taibbi you get the last word. >> thank you. >> alex wagner, catch my show "now" here on msnbc. chris hayes is up next. >> view from the bridge, let's play "hardball." >> good evening. i'm chris matthews in washington. let me start with this developing picture in new jersey. chris christie first tried saar chasm. did people think he was the ones putting down the cones? then it turned to dismay. it mystified him that this is how people would think he would conduct business.

now we know there was a mandatory directive coming from the governor's re-election campaign not to return phone calls from certain mayors' offices. quote, do not rush to return the mayor's phone call. that was the directive from the christy campaign, one aide told lawyers. this goes with the declaration there was to be radio silence just as there was with another mayor who failed to support christie in his re-election bid. and of course with michael drewniak's line that he could claw wildstein's eyes out. this team served christie right up until he decided to deny being the team leader, which is precisely the time this whole escapade went publicly. today, april 15, the picture becomes clearer.

we see a governor's office, governed by a mandatory directive to favor or punish mayors who play ball. we hear the mayors being cut out, condemned to radio silence, that's the phrase, for not backing christie's re-election effort. we see the pattern of playing hardball to achieve an all-important political end -- a big majority for governor christie in 2013. big enough to impress even the most dimmest, most skeptical of right-leaning republicans. impress them or steam roll them, whatever gets the job done. whatever worked to put chris christie on the road to the republican presidential nomination. brian murphy is an msnbc contributor and professor in new york. governor christie says he has no idea why his staffers shut down the george washington bridge in an apparent act of political payback. here he is late last month telling reporters he's still mystified.

>> it mystifies me on every level why this was done. and i hope to have an answer why this was done. >> it seems to me this is a film developing in front of us. he says he didn't recognize the mindset or the culture or whatever. it's all new to him. yet we're finding out coming out of christie's campaign from bill stepian himself is this mandatory directive going to bridget kelly's office, basically telling her don't return this mayor's phone call, favor this guy over that guy. the very thing we were looking for. i would call it in many ways a smoking gun because it uh does show, along with that list of favored and unfavored mayors we

got a while ago, the pattern here. the world in which they were working. >> that's right. this is from christina renna's -- the memo given by randy mastro that was disclosed yesterday. one of the directors of the intergovernmental affairs in the christie administration. it's one of the most interesting memos in the entire stack. the portrait we get is there's a sort of culture of retribution. they would be mad at mayors and really wouldn't know why. bridget kelly often wouldn't tell her why. staffers knew enough not to ask questions beyond what information was given to them.

they wrote a lot of stuff down. it wasn't just that they had a list of people to talk to in the court. they also thought there was a list available of people whose calls they shouldn't take. >> it was so patterned here. i want to go to kendall, the line you just raised here, brian, can we get a list of hands-off mayors? in other words, the ones being punished. no, we can't get it. it would just keep changing daily anyway. the frivolousness in which they talk about they're punishing the office. this guy is off-base today, radio silence for that guy, he's on the list there, right with phillip, the jersey city guy. it just seems like all the time they're passing around the latest sort of morning line on who they're screwing. then for the governor to say i didn't know this is the way my office worked. hard to believe.

>> there is is a list of favorites and unfavorites which itself is intriguing, perhaps distressing to some. and then there's a list in e-mail but don't document. if we believe there might have been a political agenda and it was a political agenda to be kept under the radar, no fingerprints, please. >> here's what one of christie's top staffers told state lawyers during her interview. quote, she believes that bill stepian kept track of mayors who were in favor of the iga staff would receive mandatory directives along the lines of do not rush to return this mayor's phone call. she called an iga staffer asking

renna, can we get a list of hands-off mayors. you know we won't get it. it would change daily anyway. we also know christie's campaign kept a list of approved targets. these were mayors they wanted to endorse christie. mayor sokolich was number two on that list. there's so much overlaying evidence. what does it say about the criminal investigation here. conspiracy perhaps? coordinated effort to punish or favor mayors based on whether they were helping the re-election campaign, including the withholding of state funds, the closing down of bridges. does that sound like a criminal case to you? >> it would have to, right? it would have to be. if that isn't a crime, i'm not sure what corruption statute -- how a corruption statute could even be meaningful.

