you have to learn how to spell it yourself, though. the rachel maddow show starts right now. >> good evening, a-r-i. >> good evening, thank you very much, appreciate it. thanks to you at home for staying with us for the next hour. we've got a big show tonight. a bunch of new reporting. frank rich is here in person, which is great. we've got an incredible story out of oklahoma. this is going to be a big show tonight, thank you for being here. but we start tonight with these guys. from the very beginning, from the very first moment that he became a national figure, the guy next to mitch mcconnell there, senator scott brown, from the very first moment that he became a national figure, it was clear there was something a little off about him. it was clear from the very beginning of his first ever nationally televised victory speech before he got to his prepared remarks, it was clear there was something a little weird about this guy. because this part of his victory speech, this was definitely not in his prepared remarks, but there he went. >> i want to thank ayla and arianna for their help as well.

and just in case anybody who's watching throughout the country, yes, they're both available. no, no, no. only kidding, only kidding. only kidding, only kidding. arianna definitely is not available, but ayla is. this is arianna. and this is ayla. i can see i'm going to get in trouble when i get home. >> so creepy from the very beginning. but you know scott brown did become a u.s. senator-elect that

night back in january, 2010. once he became a senator, he kept up a rather rigorous pace of cringe worthy statements. and sometimes just plain being inexplicable. >> each and every day that i've been a united states senator, i've been either discussing issues, meeting on issues, in secret meetings with kings and queens and prime ministers and business leaders and military leaders, talking, voting, working on issues every single day. >> scott brown saying he has been meeting with kings and queens, secret meetings, he says, with kings and queens. scott brown's office later clarified that he had not actually had any secret meetings with kings or queens. senator scott brown also was not allowed to see secret unreleased photos of osama bin laden's body after he had been killed by navy s.e.a.l.s, but scott brown apparently thought he had seen those pictures. >> i've seen the picture. he's definitely dead. and if there's any conspiracy

theories out there, you should put them to rest, okay? >> scott brown had just seen the same hoax pictures on the internet that everybody saw on twitter that day. where a lot of people thought they were a hoax, scott brown thought they were real. the thing about scott brown embarrassing himself as a united states senator is that it was all unforced. kind of the fingerprint of scott brown embarrassing himself. it's not like he would say embarrassing or wrong stuff in response to difficult questions or being pressed and backed into a corner on a complicated issue, he would just volunteer this fake, embarrassing, made-up stuff all the time. like some people stub their toe. scott brown stubbed his tongue, all the time. >> i can name a litany of democratic sponsor bills that i've done that never would have passed had it been for me and the president had called me and vice president calls me and then secretary clinton calls asking for my vote all the time. >> scott brown as a senator just

would make this stuff up. totally unforced error. he just decides to swagger in that interview about how hillary clinton calls and asks him for the vote all the time. hillary clinton is constantly calling me, he says. well, when the "boston globe" fact checked him the senator's office conceded no, hillary clinton was not calling scott brown all the time. in fact he had spoken by phone with hillary clinton twice over the course of his senate career and not at all in the past year before he said, yeah, hillary clinton is calling me all the time. scott brown got into the united states senate courtesy of a low turnout special election held in january, 2010, and that election did end up being a herald of the huge year that the republican party had nationwide in 2010. scott brown was the first republican who won that year, in a year when republicans went on to win everywhere. and because of that, he was a real nationwide hero to the republican party. but scott brown did have to run again to try to hold on to that

senate seat in 2012. and scott brown campaigning for office meant more of scott brown talking in public, which meant more bewildering inexplicable weirdness for him. first he tried to raise money by saying that i, me, rachel maddow, was the person running against him for his senate seat. that was really weird. when it turned out that his real opponent was a person named elizabeth warren, he decided to run against elizabeth warren on the basis of her ethnic background. he made it central to his campaign against her to mock her for being part native american. and i know it does not sound possible when i put it that way, but that really is how scott brown ran against elizabeth warren. he made fun of her for being part native american, saying that he could tell by looking at her that he just didn't think she was. >> she had an opportunity actually to make a decision throughout her career when she applied to penn and harvard, she checked the box claiming she was a native american. you know, clearly she's not. >> actually she is.

