fall on deaf ears. in recent days following russia's annexation of crimea, ukraine's interim government has received big is cant international support. the imf approved up to $18 billion in lending assistance. the u.s. congress is expected to vote on a bill early next week to send one billion dollars in aid and yesterday the u.n. general assembly declared russia's annexation of crimea as "invalid." but concerns still remain over the tens of thousands of russian troops that remain on the border

of eastern ukraine. according to the "daily beast's" josh rogan, the u.s. state department believes the russian army is now prepared to launch an invasion of eastern ukraine if president vladimir putin decides to pull the trigger according to a senior administration official. at this point, they are amassed and they could go at a moment's notice putin gave the go-ahead, the official said. in an interview with cbs news's scott pelley, president obama was asked about those russian troops. >> it may simply be an effort to intimidate ukraine or it may be that they've got additional plans and in either case what we need right now to resolve and deescalate the situation would be for russia to move back those troops and to begin negotiations directly with the ukrainian government as well as the international community. >> joining me now senior national security correspondent for the daily beast mr. josh

rogan. josh, thanks so much for being on the program. >> great to be with you, luke. >> i've got to start you off. you and a few others are reporting, russia amassing thousands of troops on that ukrainian border. from the folks you talked to, what's the likelihood that putin, in fact, pulls the trigger and sends them in. >> nobody knows for sure but the best guest is that putin will continue to keep these troops on the boarder to distract the world from what he's actually doing inside ukraine and has been doing for weeks. we're talking about a soft invasion that's already well under way involving spies, saboteurs, mercenaries, thugs, creating all kinds of mischief all over southern and eastern ukraine. this allows putin to avoid the retaliation that the west has promised if he actually rolls columns of tanks over the ukrainian border but allows them to have influence to destabilize the ukrainian government in kiev and to leave the option out there of threatening ukraine for as long as he thinks is useful to him. >> that's an interesting point you just brought up because you're essentially saying that

putin's major power play now is to basically run a ghost war. he's going put folks in positions within ukraine that can bring down this very fragile interim government. how much can the u.s. really respond that? it's one of these things where you don't know who's on your side and who's not. >> right. the question is not how much can we respond to it it's how much will we respond to it. the u.s. has massive resources. we could will helping ukraine with intelligence, we could be helping their military train for an eventual confrontation. we could be doing a host of things. we're doing some things, not a lot of things but that soft invasion you're talking about is already going on. of course, that's exactly what happened in crimea before he actually did the real invasion so i'm not here to tell you that the real invasion won't happen. i'm saying that step one is already well under way. people know that. the ukrainian government is screaming about that. and that's having all sorts of horrible effects. one other possibility we should mention here is that what you might do is try to carve off a land bridge from russia to crimea.

right now you've got to get to crimea over watter if you're in russia. so he could take a couple towns along the border and call it a day. that's a third possibility and it's not clear what we would do in that case. >> i wanted to get your perspective on something i found fascinating from earlier in the week. on tuesday president obama deliberately dismissing russia as a "regional power" which we know is definitely a gut founch vladimir putin sort of saying "you're not only the global stage, you're not only out of the g-8, you're simply a regional power." from your perspective, was that a smart move by the obama administration considering how much power he has within syria and iran and various trade agreements and trading with do with european partners around the world regarding snrj. >> on the one hand, obama's right. he's correct on the facts. russia is not a world power anymore. there will be no more cold war because it's not an ideological struggle fought on six continents between our way of

life and theirs. that's not going to happen. was he trying to get a dig in at putin because putin's been insulting him? absolutely. so it's a smart thing to do if you want to play into a european and american audience. it's not a smart thing that you want to do to convince putin to play ball. in putin's mind he's being disrespect sod when you disrespect him more he's less likely to come to the table. i think obama administration has made the conclusion that putin's not going to come to the table for negotiations for now so they might as well insult him and get whatever benefit they can out of that. >> it brings up the question of what's the best way to move forward on this. there's competing opinions in the united states. i want to read two of them. fareed zakaria, the best way to deal with russia's aggression in crimea is not to present it as routine and foreign interest policy that will not be counted by washington in a contest between two great powers. it's to point out that obama did that russia is grossly endanger ago global order that has benefited the entire world. eric posner says in "slate" the west should do nothing.