how much of this is written down and to wonder how much else there is out there that we haven't seen. because just the amount of stuff that they've been willing to commit to e-mail, whether they're state e-mails or personal e-mails or text messages is fairly breathtaking. and whether or not the use of the campaign extended into bridgegate, whether it extended into the allegations that are out of hoboken, that will be the ultimate question for the prosecutors and a grand jury and a jury thereafter, but it certainly looks that way right now. there's the potential for that to happen, and there are enough prosecutors sniffing around now that they're going to find this stuff out. >> kendall, you know, as we all remember, watergate was a catch-all phrase. here in this case, could you bring a case against governor christie that did not include evidence that he ordered the shutdown of the bridge? >> you would have to have a lot

more than anything that's pub publicly reported to be talking about a case against him. and what we do think this is a situation where we're not going to see a lot of fingerprints. haven't seen any documents so far that directly implicate chris christie. there's a fair way to go before we have that conversation. but there's something intriguing i want to highlight in this. the report was very dismissive of the allegations with respect to the hoboken mayor. we remember that about the report. but there's also this reference in the report to christine renna saying don't bend over backwards to help the hoboken mayor. that kind of issue is something that if you connect it to everything else, if you've got some proof, that's good stuff. and then you have this overlay of a culture, of a mentality of trying to keep it below the radar, but make sure that people, mayors, whoever, gets a message, no fingerprints, but

still a message. that kind of thing would definitely fuel a theory if indeed they have the specific evidence of actual knowledge on the part of christie, and some pretty good witnesses with credibility to establish it. >> then talk about the frame of mind here, the vindictiveness of them versus us attitude. the hateful speech that surrounded christie. his communication aide, drewniak. i could clause david wildstein's eyes out, pour gasolines in the sockets and light them up. he also commented on a reporter for a newspaper up there for the newark star ledger. there's christie's campaign manager, bill stepien who said we're approaching a point in time where we have to have this so what's it going to be with major zimmer of hoboken and fulop of jersey city.

are you with us or against us? and of course his appointee at the port authority wrote, it will be a tough november for this little serbian, referring to ft. lee mayor mark sokolich who didn't endorse christie but didn't happen to be a serbian. who's on the team, who is not, who are regoing to punish? radio silence, shunning, favoring. again, i go back to you and the question, is there a chance now for a larger charge against the governor, which involves this whole network he has created? or do you have to show that he had a little eninstruction camp where he taught each people how to operate this way? how do you feel to tie him into it? >> i'm not sure how you begin establishing it. maybe you find an e-mail that talks about the governor being concerned -- and that's sort of what i always assume the smoking gun is going to be. it will be something like that.

bridget kelly thinks it's weird that sokolich thinks he's being punished for not endorsing. that's in christine renna's memo for endorsing, too. which shows there's another moets vags there. i always thought if there's any other motivation, than it being about some kind of political retribution, then you get no money issue. once you get no money issue, then you're very clearly into a corruption case. >> you don't accomplish your ends for punishing a mayor for not endorsing you. but what you can do is raise the price. you can see ft. lee is not a good place to support a development project because they've got bad traffic problems. and by the way, that fits with the idea that the plan for the bridge closings was for a full month of closing, which would have establish the fact that it's a bad investment. again, thank you, brian murphy. thanks for joining us. coming up, the republicans are joining the competition for

women voters. i say welcome to the fight. this is going to be a good one. plus boston strong. it's been a year now, just a year since the bombings at the boston marathon. tonight, how the city has found strength and unity in the face of tragedy. a real statement about boston here. and the saga of that anti-government rancher out in nevada. you'll hear about this guy a lot more, who doesn't want to pay for his cattle to graze on federal land. he's sort of setting up a kind of whiskey rebellion out there me's joined by the duck dynasty guys. and guess which is the latest state where republicans want the option to secede from the union? in wisconsin of all states. this is "hardball" the place for politics. joe woods' first day of work. and his new boss told him two things -- cook what you love, and save your money. joe doesn't know it yet, but he'll work his way up from busser to waiter to chef before opening a restaurant