but scott brown said that he could tell that she's not native american just by looking at her with his special scott brown x-ray ethnic vision. this was a rally from that 2012 u.s. senate campaign. scott brown staffers and republican party operatives doing fake indian war whoop sounds and the tomahawk chop gesture to make fun of elizabeth warren for being native american, which she is. so, yeah, scott brown lost. he lost that seat by a lot. he got clobbered. but he still tried to be a national political figure since then. he did some sort of stunt trips to iowa, as if he was going to run for president. he also kept up a major profile in social media. the most well-known thing he's ever done on social media is probably his night of incoherent and occasionally belligerent tweeting, picking fights with people, misspelling stuff and capping it off with this

immortal tweet bqhatevwr. it should not be attributed to him, it was his pants. he said he just put his phone in his pocket and his pocket started tweeting that stuff, it wasn't him. scott brown is tweeting and a few months ago he changed his twitter handle as he started to flirt more and more obviously with the prospect of getting back into the united states senate by moving to a different state and running from there instead. as he started to make more and more noises about running for the seat occupied by jeanne shaheen in new hampshire, though, it did get awkward that all of his tweets about new hampshire and jeanne shaheen were coming from his twitter account which was scott brown massachusetts. so he had to change his twitter account to senator scott brown. that, however, has not stopped a continuing pattern of the former senator getting confused about where he is, where he is running for office now and some of the basics about the state he now wants to call home, which is called new hampshire. democrats have very much

enjoyed, for example, circulating pictures of his famous scott brown truck still having massachusetts license plates, even after he claimed to have moved north. the democratic pac american bridge sent a tracker to follow him around so they could get him on tape having signature unforced scott brown moments of confusion about even simple questions like where it is he's running for office. >> when i've heard from the republicans up here is thankful i've been around for a year helping them raise money, helping them raise awareness as to the issues that are affecting not only people here in massachusetts -- in new hampshire, but also in massachusetts obviously and maine. i've been to maine, rhode island, new hampshire, connecticut. i've been all over. >> i've been all over. where am i now? where am i running? you could hear in the middle there that his phone went off. it made me wonder if maybe the former senator was distracted by the tweeter machine bing bonging

in his pocket. because sometimes his pocket bing bongs the machine without him. probably the greatest moment of his new hampshire moment so far was this moment at a republican fund-raiser in new hampshire where he did kind of a scott brown riff on the motto of the state of new hampshire. now, odds are you don't know what the motto is of your state. maybe if you live in alaska and you're watching this, you know that your awesome state motto is north to the future. that's kind of a famous one. but really that's your best hope. really the only state motto that everybody not only in that state but around the country knows, the only state motto that everybody knows, if you know nothing else about new hampshire, you know their state motto. you know that the new hampshire state motto is live free or die, right? it's on the license plates for new hampshire. i know scott brown has massachusetts plates on his truck, but you see new hampshire license plates and they say right there live free or die. it's the only thing that everybody knows about that state. scott brown, take it away.

>> so there is a rule for government. and when it works, it works well. when it's helping people. but when it's trying to push its will on the freedoms and democracy that we have and the ability for us to lead our lives as we so choose, live free and die. >> live free and die. what is it again? live free and die? so it could just be die and live free? scott brown had a hard time as a senator. he had a hard time as an incumbent senator, losing his seat. and now he's having a hard time as a candidate trying to get back into somebody else's seat in the senate. and you know, the national press still loves scott brown. he's been able to count on that all along. even when they try to help him out, though, scott brown still screws it up. the associated press recently went up to go see scott brown campaigning for this new senate

seat in new hampshire. they wanted to tell a big national story about his comeback effort. look, now he's running in a different state. so they're there to cover him, give him national press for this effort in new hampshire. the a.p. reporter asks him about moving to new hampshire, whether it's a problem for his candidacy that he didn't live in the state until five minutes ago. this is his on the record answer to the associated press. quote, do i have the best credentials? probably not because, you know, whatever. end quote. do not say whatever. and, no, you do not have the best credentials. but scott brown is running. he has put outward that he is going to make his official announcement this week that he's running for senate in new hampshire and he has filed his official paperwork. but because he's scott brown he had to screw that up. he filed his official paperwork to get into the senate race but forgot to list what party he was applying to run in. just didn't check any box. ah, whatever. scott brown is amazing. and scott brown is a little bit of a mess as a candidate. but a lot of the things that make scott brown so amazing, it's small stuff. the biggest problem scott brown has is the big stuff about scott

brown. the reason he became a national political hero for the republican party is not just because he as a republican won a senate seat in blue, blue massachusetts. the reason he became such a hero is that scott brown was the first big election for the republican party after obamacare passed. and his big political success has always represented to the republican party the electoral bounty that republicans could reap anywhere in the country, even in massachusetts, by running against obamacare. they could even win in a state that blue, as long as they ran against obamacare. obamacare, republicans looked at scott brown and they decided it. obamacare was the best thing that ever happened to the republican party. i mean, the country may look at scott brown and think cosmo center fold. mitch mcconnell looks at scott brown and thinks obamacare. run on obamacare. >> senator mcconnell, how was scott brown received at the republican lunch today? >> well, we'd love to have scott