the west can't win this contest and we shouldn't try. in the unlikely event that russia tries to conquer ukraine or estonia will thereby good reason to respond with military aid or force or economic sanctions but the russia stops with crimea it's hard to see what can be accomplished from the sanctions. hearing both of those perspectives, what do you think is the likely outcome? >> we can't do nothing and the reason is because now it has -- the issue no longer about crimea. now it's about american credibility and european credibility. that's happened. we can't unring that bell. what we need to realize is that putin's regime, like most autocratic regimes will be internally repressive and externally aggressive. that's their mo. so they'll continue to push until they meet resistance. we need to calculate our resistance so it doesn't escalate the crisis, at the same time telling putin there will be consequences. that's a tough calculation to make. we'll never get it perfectly right. everyone will criticize obama no matter what he does but there's

a middle ground between going to war with russia and letting crimea fall into russian control forever. >> real quickly, josh, the business interest the united states has with russia, pepsi a huge product over there, it's not like we'll completely shut the door off on them. there's so many u.s. businesses that would be greatly impacted by the in a negative way. >> ford. boeing has a huge contract in russia right now. there are big business interests. the consensus right now according to my source in that community is that these broad sanctions obama is talking about won't happen. the europeans are not on board with them and these would only be triggered if russia actually dawes hard push into ukraine and that hasn't happened so we'll wait and see. >> we'll see. josh rogan, a man who's very popular among state department reporters. thanks for being on the show. after the break, governor scott walker signs new legislation that would limit early voting and end weekend voting in wisconsin but should the state try to make it easier for citizens to exercise their right

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they work fast on heart burn and taste awesome. these are good. told ya! i'm feeling better already. alka-seltzer fruit chews. enjoy the relief! add wisconsin governor scott walker to the list of those seeming to limit early voting in their states. yesterday walker according to the a.p. "quietly signed into law a bill that limits in-person absentee voting to no later than 7:00 p.m. during the week and no weekend hours." this is actually second time that walker's limited early voting in his state. back in 2011 he cut early voting from three weeks to two weeks, including just one weekend. democrats accused walker of engaging in a thinly veiled attempt to reduce the turnout in the heavily democratic cities of milwaukee and madison. according to the milwaukee journal sentinel, republicans

said they were advancing the measure because they want voting hours to be more uniform around the state, particularly because rural offices don't have the staff to keep clerks offices open for early voting as late as their urban counterparts. others had different theories. "slate" joked "walker's bill is an effort to punish his state for a stellar turnout rate. the second-highest in the nation at 73.2%. but with his humor, he gets to the basic truth -- wisconsinites deserve to be applauded for casting their votes. voting is a good thing, not something a government should limit in the name of turnout politics. just ahead, one state does what congress has not done -- raise the minimum wage. we'll tell you where. that's next. [ bubbles, baby giggling ] [ mom ] when we're having this much fun, why quit? and new bounty has no quit in it either. watch how one sheet of new bounty keeps working,

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>> nobody who works full time should ever have to raise a family in poverty. [ cheers and applause ] that violates a basic sense of who we are. and that's why it's time to give america a raise [ cheers and applause ] it is time to give america a raise. that was president obama in connecticut earlier this month calling for a federal minimum wage of $10.10 an hour. well, in the nutmeg state, at least, those wishes have now come true. yesterday, that state's governor dan malloy, a boston college graduate, signed a bill that would raise the minimum wage to $10.10, the highest minimum wage law in the country. it goes into effect in 2017. that's especially important to connecticut which trails only new york as a state with the

most income inequality in the country. the bottom fifth of connecticut households saw their income decrease by over 4,000 between 1989 and 2006. that is even before the recession hit. the law is expected to raise pay for over 200,000 workers in the state, or about 15% of the work force. after the break, from a living wage to a champion of workers' rights, alex speaks with rosario dawson and america ferrera, stars of the new film honoring the life and work of cesar chavez. next. but first, hampton pearson has a market wrapup. let's look at stocks going into the weekend. the dow gaining 59 points, the s&p up 9, the nasdaq earning five points. that's it from cnbc, first in business worldwide. ♪

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just this afternoon, president obama signed an order declaring next monday cesar chavez day to honor the transformational civil rights and labor leader. meanwhile today, the first feature film about chavez hits the big screens. alex sat down with the director and cast to talk about chavez's life and legacy. . . >> this is the story of a father and a son. this is a story of a father and a husband and a wife. >> i'm angry, too. i'm angry that i live a world where a man who picks fruit can't feed his family. >> it's a beautiful message of a

non-violent movement talking about ideas as the main tool of change. >> cesar chavez is the story of the legendary mexican american labor organizer who led the fight for tens of thousands of farm workers as they struggled for fair wages and equal protection. it was one of the great civil rights movements of the 1960s, but this unbelievably is the first movie ever made about chavez and his work. >> we see the boulevards but for some reason, like, again, people don't necessarily know the history behind it. >> reporter: in 1962, chavez began organizing grape pickers in california. a group of workers so powerless that national labor laws exempted them from basic protections. with his partner, delores juerta, chavez founded what would become the united farm workers' union which hat its peak had, a000 members. >> he wasn't a mexican hero, he was an american hero. he fought for social justice in a time where m.

