>> ewen mcgas kill live from edinboro, thank you very much. il note kevin could i said that back in 1996 when they had their referendum. they have not had one since. that is all in for this evening. the rachel maddow show starts right now. >> thanks, man. thanks to you at home for staying with us for the next hour. as chris said all eyes are on scotland right now. the polls closed about four hours ago. at 10:00 p.m. local time which was 5:00 p.m. on the east coast of the united states. only the very first returns are in. we don't know the exactly when a full result will come in. but the count is under way right now. it's expected to go all night overnight in scotland. we'll have live coverage from edinborough tonight including some of what the coverage looks like on scottish television tonight which is fascinating coming up ahead. we'll update you on the poll results as they come in from scotland. that's happening. also. the nbc station here in new york

tonight broke big news about the federal criminal investigation that has dogged new jersey republican governor chris christie for nearly a year now. wnbc's jonathan dienst reporting late tonight while federal prosecutors in new jersey continue to investigate the shutdown of lanes onto the george washington bridge last year, as some still unexplained act of political retribution, federal officials tell wnbc tonight that those investigations thus farce have found no evidence that governor chris christie personally had advance knowledge of the shutdown plot nor have they found evidence that he took part in the plot personally. again, the investigation continues. but that is the first substantive leak from the federal criminal investigation of the bridge shutdown in new jersey. the u.s. attorney's office in new jersey has been incredibly tight-lipped. that's the first reporting we've had from that. we'll have more coming up in a

few minutes including governor christie's own reaction to that leak tonight from just a few moments ago. that's coming up. there's also news tonight out of washington, news that prompted this perfect headline from the huffington post late today. congress ashamed of congress. members of congress willing to go on the record to "huffington post" how embarrassed they are by their own institution and what it did today as congress makes a surprise and sudden decision today to bale, to leave. they decided today to bale on all their remaining workdays between now and mid-november. they just gave themselves every day off work from now until a week after the election. so they made the surprise announcement today they're canceling all this work for the next seven weeks and then they ran for the exits. while leaving one really important thing undone. president obama changing up his

schedule late tonight to make this statement about congress on short notice. we've got more on that including excerpts from the president's late address tonight. that's all ahead on what has been a pretty amazing day in the news today. any one of those things happening this afternoon and tonight would have made today a really big news day, right? but then not only are all those things happening all at once in, addition to all of them at 6:00 p.m. eastern time tonight, the supreme court in the great state of kansas decided they wanted to make some big national news, as well, news that frankly has turned on its head the national expectations for control of the united states senate. now, what's been going on in the kansas united states senate race so far has basically been this big national surprise, that in such a deep red state where mitt romney beat barack obama by 21 points a state that hasn't sent anybody other than a republican to the united states senate since 1932, it has been a who

can to the national republican party and to a certain extent to the whole political system that an incumbent republican senator in the state of kansas has been in trouble this year. incumbent republican senator pat roberts it turns out is having the race of his life to try and keep his seat in the senate right now. pat roberts is not the most popular senate in the world. his numbers are not great at home. he had to fend off a pesky tea party challenge in his primary this year. but until a couple of weeks ago, it can looed like those problems were behind him and he would hold on to his seat in the general election mostly because of this. this dynamic. he had the great fortune of running in a three-way race. so people who want to vote for pat roberts can vote for roberts but people who want to vote against him were splitting their vote between the democratic candidate and a well financed pretty popular independent candidate. that dynamic that, vote splitting among opponents is how pat roberts was going to limp to re-election in kansas this year.

that's how they were going to keep that seat in safe republican hands and help the republican party on its way to try to take over control of the u.s. senate this year. that whole thing changed two weeks ago on september 3rd when that three-way race became a two-way race because this guy, the democratic candidate who had been running, he got persuaded that he should drop out. and if you take away that vote splitting phenomenon, if it turns out there's only one major candidate in the race against pat roberts instead of two, then the polling looks like oh, pat roberts is going to lose his seat. maybe the most republican state in the country arguably but they're about to lose their republican senate seat. and that was bourn out in the polling before the democrat actually made the decision to drop out. it has been bourn out in the polling ever since he dropped out september 3rd and that polling has caused the national republican party to hit it the panic button on this race. they flew in washington campaign staff to replace the long-time

local staffers for pat roberts. they started running ads in the race. they got the nra roped into the race for the first time. and they started paying very close attention to one weird sort of undercover dynamic in kansas. so this is the polling that shows pat roberts losing to the independent candidate greg or man, right? a couple different polls same result in both cases. but what kansas republicans started noticing and grasped on to with all their might is that even though the democratic candidate has withdrawn, the democrat is no longer running, if you put his name back on the ballot and make people think that there's a democrat still running in the race, well that bam boozes voters enough that maybe roberts has a chance. and so the day after the democrat with drew from the this race and had his name taken off the candidate list, his name taken off the ballot, the following day the kansas republican secretary of state, the crusading conservative hero

kris kobach put the guy's name back on the ballot. it's more convenient to have the democrat on there and so the democrats on there. and that led to today's ruling by the kansas supreme court at 6:00 p.m. eastern time, 5:00 p.m. local time in kansas. what this set off tonight is kind of crazy. it's like an outlaw wild west by any means necessary kind of situation right now in kansas. it's nuts. it's like remember the brooks brothers riot in florida during the 2000 recount? it's like that except it's the one guy rioting. it's just republican secretary of state kris kobach. look at this. at 5:00 p.m. local time in kansas, close of business on the deadline, that's when they handed down the ruling. the reason today was the deadline for the ruling is because tomorrow the ballots have to be printed in kansas. so says kris kobach, and the secretary kansas secretary of state. he told the court that's the deadline and explained in his court filings by law kansas's