back. we're happy that he's running for the senate. he's an old friend of ours. and no one's election victory was more a symbol of public objection to obamacare like scout brown's special election in january of 2010. so an appropriate candidate in a year in which obamacare is likely to be the biggest issue in the fall election. >> obamacare is not going to be the biggest issue in the fall election. not anymore. and that only became clear this past week when obamacare unexpectedly hit the 7 million enrollment number and the white house got to do their big victory lap over that. and then two days later they announced oh, another 3 million people got health insurance under obamacare on medicaid. then today the gallup organization posted its polling showing that the number of uninsured people in this country has dropped to its lowest point in years, and it looks like it's going to keep dropping further because of obamacare. the whole premise of republicans running against obamacare is that obamacare was going to be such a failure. as it continued to fail,

republicans could convert that failure of the policy to their own political capital. well, now obamacare is not failing. and that has absolutely rattled the cage of every republican who is running for re-election this year who was planning for running for re-election by running against obamacare, telling their constituents how terrible obamacare is, how it doesn't work and how a vote for the republican candidate would help get away -- would help do away with it. that can't happen in a lot of places in the country now, and all of those cages rattled this past week when the data came out, right? the data came out about obamacare succeeding. all of those cages rattled. this week, the week that scott brown was preparing to pop out of the cake as the obamacare guy now running with 100% more new hampshire. live free and die. what's, whatever, righever, rig?

he was a terribly embarrassing senator, he has always been a terribly embarrassing candidate but this is a truly terrible and embarrassing time to be announcing that you are running for office in the northeast of all places when the only not funny thing that people know about you is that you are against health reform, which we've just learned is actually working. he has to launch this week? this weekend the associated press ran an article that proves that deflation of obamacare as a republican political issue more than anything else so far since the law passed. very quietly, ten days ago, republican members of the congress slipped into a bill a little fix to obamacare, a little fix to the affordable care act. it basically makes it easier for people to get insurance through the exchanges if they work at a small business. this is not one of those defund obamacare things. it's not one of their repeal obamacare things like the house republicans have done more than 50 times. this was the opposite. this was a small technical fix to make it easier for people to use obamacare to get health insurance. it was a constructive little change. and the republicans did it.

and this is how they passed it. >> the question is will the house suspend the rules and pass the bill hr-4302. those in favor will say aye. those opposed no. in the opinion of the chair, two-thirds being in the affirmative, the rules are suspended, the bill is passed. >> that was the whole vote. that was the whole vote. they did not do a roll call, people did not vote one by one with a yes or no next to their name, they did it on a voice vote so there was no record of how anybody voted on it. they just called it passed and president obama signed that into law last week. the associated press wrote it up this weekend effectively just letting people know that the republicans for all their talk about obamacare being the end of the world and how much they're against it, the republicans are now quietly, very quietly recognizing that it is in fact in our national health care policy now and there are small

ways to make it better so that more people can get health insurance using the law. republicans doing that in a way that they hoped no one would notice. and that is the first evidence of something we knew was coming, which is that obamacare has stopped being just political kryptonite. it is not just something that you yell in a crowded theater to try to panic people in a political context. it is now just boring health policy. that people might actually want some of. obamacare is a political rallying cry is starting to end now. obamacare as a policy issue that affects people's lives, that's the new political reality. so much so that even ole mr. whatever scott brown, mr. i am against obamacare, mr. scott brown himself apparently does not even know what to say now when he is asked in new hampshire about whether or not the state ought to expand health insurance access under obamacare. scott brown, mr. i'm against obamacare, the man who person phis running against obamacare for the republican party now

that he is running for office right now cannot even answer basic questions about what the state he is running in should do about obamacare. he cannot answer the question, because expanding health insurance in new hampshire probably at some level makes sense for new hampshire. but that is obamacare, and being against obamacare is the one thing people are supposed to know about scott brown that does not make them laugh out loud. poor scott brown, live free and die. frank rich joins us next. stay with us.

i've said before, i will always work with anyone who's willing to make this law work even better. but the debate over repealing this law is over. the affordable care act is here to stay. >> the same day that president obama announced that 7 million people had signed up for health insurance under obamacare, he said the law was here to stay, but he would work with anyone to make it better if they wanted to be constructive about it. that same day president obama signed a fix that does in fact sort of make the law better, at least easier to use. and that's because republicans, republicans had very, very quietly passed that constructive little fix to the law and sent it to him for signing. and that may be a republican political scandal to republicans, but it may also in the broader sense be the surest proof yet that obamacare as a political issue is running out of steam. as a political rallying cry, it may be over.