will k. was fighting for civil rights and bobby kennedy was an ally to him. >> i come here as an american citizen to honor him for what he's done not just for you, not just for state, but for all of the united states of america. >> like martin luther king and mahatma gandhi before him, cesar chavez was a champion of non-violent actions. he participated in picket lines, went on hunger strikes and led an historic march, a 340 mile trek from linda know to sacramento. >> they don't like working for a day's wage but they will walk over 300 miles for free. [ laughter ] even pilgrims ain't allowed in the street without a permit. >> >> we'll use the sidewalk. it's open to the public. >> chavez did not lead alone. his wife helen played a pivotal role in his success not simply by raising his eight children but by standing on the front lines with him and being arrested before him. >> she wasn't afraid of the

work. that was woman who did what needed to be done. at the same time, her commitment to the cause was not about supporting cesar's pet project. she, as i said, had been working in the fields herself since she was seven years old. so she was standing up for her dignity, for her mother's dignity, for her sister's dignity. >> reporter: delores huerta remains a champion for laborers and at 84 years old she still heads up a community organization foundation bearing her name. >> this is a woman, delores huerta was loud and proud before feminism was coined? >> we move forward together or not at all. >> reporter: with chavez at the helm, the farm workers movement forced growers to give in, signing a contract that included higher wages, safer work conditions, and medical plans. but what was perhaps most historic about chavez and his struggle was the way in which he

enlisted the american public in his cause -- a cause which became their cause. >> we are leaving it up to the country. we're telling them that these problems exist and telling them what we think ought to be done to remedy them and since we don't have any political power, leaving it up to them and their conscience to make the decision. >> reporter: across the country, $14 million americans participated in a national boycott. americans who had never seen a farm or considered the people who worked on one. millions of them heard chavez's call and refused to buy table grapes in solidarity with the workers. but the fight goes on. while farm working remains one of the most dangerous jobs in america, the average worker makes $12,000 to $15,000 a year. less than one in ten receive employer-provided by health care and 53% of farm workers are undocumented. that question, what happens to the undocumented, will determine in large part what ultimately happens to the men and women who harvest america's food.

>> today there's no way that conditions are going to be better if an immigration reform doesn't happen and -- but that's not an issue just to farm workers, you know? that's an issue of $11 million workers here. it's not just an issue of them, it's an issue of everyone consuming and receiving the fruits of their labor. >> reporter: cesar chavez empower it had disenfranchised, bringing them out of the shadows and into the national spotlight. and while he undeniably led those workers, he also led the country to care about the lives of people they had never met and never would. >> i didn't say it was going to be easy, but if you take care of your side, i take care of mine, we'll be fine. >> cesar's message was about showing up and showing the people the power they had to save themselves. >> great report there from alex and true story, my mother, a daughter of the state of california, did not eat grapes for ten years because she was so inspierd by chavez and the

movement he did. that's dedication. "cesar chavez" opens in theaters nationwide today. after the break, the affordable care act hits another big milestone but the latest enrollment count may not be the only number that matters. jonathan capehart joins me next to discuss. don't go anywhere. we'll close it out well here on "now." (knochello? hey, i notice your car is not in the driveway. yeah. it's in the shop. it's going to cost me an arm and a leg. that's hilarious. sorry.

you shoulda taken it to midas. get some of that midas touch. they tell you what stuff needs fixing, and what stuff can wait. next time i'm going to midas. high-five! arg! i did not see that coming. trust the midas touch. for brakes, tires, oil, everything. (whistling) [ mala body at rest tends to stay at rest... while a body in motion tends to stay in motion. staying active can actually ease arthritis symptoms. but if you have arthritis, staying active can be difficult. prescription celebrex can help relieve arthritis pain so your body can stay in motion. because just one 200mg celebrex a day can provide 24 hour relief for many with arthritis pain and inflammation. plus, in clinical studies, celebrex is proven to improve daily physical function so moving is easier. celebrex can be taken with or without food. and it's not a narcotic. you and your doctor should balance the benefits with the risks. all prescription nsaids, like celebrex, ibuprofen,