specializing in fish and game from the great northwest. he'll start investing early, he'll find some good people to help guide him, and he'll set money aside from his first day of work to his last, which isn't rocket science. it's just common sense. from td ameritrade. it's just common sense. [ female announcer ] some people like to pretend a flood could never happen to them. and that their homeowners insurance protects them. [ thunder crashes ] it doesn't. stop pretending. only flood insurance covers floods. ♪ visit floodsmart.gov/pretend to learn your risk. >> this is a great example of a political campaign taking its biggest weakness and turning it

into a point of attack against the other side. former massachusetts senator scott brown is now running for senate in new hampshire, of course, against incumbent democrat jeanne shaheen his campaign is turning the fact that he's a carpet bagger around own shaheen. >> she represents the ideology and the policies of the radical left wing of the democratic party. that's how she votes. she votes with elizabeth warren. she votes with markey. she is the third senator from massachusetts. >> smart line and real hardball by mark sununu. we'll see if that one works. i think it's going to be a close race up there. brown shales shaheen but only by half a dozen points.

>> welcome back to "hardball." republicans are fighting back against one of the democrats' perceived advantages politically, support among women voter ps president obama had an 11-point lead over mitt romney in 2012 and their last 2012 election autopsy -- that was a bad word -- republicans called it an imperative fact to reverse that. now they say they have a plan. the national committee plans a new initiative. 14 and 14 to recruit and train rim under age 40 in the final 14 weeks of the campaign. they are encouraging campaigns to include their wooifs and daughters in campaign ads, have women at their events and build a facebook like internal database of women willing to campaign on their behalf. they say attacks like this on president obama last week are unfair. >> this isn't just about treating women fairly.

this is about republicans seemingly opposing any efforts to even the playing field for working families. if republicans in congress want to prove me wrong, if they want to show that they, in fact, do care about women being paid the same as men, then show me. they can start tomorrow. they can join us in this, the 21st century and vote yes on the paycheck fairness act. vote yes. >> this weekend, marsha blackburn of tennessee had this to say about the war on women. >> i find this war on women rhetoric just almost silly. it is republicans that have led the fight for women's equality. go back through history and look at who was the first woman to ever vote, elected to office, go to congress. >> but why did the senate republicans block this? >> well, because the legislation

was something that was going to be helpful for trial lawyers. we're all for equal pay. i would love for women to be focused on maximum wage, and i have fought to be recognized with equality for a long time. a lot of us get tired of guys condescending to us. >> michael steele is the former chair of the republican national committee and political analyst. and michelle bernard is the president of the bernard center for women, politics and public policy. thank you both for joining us. you know, i was watching -- you know, history is a funny thing, michael and michelle. when marsha blackburn, i thought she really made a mistake saying that rankin was this wonderful fighter for women's rights all that stuff. she opposed world war i, then opposed world war ii. after pearl harbor she opposed world war ii. she's an odd emblem of the

republican party given its hawkish ways these days. let me ask you, what should the republicans do to get back in a race that 11-point differential between the mitt romney vote and the obama vote by, say, november? >> well, the first thing on the whole idea of women and republican party of history. and i think a lot of women understand and appreciate the history of republican party as do many african-americans. the question becomes what have you done for us lately? that leads into the conversation we need to have now. so ied a mere the push and the drive. but there's still substantive questions that need to be answered with substantive answers by the party for a lot of women out there. we were there for the suffrage movement and all these wonderful points of history, which were important turning points, but

we're now at another turning point for women, and i think this is the conversation that women are looking to have that the party i'm convinced is not prepared to have fully at this point. >> on women's issue, you see ruth marcus as a liberal coming out against this pay equality thing. it seems like the smart thing for the republicans to do is not knee jerk oppose it but say let's do a study and find out what the number really means. if it's 85, there's still a differential. if it's 93, there's still a differential. instead of just saying there's no 77-cent difference. it seems an odd way to go at it. >> and there are republicans who are doing that. but what's really interesting if you dig a little deeper into the numbers, president obama won by 11 points in 2012 in the women's vote, but mitt romney, despied rush limbaugh calling sandra