maybe it's now just boring health policy. joining us now is frank rich. mr. rich, it is a pleasure to see you. thanks for being here. >> great to see you, rachel. >> is obamacare starting to die as a political issue? is it becoming just policy now? >> i think it is becoming just policy. i think that as a political issue, it's still an issue in the midterms only because it's a proxy for republicans to rally their base because they hate anything with the name obama in it, so they don't need obamacare, they just have to say the word obama to get the sort of white, older base that is the republican base that turns up in midterms out. but they have -- they're not for anything really except being against obama and obamacare. it seems to me that obamacare could be an issue for the democrats by starting to say you want -- young people, do you want to lose the coverage you're getting on your parents' policy? do you want to lose the policies you've gotten? >> well, these numbers from gallup saying that the number of people without insurance in this country is dropping at a

historic pace. the republican like sort of faux substantive critique is too many people are losing their health insurance under this law. more people are losing it than gaining it, sort of feels like that will be the last attempt they can make to attack it in terms of its policy impact. the horror stories are falling apart. >> right. they don't have the website as a prop and they don't have, oh, are we going to get to 7 million. that's over. that was easy to understand stuff. everyone understands a website that's messed up. they don't have that anymore. now they have actually insured people. keep in mind, facts are not necessarily required for them to keep doing -- you know, being against it, but the truth is the democrats can just turn the tables on them. look at the ryan budget, which besides calling for the repeal once again of obamacare and those goodies if you will that people now have from the law,

you know, turning medicare into whatever, premium support or something that's obviously going to really hurt medicare, so democrats have do you want to take away medical care from young and old, from the newly insured and those who thought they had a secure government program. >> right. it is striking to me in political terms to see scott brown -- i mean it's always striking in political terms to see scott brown, but he essentially was conjured from the dust of the obamacare hubbub, right? there's no reason that scott brown would exist as a national political figure were it not for him being able to embody at that particular moment the sort of angry spirit of being against obamacare. now that he is running again, seeing him, mr. anti-obamacare, having no idea what to say when he's asked an obamacare question about new hampshire, it just sort of felt to me like the gig is up. >> the gig is up. yes, he is the litmus test from the beginning of the shellacking, from the whole tea party movement having some

success. it's literally like the air going out of a balloon. he can't even figure out what state he's running from, so he has -- i guess the kings and queens that he faux conferred with will get him up to speed on foreign policy so he'll have some stand on syria or the middle east negotiations. but that was kind of -- it's a great litmus test of how the winds have changed and he is being blown sort of into oblivion it looks like. >> it's the one policy issue that people associate with him. it's the one thing he's always known how to talk about and he's bewildered about it. on the democratic side of this, i think that the democrats sense, i don't have any insider information on it but i feel like watching the administration, they sense as the air is going out of the balloon on obamacare, so mitch mcconnell looks ridiculous when he says this is going to be a one issue obamacare election in the fall. that doesn't seem true anymore. that vacuum, i think the democrats are trying to fill with populist economic stuff like in particular the minimum wage.

democrats often try to pivot to populist economic stuff. they use the minimum wage all over the country whenever they can. they know it drives turnout and it's good for them. do you see that the democrats are doing that in a skilled way? do you think that could potentially could become a bigger issue for them or is this just basic playbook stuff for them? >> i think it's basic playbook stuff. i mean we'll see, we don't really know yet. turnout is such a difficult and tricky issue for the democrats without a presidential candidate on the ticket. they have got to get young voters and minority voters who typically don't turn up in midterms whereas the republican base does excited. so minimum wage is one thing. i think a ryan budget eliminating pell grants as well as obamacare and hurting medicare is another. they have got to get their group out. so i think it can't just be one thing, it's going to have to be a menu of things, but they have a great opening because the obamacare debate, what can you do with it? there's nothing to debate. it is the law of the land, it's

not going to be repealed. republicans have to -- republicans who have gone through this dodge, we'll keep the things you like, pre-existing conditions, that's nonsense too and can be knocked down in a second. so they could be on the defensive. >> we are -- i mean we're seven months out from the 2014 elections, but knowing that republicans were just planning on running around obamacare, i'm waiting to see what they're going to cook up and they should let scott brown know pretty quick what he's supposed to be talking about. >> back to benghazi and kings and queens can tell him what to say about it. >> whatever. frank rich, magazine writer at large, thank you very much. >> nice to see you. some big news breaking today in the federal investigation of the chris christie investigation administration in new jersey. plus a story out of oklahoma that will curl your hair. lots more to come tonight, stay with us. [ girl ] my mom, she makes underwater fans that are powered by the moon. ♪ she can print amazing things, right from her computer.