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so many grilled tastes and textures. and all the nutrition i need. go on. no really. top notch. (laughing) there it is - there ya go. new american grill from kibbles 'n bits... go together like... food 'n family. six million and counting, that's the number of americans who have signed up for health insurance through federal and state exchanges. according to the latest figures. below the original goal of seven million but surpassing the revised six million goal following the law's disastrous rollout last year. while october and november saw paltry signups due to the well-publicized glitches on healthcare.gov, enrollment this is month have soared $1. million and counting, proof that just like everything else many wait until the last anyone to do anything. still, the spike in enrollment

comes as support for the law is at its lowest level yet. a new associated press survey finds just 26% support the law while 43% are opposed. today politico is out with its own report card grading the administration on several aspects of the law. and while it gets decent grades for enrollment and outreach, its messaging and readiness efforts didn't receive high marks. but with 50 plus repeal votes in congress, the administration also likes to remind folks that part of the problems are due to opposition parties determines to throw up roadblocks at every turn. the politico article states "white house officials argue that the battles against obamacare have been stronger and longer lasting than even fights against previous break throughs like social security and civil rights laws." but in the end the most important factor is not any one aspect of the law but geography. as the "new york times" reports "for consumers, at least, the state of health care under the national law depends almost entirely on where a person

lives." case in point, medicaid. about $3.5 million low income americans are estimated to have benefited from expanded medicaid coverage under the new law but for many more that's not an option as our state opted to refuse the free money from the federal government. a decision the administration has said amounts to "playing politics with people's lives." in fact, only 26 states of the 50 states have opted to expand medicaid while five states are still in the process of deciding. the rest? not happening. even though in many cases their residents need it most. joining me now is "washington post" columnist in jonathan capehart and obviously, jonathan, everyone's grading the administration on how they've done on this. the $6.1 million number, how many folks were uninsured, how many had insurance they didn't like. either way it seems the administration is really pushing this as it's working finally. >> right. and you raise a good question in that six million, we don't know how many already had insurance

and are switching over to affordable care act insurance and we don't know how many people who have actually signed up for insurance under the affordable care act have actually paid premiums and those are the two numbers that some folks from the republican party and from the right are using to continue the operation of undercutting the effectiveness of this -- the effectiveness of this law. so far about $15 million people are eligible for that expansion in medicaid but they don't have it. 26 states have expanded, 19 have not, five undecided. one of the five undecideds is that of virginia and the "washington post" editorial board has been very out spoken -- i know you work with them -- about what expanding would mean in virginia. 400,000 with health care, 30,000 new jobs. they're walking away from $2

billion annually. each state that passes is leaving $5 million in federal funds unclaimed. in the state of virginia where you have a divided government and a governor that has tried to be as moderate as possible out of the gate because he wants to have a positive legacy, what does it mean that republicans in the house are holding on to blocking medicaid funding when it seems democrats have tried every witch which way to compromise on it? >> maybe it means that in virginia the craziness on the national level of trying to repeal the affordable care act and trying to undercut its effectiveness has seeped down into localities and, you know, in richmond in particular, look, we're talking about people who are being denied access to health care. this is the whole point of the affordable care acting is to get those who are uninsured or had paltry insurance to get them covered and to help their long-term health benefits -- health out looks. and to my mind i -- i'm just

sort of mystified by how there are people out there who are voting 455, 50, 50 times to repeal a law that has s helping people and six million people who signed will you please get more accurate numbers as time goes on in terms of how many people already had insurance, how many people have paid premiums. but to my mind, those numbers don't mean as much as the numbers of people being helped and if it's ten people being helped who weren't being helped before than that means, to me, the affordable care act was well worth the political hits that the president and the administration have taken. >> what's fascinating in virginia, though, jonathan, is here is something that some republicans even support because, in fact, money is free and you see some moderate republicans in the state senate there and even in the house. and on top of that have it's a job creator. does it show the degree of which there is a 2013 issue for

republicans that even in a state where it will increase jobs, where the money is free, where there is support from some republicans, the fact that they can't move anywhere on it because of this thing that if you're associated with the health care law as a republican you automatically have a scarlet letter on yourself, it's very telling. >> yeah, yeah. i mean, clearly running against the affordable care act, running against obamacare, tying the difficulties and the failures of its implementation, of the messaging, of the readiness as the political report shows is something that the republican party is going to use not only against democrats locally in richmond, in virginia, but in races across the country in their effort to take the senate from democrats and i think for a lot of republicans doing that to them is one big step in the overall quest to get rid of obamacare completely. >> jonathan capehart of the "washington post," thanks so much for being on the show this friday. that's it for "now."

alex wagner returns monday at 4:00 p.m. she's doing "chris hayes" tonight at 8:00, the ed show is up next. let's get to work! good evening americans and welcome to "the ed show" live from detroit lakes, minnesota. let's get to work! >> the fact of the matter is that i had nothing to do with this. >> cleared of any wrongdoing. >> they can't make up facts. >> give me a break. >> colorful, brian. colorful. >> this is an enemy hit piece. >> cut the commentary. >> the criticism is that this is an inside investigation. >> no matter who i chose to do this questions would be raised by some quarters. >> it's the equivalent of having dick cheney investigate george bush. >> there's probably not a major law firm that i don't have some relationship with. >> it looks like a whitewash if you want to be it