fluke a shut and one could argue that money is more important to men than women, mitt romney got more of the white women's vote than george bush before him and it's white women, overwhelmingly married, typically with families earning more than $100,000 a year. their husbands are white males that also voted for mitt romney. >> do they work outside the home? >> they're not dealing with pocketbook issues from a purse that comes from target. >> are they women -- all women work, i know, but are they women in the public work place? >> yes, some are and some are not. but what's interesting is republicans understand, just like they get the white male vote, they get the white female vote. if they're going to be realistic about this new strategy, i think it's great, they should be competing for the votes of the

entire american electorate. >> of if that's the case, nay ear skewed against minorities in the republican party. your thoughts, michael? why do women vote democrat? >> i don't think it's so much gender, yes, women who are voting that way, but i think it has to do with the issues. i think women are the breadwinner, they are the homemakers, they're the single force in any given family, whether there's a husband there, male or not, women are large drivers in the economy, in education, in a host of issues that affect the community. and so they're much more tied in substantively. i keep using that word because i think it makes a big difference for a lot of women particularly in this cycle to have a conversation substantively about how these issues are going to

affect us. so chris, if the party is going to say, you know, you elect us in 2014, electric us in 2017, we're going to repeat health care. these women are asking, what does that mean for me? i for the first time got health care for my kid who didn't have it before. substantively, they're going to ask these questions. >> you should still be chair of the republican party. i've just gone through tax time. once again, the executive skills are most apparent on my wife's side of the house. the piles of paper in the dining room, we're trying to figure out everything, get it in on time today, but the executive skills on health care, who's got what shot, what shots the kids have had, who are the good teacher, who are the not good teachers. who are the god, smart classmates. my wife is the executive. i remember the late great

patrick moynihan saying why don't you run for president. he said i had no executive skills. my wife does the checkbook. these are so true. my mom used to do it, too. thank you, michael steele and michelle. up next, the shoe truthers. this is 10 hilarious. rushbo believes she manipulated this. some of the nuts on the right will believe anything. this is "hardball."

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>> the latest proverbial shoe to drop following the scene at a las vegas hotel last weekend when hillary clinton had a shoe thrown at her while delivering a

speech about recycling of all things. leave it to the far right to hatch a conspiracy theory about that incident. rush limbaugh says the whole thing was staged. 23409 only that, he said it was designed to distract from, you guessed it, benghazi. >> i'm sorry, i'm ill equipped to comment. maybe it's because in my sub tongs, i think it was staged or set up or whatever. i don't know why anyone would be throwing a shoe at hillary unless -- maybe it's an attempt to make the benghazi people look like nuts and lunatics and whackos. >> no, i think it makes you look that way. what if the shoe was on the other foot, so to speak. in this case george w. bush. back in december in 2008, he's a great ducker. encountered twice a similar incident, or set of incidents while holding a press conference. and herman cain tweeted this.

fakery from the clintons? that hillary shoe throwing thing does kind of look fake. huh? we can say anything these days and some people will believe it. state republicans in wisconsin are set to vote on a proposal next month that would make secession a part of the gop's platform in the state. the so-called state sovereignty resolution was spearheaded by tea party activists who not only believe wisconsin should have a right to secede from the united states but also that state lawmakers should be able to opt out, catch this, of all government mandates they deep, quote, beyond the scope of the delegated powers of the government. while governor scott walker is distancing himself from the initiative, it will get an up or down vote in early may. what's going on with wisconsin? we'll be right back after this.