[ whirring ] [ train whistle blows ] she makes trains that are friends with trees. ♪ my mom works at ge. ♪ (music) defiance is in our bones. defiance never grows old. citracal maximum. calcium citrate plus d. highly soluble, easily absorbed. transferred money from his before larry instantly bank of america savings account to his merrill edge retirement account. before he opened his first hot chocolate stand calling winter an "underserved season". and before he quit his friend's leaf-raking business for "not offering a 401k." larry knew the importance of preparing for retirement. that's why when the time came he counted on merrill edge to streamline his investing and help him plan for the road ahead. that's the power of streamlined connections. that's merrill edge and bank of america.

the expedia app helps you save with mobile-exclusive deals download the expedia app text expedia to 75309 expedia, find yours ♪ oh-oh, oh, oh, la, la-la, la-la, la-la ♪ ♪ na-na-na, na-na-na-na-na some things just go together, like auto and home insurance. bundle them together at progressive, and you save big on both. ♪ oh, oh-oh, oh, oh hey, it's me! [ whistles ] and there's my dog! [gasps] there's my steps! i should stop talking. perfectly paired savings. now, that's progressive.

if the attorneys general for new jersey, new york and the united states were all to agree to clothe mr. wildstein with immunity, i think you'd find yourselves in a far different position with respect to information he could provide. >> that's your job. we just want answers to our questions. >> understood. >> understood. that was january. the lawyer for david wildstein, the man who operationally organized the great ft. lee of 2014 which may have sunk the 2016 presidential aspirations of new jersey governor chris christie, in january, david wildstein's lawyer said if mr. wildstein could just get

immunity from prosecution, david wildstein would sing like a bird. he would tell all he knows about what happened in the christie administration in regard to that bridge. well, it appears that that may have just happened, and that story is next. [ male announcer ] hey, look at you! you're an emailing, texting, master of the digital universe. but do you protect yourself? ♪ apparently not. when you access everything, you give everyone access to everything about you. but that's ok. while you do your thing... [ alert rings ] we'll be here at lifelock, doing our thing. watching out for things your credit card alone can't. [ alert rings ] and relentlessly protecting your identity. get lifelock protection and live life free.

[ alert rings ] afghanistan, in 2009. orbiting the moon in 1971. [ male announcer ] once it's earned, usaa auto insurance is often handed down from generation to generation. because it offers a superior level of protection. and because usaa's commitment to serve current and former military members and their families is without equal. begin your legacy. get an auto insurance quote. usaa. we know what it means to serve.

gundyes!n group is a go. not just a start up. an upstart. gotta get going. gotta be good. good? good. growth is the goal. how do we do that? i talked to ups. they'll help us out. new technology. smart advice. we focus on the business and they take care of the logistics. ups? good going. we get good. that's great. great. great. great. great. great.

great. great. great. (all) great! i love logistics. a federal prosecutor, the u.s. attorney for the southern district of new york is this man. he's a very busy person and a very successful prosecutor. last week his office helped secure a more than $5 billion settlement, billion with a b against a company called anadarko petroleum. that's the most any company has ever paid for spill toxic waste in this country. we'll have more on that coming up actually. but that multi billion dollar settlement that was last week. the week before that he won a conviction against osama bin laden's son-in-law and spokesman. the attorney general of the united states came to new york city to congratulate mr. bharara on that landmark conviction and to point out that, yes, we can successfully and safely prosecute terrorists in the united states.

see, he did it in new york city. he has also become known for targeting wall street law breaking. of the 80 insider trading cases his office has brought, they have won exactly 80 times, so he's 80-0 on insider trading. but perhaps nothing has been more fun/depressing about watching him in action than reading about the public corruption cases brought by bharara's office. because he prosecutes the southern district of new york state and new york state offers a bountiful harvest if what you're looking to reap is scalps of corrupt politicians, he's had very juicy days before the cameras. >> the complaint sets forth three bribery schemes involving cash payments of tens of thousands of dollars to elected officials and party leaders. every new yorker should be disheartened and dismayed by the sad state of affairs in this great state. from time to time the question arises how common is corruption in new york?

i can tell you based on the cases that we have brought and continue to bring, it seems downright pervasive. after the string of public corruption scandals that we continue to expose, many may understandably fear that there is no vote that is not for sale, no office without a price and no official clean of corruption. >> the u.s. attorney for the southern district of new york is good at his job and he is the highest profile and one of the most prolific federal prosecutors in the whole country. i point that out today because according to some new reporting, preet bharara's office has officially joined the investigation into the chris christie scandal in new jersey. the website main justice is citing three sources and saying that he's cooperating with new jersey's u.s. attorney specifically on aspects of the chris christie scandal that involve this man, david samson. he's a former new jersey attorney general and one of governor christie's top political allies. he's the man governor christie

installed in the top job at the port authority. david samson has of course been a central figure in the bridgegate scandal. this as yet unexplained scheme to gridlock a small new jersey town by closing access lanes onto the george washington bridge apparently on orders from a top level staffer in governor christie's office. david samson has a role in that scandal. they described it helping to retaliate against other people at the port authority who were working to undermine the scheme and reopen the bridge lanes. mr. samson seems to have reacted to news of the bridge lanes shut down by attacking the people who exposed it rather than being at all upset that it happened in the first place. but then in the course of reporters looking in the bridge scandal, out came these stories about david samson's own apparent conflicts of interest as head of the port authority. did he use his position as chairman of the port authority, this public agency, to try to make more money for his private

law firm or to help his private law firm's clients? well, according to this new reporting at main justice, preet bharara's office is working with the u.s. attorney in new jersey to try to answer that question about david samson. so that is new piece of information number one. new piece of office number two, also broken by main justice, is about the scope and progress of the new jersey u.s. attorney's investigation into the bridge scandal. we learned friday night from abc news that governor christie's spokesman was called to testify before a federal grand jury investigating the bridge scandal. his lawyer confirms that the spokesman did testify under oath to the federal grand jury on friday. then late last night just before

midnight, main justice reporter lisa brennan reported that two other christie officials have also met with federal prosecutors in new jersey. they are charlie mckenna, governor christie's former chief counsel, and also david wildstein. that david wildstein. yes. david wildstein has refused to testify to the state legislature. his lawyer has said publicly that he has more information to offer about the scandal broadly and about the governor's alleged role in it specifically, but before now we had no indication that david wildstein had ever actually talked to anyone. he was asking for immunity but he wasn't talking. david wildstein is one of the two people at the very core of this scandal. he's the one who replied "got it" to the e-mail sent by bridget kelly when she wrote "time for some traffic problems in ft. lee." mr. wildstein said "got it" in response to that e-mail and he's the one who seems to have

carried out that order which originated from governor christie's office. david wildstein's lawyer said publicly and repeatedly that david wildstein has a lot of information to share about this scandal and he will share it willingly if he is promised immunity. according to this new reporting, david wildstein apparently has been talking. he has been, quote, camped at the u.s. attorney's office in newark for the last week. to be clear, as far as we know this is not david wildstein testifying before the grand jury the way the governor's spokesman had to. this would be david wildstein talking privately to prosecutors in some extended way over a period of days. we don't know if that means he's cooperating with federal prosecutors, but we do know that he was refusing to talk about if he didn't get immunity. we don't know if he has received that immunity from prosecutors, but he does at least appear to be in conversation with them. either that or maybe he's working an extended catering gig in their offices or something. why else would he be there for days on end. the other new and interesting piece of information reported today by main justice is that

apparently the u.s. attorney in new jersey, paul fishman, has also just added a bunch of new staff to the three original staff lawyers who he had assigned to investigate this case. so it's been kind of a big news cycle here. abc breaks the news that the federal grand jury is now taking testimony from witnesses. then main justice breaks a bunch of other details in this story. a second u.s. attorney having his public corruption unit look into david samson and the port authority. christie's former chief counsel has spoken with federal prosecutors. david wildstein is apparently talking to federal prosecutors, raising the prospect that he has been given the immunity he has been asking for and has, therefore, started singing of the and now the details that the federal prosecutor in new jersey is staffing up, increasing the number of investigators on the case. it's on, apparently. it's on, and it's much more on than we ever knew before. stay tuned. (dad) well, we've been thinking about it and we're just not sure.

(agent) i understand. (dad) we've never sold a house before. (agent) i'll walk you guys through every step. (dad) so if we sell, do you think we can swing it? (agent) i have the numbers right here and based on the comps that i've found, the timing is perfect. ...there's a lot of buyers for a house like yours. (dad) that's good to know. (mom) i'm so excited. sfuel reward card is really what makes it like two deals in one.

salesperson #2: actually, getting a great car with 42 highway miles per gallon makes it like two deals in one. salesperson #1: point is there's never been a better time to buy a jetta tdi clean diesel. avo: during the first ever volkswagen tdi clean diesel event, get a great deal on a jetta tdi. it gets 42 highway miles per gallon. and get a $1,000 fuel reward card. it's like two deals in one. volkswagen has the most tdi clean diesel models of any brand. hurry in and get a $1,000 fuel reward card and 0.9% apr for 60 months on tdi models. [ female announcer ] we eased your back pain, you turned up the fun. tylenol® provides strong pain relief while being gentle on your stomach. but for everything we do, we know you do so much more. tylenol®.