the city of boston marked the exact time the first bomb

exploded near the finish line of the boston marathon which was only a year ago. it seems longer. it was a day of somber tributes across the country, but especially in boston. four people died and many more were injured, many losing limbs. many of those victims and their families were on hand today of course in a memorial service in boston. joe biden delivered an uplifting and defiant speech, telling the city they had become the face of american's resolve for the whole world to see. >> next monday on patriots day when i'm told of the 36,000 people line up to start the marathon you will send a resounding message around the world, not just to the rest of the world, but to the terrorists that we will never yield, we will never cower. america will never, ever, ever stand down.

we are boston. we are america. we respond. we endure. we overcome, and we own the finish line. >> wow. jeff bowman wrote an especially letter to the city of boston. he said in part, quote, i am so sorry for the four we lost and all their family and friends. we stood together for a moment at the finish line and i will stay with you forever. i know my pain is nothing compared to yours. this is a guy that lost both legs. not just today but every day. i know i'm lucky to be alive, lucky to live in this city. lucky to have your love and support. thank you boston for being there for me and thank you for helping me prove nothing will stop us from being who we are. we're joined by the democrat from massachusetts and mike barnacle. senator markey, the thing that struck me about your city and

your state, your immediate reaction was triage, get the people to the hospitals, incredible competence, focus on risk. people would rush up and help people take care of themselves, get them ready to be picked up by the first responders. everything was about community. it wasn't about revenge. the initial attitude of your city and state was let's get it together as fast as we can and save as many lives as we can now. we'll think about justice later. it was so fascinating to watch. >> back on/11. two planes were hijacked by ten terrorists. that's what began the whole attack on our country. and boston was part of that. and boston learned the lesson. boston was strong because boston was ready on the marathon bombing day. we had done the coordination, the medical personnel were ready. the city under there could be an attack and everyone pitched in just perfectly in order to make sure the damage that was done by

these terrorists was just minimal. something was almost magical that day. but it was because this city knew that it could be attacked. it had been just a decade before. and i think we sent a signal that the whole country is ready and has to be ready at all times because they do want to harm us because of what we stand for. and boston is the cradle of liberty. it does stand for all of those principles that the jihadists hate about us. but we saw the response of these great people from boston in a way that we were celebrating today. it was really a great day of really celebrating the response of everyone, even as we basically thank those that lost their lives and the families which are still surviving. >> mike, it seemed to be, you always tell how you go to these

memorials, i remember almost all memorials are the same way. when tim russert died here, you go and you look at the bouquets and the personal messages. and it's amazing. you don't really appreciate something until after people respond to it. and i went to the finish line a couple days after, maybe a week after the bombing there and i saw all these messages, and all this sense of silence. well, you've been there. the way people personal responded to it was just so powerful. >> well, chris, i'll take a stab at maybe explaining why that occurs uniquely around the marathon. next monday the marathon will be conducted. there will be roughly up to about 36,000 people in the field. once you exclude the first 100 finishes, the elite runners, the winners that get their names in the paper and make endorsement money and things like that, the rest of the runners, nearly 36,000 are you and me. they're running. they're neighbors, they're schoolteachers, they're parents.

they're running for various causes. they're you and me. they're ordinary people. and for 26 miles the crowds are thick on the sidewalk, cheering them on, propelling them towards the finish line. if a tragedy occurs as it occurred a year ago, it's you and i that are the victims of the tragedy. the people of the commonwealth of massachusetts, the people of the united states, we know these runners, these victims, we know who they are because they are us. >> the president had this to say michael on the anniversary of the attacks. the most vivid mimages of this day were not of smoke and chaos but of compassion, kindness and strength. a man in a cowboy hat helping a wounded stranger out of harm's way, runners embracing loves ones. an emt carrying a spectator to safety and today we recognize the incredible courage and leadership of so many bostonians in the wake of unspeakable tragedy. back to you, senator.

where does this whole thing -- maybe as a politician, as a political leader, you can't say so, but is there going to be justice in this case? >> yes. there is. and we -- we need justice. we want justice. we want there to be a trial. we want it to be here. we want all the evidence to come out. we want the city of boston to have the justice which they deserve. and i think that's going to happen. the "b" that people are wearing on their hats. the "b" now is really for the city of boston. it's a different place today. it's a special bond. we need to ensure that this trial does basically give the victims and give the city the justice which it deserves. >> well, senator, you say exactly what i felt as an outsider.

anyway, thank you, senator. up next, how the right wing is embracing that anti-government rancher out there in nevada. what is going on out there? like the whiskey rebellion out in the desert. a. [ female announcer ] crest presents: crest 3d white whitestrips vs. a whitening pen. i feel like my lips are going to, like, wash it off. these fit nicely. [ female announcer ] crest 3d white whitestrips keep the whitening ingredient in place, guaranteeing professional level results. crest whitestrips. the way to whiten.