are you aware of when the grand jury actually began hearing testimony in this matter? >> i have no information about that. as i said, we're here because we were subpoenaed to be here today and we're here because we were required to cooperate and that's what we're doing. >> does mike have any information about governor christie's personal knowledge or direct role -- >> i'm not going to comment about anything with respect to that. we're here, we're here to answer questions and that's what michael did today. >> governor chris christie of new jersey, his spokesman, michael drewniak, spoke to a federal criminal grand jury in the bridge scandal on friday. that news was broken by abc

news. joining us now is reporter lisa brennan, a contributor to main justice. she's reported on chris christie since his time as a u.s. attorney in new jersey. just before midnight last night miss brennan broke the news that david wildstein has been meeting with the u.s. attorney's office in new jersey about the scandal. miss brennan, congratulations on this scoop. thanks for being here. >> thanks, rachel. >> you've reported that david wildstein spent time camped out in newark last week at the federal prosecutor's offices. does that necessarily mean that he is cooperating with them? should we -- is that reason to believe that he's been granted the immunity that he was seeking? >> there is reason to think that might be the case because his lawyer said that that would be the way that he would talk about the case. but i think so you can sort of jump to that conclusion. we don't know for sure. we know that he has a ton of information to provide.

clearly they're interested in calling witnesses now before the grand jury. and so they want to get his information in order to be able to question other people and decide who else they want to call. >> do we have any indication -- michael drewniak's lawyer confirmed that mr. drewniak has testified before the grand jury. we don't have confirmation that anybody else has actually testified before the grand jury yet? >> no. no, we don't. and i've been told that there's no reason to think that michael drewniak is the first. >> interesting. okay. >> by someone who would know. >> you've also reported that governor christie's former chief counsel, charlie mckenna, a very important person in the administration, he met extensively with the u.s. attorney's office. that was back in january? >> yeah, january 20th, the week of the 20th. >> is there -- i guess there's nothing that we can infer from the fact that he met with them other than he has had some sort of conversation with them. is there any reason to believe that he may be cooperating with the probe?

>> well, you could think that that might be a possibility. he's got a lawyer who was a former prosecutor and it's very good lawyering to get in front of a case right away. so from his point of view he didn't want to get buried by the traffic study cover-up. he doesn't -- you know, he just was asked to investigate it by the governor. so he's trying to figure out where the prosecutors are headed so that he can plan his own strategy. >> how big of a deal is it that the u.s. attorney in manhattan has started working, as you've reported, on its own inquiry into the port authority side of this, potentially the david samson alleged conflict of interest at the port authority. why would two different federal prosecutors be looking at what is in the big picture sort of the same story? >> well, i think they have -- since the port is a sprawling

bistate agency and the lane closures affected all sorts of people in new jersey and heading into the city to go to work or whatever, they feel like they need to have information on this. and paul fishman has been quiet about the scope of what he's looking at. so i think sdny, their public corruption unit opened up a case because they felt like they needed to know. especially with samson and his conflicts. exactly what was going on. because they do have jurisdiction. and some of it sounded quite serious. >> lisa brennan, thank you very much for helping us understand this. lisa is a contributor to main justice, which broke three successive scoops on this story in a very quick amount of time. thank you very much for being here. >> you're welcome, rachel. >> appreciate it. we'll be right back. there's a saying around here,

you stand behind what you say. around here you don't make excuses. you make commitments. and when you can't live up to them, you own up, and make it right. some people think the kind of accountability that thrives on so many streets in this country has gone missing in the places where it's needed most. but i know you'll still find it when you know where to look.

so i'm going pro. [ male announcer ] new crest tartar protection rinse. the only rinse that helps prevent tartar build-up and cavities. a little swishing. less scraping. yes! [ male announcer ] new crest pro-health tartar protection rinse. it helps you escape the scrape. tartar protection rinse. at your ford dealer think? they think about tires. and what they've been through lately. polar vortexes, road construction, and gaping potholes. so with all that behind you, you might want to make sure you're safe and in control. ford technicians are ready to find the right tires for your vehicle. get up to $120 in mail-in rebates on four select tires when you use the ford service credit card at the big tire event. see what the ford experts think about your tires. at your ford dealer. i just ah woke up today and i said i need something sportier.

annnd done. ok maxwell, just need to ah contact your insurance company with the vin number. oh, i just did it. with my geico app. vin # is up to the loaded. ok well then jerry here will take you through all of the features then. why don't weeeeeeeeeeee go out to the car. ok, i'll just be outside... ok, yeah. his dad is my boss. yeah. vin scanning to add a car. just a tap away on the geico app. before using her new bank of america credit card, which rewards her for responsibly managing her card balance. before receiving $25 toward her balance each quarter for making more than her minimum payment on time each month. tracey got the bankamericard better balance rewards credit card, which fits nicely with everything else in life she has to balance. that's the benefit of responsibility. apply online or visit a bank of america near you.