>> the governor is facing a grand jury investigation.

a grand jury has been sworn in to look into whether governor rick perry of texas acted improperly when he threatened to cut money of district attorney's unless the district attorney resigned after drunk driving allegations. akord according to a perry attorney, they hired a special prosecutor. of.

>> we're back. a dramatic showdown erupted last week over a parcel of federal land in eastern nevada. it's become the latest cause celeb of the far right. the standoff is between the u.s.

bureau of land management and a local cattle rancher. the bureau says that bundy illegally grazed his cattle and has done so since 1993 when new grazing laws were implemented. bundy says the nevada state law allows him to use the public land because he says his family has raised cattle there since 1877. but he owes $1 million right now in back fees for the grazing rights since '93. the government tried to settle the dispute, but earlier this month, federal agents seized his cattle, a group that brought spites rights advocates and an armed militia into what's been called the sage brush rebellion. the federal authorities stood down on saturday, but take a look at how clivan bundy son's ryan portrayed that decision. >> they're not coming back right now, no. they have -- they moved out. they -- we gave them terms of surrender and they accepted

those terms. >> surrender? now prominent conservatives have embraced bundy' fight as their own. they see it as an example of government overreach. they'll turn bundy into a folk hero of the far right. >> there's something incredibly wrong when a government believes some blades of grass that a cow is eating is so an egregious affront to the government of the united states that we would literally put a gun in a citizen's face and threaten to shoot him over it. >> huckabee, of course, also thinks north korea has more freedom than the united states does. so put that in context. john, this thing smacks of stunt, of stage craft. why doesn't this guy pay what he owes to the government. he knew what he was doing. he was taking advantage of

something other people have to pay for. he was getting it free. and now he now marks himself as a hero. >> he's not a hero, chris. he's not a victim. he's no symbol of states rights. this guy is essentially a welfare cowboy who's been grazing on those lands for free for 20 years. he knew what he was doing. he was taking advantage of something other people have to pay for. he was getting it free. and somehow, he now marks himself as a hero. >> yeah, he's not a hear row, chris. and he's not a victim. he's, no, you know, symbol of state's rights, as mike huckabee and others have seized on. this guy is essentially a welfare cowboy, who has been grazing on those lands for free for 20 years, fighting the federal government. he's lost in court, and suddenly the blm, unfortunately, came in such a heavy-handed way, there were some incidents, and then these militia guys come in and suddenly he's a hero. now the guy is ratcheting up his rhetoric, chris, and saying he doesn't recognize the existence of the united states government, and they're going to take back --

>> this is so waco, john, isn't it? it's what you do as you go completely outside the law for years and years and years. you drive local authorities crazy. they bring in the federal authorities, because you just will not obey the law. and then you declare yourself a hero when they finally take action against you. like, we're -- i don't know. i just have no sympathy for these guys who build these cases against the government. the government. it's our government. it's what was elected by the american people. it operates under a constitution which they pay tribute to, and believe in. there's no problem here, except when you break the law, then you've got to pay. in this case, the guys gets $1 million free in grazing rights and he wants it just to be cashed over to him. given freely. >> but what does this, say, chris, to the 99% of ranchers who pay their fees, who do what the constitution and the law says. this isn't waco. this is whackco. and all these whackcos came down, these "duck dynasty" militias, oath keepers, all these folks came down and caused a near-violent incident to the point where the governor here and the senator here had to eventually tell them to calm it down, after they had riled up these folks, right, these republican politicians here, they went up there, they did