right in the middle of the state of oklahoma there's a small town called crescent. crescent, oklahoma's a town of about 1,000 people. it's not too far north of oklahoma city. in the mid 1960s crescent, oklahoma became a nationally important place because of the then booming american nuclear industry. and the oklahoma-based oil and gas company called kerr-mcgee decided to open up a brand new facility in crescent, oklahoma in 1965 that would build nuclear fuel rods out of uranium and plutonium. these were fuel rods that were going to be used in nuclear reactors all over the country. well, one of the local residents who took a job at that new facility in crescent was a 26-year-old named karen silkwood. she worked as a lab tech, processing plutonium for use in

nuclear fuel rods. karen silkwood was also a union rep and she started raising safety concerns about what was happening in the plant. accidents, safety standards, workers potentially being poisoned by the radioactive material they were working with. karen silkwood was on her way to meet with a reporter for the "new york times" to talk about those concerns at the plant when she died on the way to that meeting. she died in a one-car crash. >> in november 1974 karen silkwood died when her car ran off this highway and struck a culvert wall 25 miles north of oklahoma city. silkwood had been on her way to tell a reporter about what she believed were serious violations of safety standards at the kerr-mcgee plutonium plant where she worked. the plant is now closed. as a union activist, silkwood had charged workers were being contaminated by plutonium, a radioactive, cancer-causing substance used to fuel nuclear reactors. a few weeks before she died silkwood herself had been contaminated. nervous about her condition, she had taken sedatives. local authorities ruled the drugs may have caused her to fall asleep at the wheel the night of her accident. but some people believe silkwood may have been deliberately run off the road.

after more than a dozen investigations no criminal charges were brought in the case, and kerr-mcgee was cleared of most of the safety violation questions. >> despite the suspicions around her death, the company that ran that plant, kerr-mcgee, was never implicated in karen silkwood's death. but her family and her co-workers took up her cause. she became basically a folk hero for people standing up to powerful interests, standing up for employees in dangerous situations, standing up for people trying to reform the nuclear industry. meryl streep and cher starred in a really excellent movie about karen silkwood that a lot of people remember. in the wake of the car crash and the allegations that karen silkwood had evidence to expose unsafe working conditions at the plant kerr-mcgee did end up shutting down the plant in crescent, oklahoma. but what they left behind was contamination on a huge scale. it turns out that for years kerr-mcgee had been burying on site the radioactive waste that was being generated by the plant. a decade after the plant was

shut down oklahoma officials were still finding contamination levels at the site that were 400 times higher than federal drinking water standards would allow. but for decades the plant just sat there, as litigation against kerr-mcgee wound its way through the courts. until late last week, when kerr-mcgee's new parent company, the mega oil company anadarko was officially held liable for the contamination at that plant in crescent, oklahoma along with thousands of other sites across the country that were polluted by kerr-mcgee over a period of decades. it's being billed by the department of justice as the largest settlement in an environmental contamination case ever, bigger even than the bp oil spill settlement a few years ago. anadarko will now be forced to pay out more than $5 billion, the majority of which will go toward cleaning up thousands of sites where they buried or dumped nuclear waste or failed to secure toxic sites in places like oklahoma and mississippi and new jersey and the navajo nation territory. all these sites all over the country. 2% of that settlement was

announced last week has been earmarked specifically to go to that site in crescent, oklahoma to finally clean up what kerr-mcgee left behind sitting there in 1975. the u.s. attorney in announcing this new settlement said, "if you're responsible for 85 years of poisoning the earth, then you are responsible for cleaning it up." $5 billion is in fact a whole lot of money. the largest environmental settlement. but look at this. look what happened to anadarko's stock price when this huge settlement deal with the government was announced. it went up? yeah. anadarko shares soared. they went up 14% on the news that they're going to have it pay $5 billion in this settlement. and that's because they think it could have been a whole lot worse. in december a federal judge had suggested that a fair settlement in this huge case could be as high as $14 billion. so the fact that it was only a mere $5 billion, that sent the energy industry into celebration mode. $5 billion? that's the cost of doing business.

anadarko's a $51 billion company. so this find to them is almost a rounding error. on the same day they were ordered to pay that $5 billion fine, investors poured $6 billion back into the company's stock. first republicans wanted to repeal and replace the affordable care act. remember that? and then they just wanted to repeal it, you know, because it's just like the worst thing that's ever happened to the united states of america. and now they've come all the way back to wanting to repeal and replace it. and in all that time not one of them has figured out what they want to replace it with. and even their cheerleaderat