anti-federal government rhetoric to stir up cliven bundy and these militia folks, nearly caused a riot, so the blm, which had botched this on the front end, then had to leave. what precedent does that set, chris, that the federal government backs down now? what does that say in the future, when these kinds of things happen? >> wayne, i notice that a lot of these ranchers out here, the guys that are the states righters on the far right, had cameras with them. looks like they were trying to create a violent incident, they all had their cameras on, and then were able to say, waco, again. anytime there's use of force by the federal authorities, they win. so when the federal authorities the don't use force, they declare a surrender. so they win both ways. >> we had a group in west texas, the davis mountains, basically a group of secessionists that did the same thing. and ultimately a couple of people died in that, these successionists. these are clashing world views. it's not that these people are

defying the constitution, it's just that their constitution, their reading of it, is a very different one that makes them the victim. the lawless partner here is the federal government. the illegitimate element here are the leaders of the federal government. how many times have we heard the government, the federal government is overreaching and lawless. and the president of the united states is illegitimate. it is a rhetorical device that resonates. and it's not just militia, secessionists and birthers, but it's a larger group of folks, in nevada, in texas, who embrace this ideology and some of the voter who is sent ted cruz to the senate. >> i wonder about this. john, you know, it sounds like the confederacy. we don't like the taxation, so we attack the irs. we don't like any kind of

regulation of safety getting on airplanes, so we go after the tsa. one after another after another. every constitution of the federal government is banned. it sounds like robert e. lee. i don't know, your thoughts? >> yeah, it's a completely phony issue, though, chris. that's not really what's going on here. and now you have politicians and people with megaphones on fox news and elsewhere, emboldening these folks, that think that they're fighting for the rights of all americans. it's a completely phony issue. they're not standing up for the constitution. that the constitution has a clause that says loyalty to the federal government. this guy is not a hero, he's not a victim, he's a demagogue and he's being emboldened by demagogues. >> well said. thank you, john rollsten and thank you, wayne slater. everybody time mike huckabee gets quoted on that, he looks like a fly. what's he doing out the there playing this game, i can seen herman cain, but huckabee has some brains. we'll be right back after this. you tell them how much you want to pay,

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let me finish tonight with this scandal affecting the one republican presidential prospect who could have given hillary quite a run in 2016. the pieces of this bridge scandal are coming together, like a jigsaw puzzle, or more like one of those old polaroid films that develop slowly, right there in front of you. we learned today of a mandatory directive to shut off mayor who is failed to play ball with the christie political operation. according to summary notes of an interview that christie administration lawyers conducted with one of christie's top staffers, his campaign

apparently sent an explicit word to the governor's office that dealt with them, the one headed by bridgette kelly, not to rush to return the governor's phone call. someone in the governor's office was supposed to be hands off of. this was pretty much what we've been looking for. governor christie has been making noises that he can't understand how his people got the idea they were to be playing rough with political holdouts like the mayor of ft. lee, but when bridget kelly e-mailed david wildstein there were time for some traffic problems in ft. lee, she could, operating right off of that christie campaign mandatory directive. and how about the approved targets list sent out if january of 2013? it's precisely the hardball political guidance from the top the governor has been denying existed. well, it does exist and is now in evidence. so is christina renner's reference to that mandatory directive by the christie campaign to make life unpleasant for those who disagreed to hop aboard the chris christie

bandwagon. all of this as the mist rises off the george washington bridge. that's "hardball" for now. thanks for being with us. "all in with chris hayes" starts right now. good evening from new york. i'm chris hayes. there are new developments tonight in the standoff between a nevada rancher and the government agency he has owed for 20 years. the confrontation between the government and heavily armed militia members who support cliven bundy and his family's insistence on not paying the bureau of land management for cattle grazing rights ended without a shot fired. we are finding out tonight just how far bundy's supporters were ready to go. >> we were actually strategizing to put all the women up at the front. if they're going to start shooting, it's going to be women that are going to be televised all across the world getting shot by these rogue federal officers.