ballots have to be sent out to members of the armed forces serving overseas by saturday which is the day after tomorrow in order to get them sent out on time by law. that means the ballot has to be finalized by september 1th, 2014. that's today. has to have the final list by today because they've got to print tomorrow and send them out on saturday. that's the law. so says secretary of state kris kobach. that's what he told the court. when the supreme court ruled today, they were right up against that deadline and what they ruled is that kris kobach does have to take that democratic guy's name off the ballot. he properly with drew from the race no matter how much of kansas republicans want there to be a democrat on the ballot, that guy withdrew properly. kris kobach is not within kansas law. so ordered by the supreme court of that state. now, of course, kansas republicans desperately want there to be a democrat on the ballot to hopefully siphon votes away from the independent guy who is challenging pat roberts.

that dynamic having three people on the ballot that looks like the only way roberts could hold on to his seat at this point. we're at the deadline. if the ballots have to be finalizes today because they have to be printed tomorrow, there's really no chance that that could happen after this you rooing today, right? kris kobach had been making noise about trying to force the democrats to put another name on the ballot even if their initial candidate was allowed to withdraw but if the ballots are being printed tomorrow, there's no time for the democrats to do that. there's no way kris can force the democrats to pick somebody overnight? quick, convene a convention. because the court ruled today at the close of business at 5:00 p.m. on the deadline the matter pretty much looks settled. it's going to be pat roberts against the independent guy greg orman on the ballot and just so you know, the polling right now makes it look like pat roberts would lose his seat. but after the court handed down this ruling today at 5:00 p.m. local time, 6:00 p.m. east coast

time that is when things really got weird because at a press conference following the ruling today, kris kobach announced that actually it turns out tomorrow's not the deadline. who said it was the deadline? despite everything he told the court, despite this law he's citing when you have to get ballots out to overseas service members, kris kobach is now saying the deadlines when i told the court those were the deadlines, he's now directing the kansas state democratic party they have to pick another name to put on the ballot so it can be a three-way race. he's decided to push all the deadlines back. he's giving them eight days to make this decision because those old deadlines, made those up. now he says he's not going to print the ballots till the 27th of september and he says that will give them plenty of time to pick somebody else so this can go back to being a three-way race. amazing. so what happened to the deadlines that he told the court were so hard and fast and

determined by law? i mean on the military ballot's is he now saying kansas is going to have people in the military vote on a totally different ballot for a totally different candidates than everybody else is voting on in the state? really? i mean, is this as desperate as it looks by kansas republicans. this looks like a by any means necessary move here. to that end, what happens if the democrats just say no here? if they say no, kris kobach, we're not going to pick somebody for that line on the ballot. this is not just a united states senate race. this potentially is the united states senate race that decides who controls the united states senate. and it's total chaos right now. it has become the most important senate race in the country at least right now and it is complete chaos. just insane. joining us now is dave helling political reporter forever the kansas city star. dave, every time we talk, i congratulate you how much fun this race has been to cover.

then it gets crazier. >> we don't get any days off covering politics in kansas unlike congress, rachelle. >> the way that -- yeah, another seven weeks off at their own discretion. >> you bet. >> the way i sum this up in terms of the order of those events, the way that kris kobach responded to this supreme court ruling and the changing of those deadlines an everything, am i summarizinging that accurately? >> fairly closely. it's a federal law that requires there ballot printing rachelle, are because the national government has some interest in getting the ballots to the military overseas and kris kobach said tonight he's been given a waiver by the justice department so they can wait another week. whether that weeking will change the fundamentals is not clear at all. you talk to democrats and republicans. you're exactly right. it isn't clear how a, kris kobach can order a political party to do anything. he's just the secretary of state. and b, how they would do it.

you know, would they meet in a convention? would it be just party chairs by county how it would work? ing it does seem like a pretty desperate move at the end, but you know, he's not ready to give up yet. he's very convinced that there needs to be a democrat on the november ballot in kansas. and so he made the announcement that he did. >> so two questions following on that. one is there any indication of what the kansas democrats will do? is there a chance they just won't go along with this and two, is some of this still due to be decided in court? is this going back to the kansas supreme court or going to be litigated in any other way. >> we'll see it kobach said this evening if the kansas democrats don't respond by his deadline, he will examine his legal options. we reached out to the kansas democratic party tonight. they have no intention of nominating anybody. they're very critical of kris kobach. he cannot be trusted they said. you know, kris kobach has his own race for secretary of state

which is also very close. so i do get the sense that kris is trying to pursue whatever last-minute options he might have, but i think virtually everyone in kansas now understands that this race is greg orman and pat roberts going forward. >> it's fascinating. and the fact that kobach is on the ballot, as well, i mean, i saw recent polling from ppp in kansas, they were polling obviously on the senate race but they also polled on what can sanniians think how kobach is handling this. he does have his own race. it's a close race. the democrat has a chance of knocking him off for secretary of state. he's underwater by tens of points in terms of how people view his handling of this. is he in a position where he doesn't care about public opinion? this is so desperate he needs to do it anyway or is he susceptible to that sort of criticism? >> if you know kris kobach, plays to the crowd but he doesn't always listen to the crowd. he sort of blazes his own trail.

there is a segment of the republican party in kansas and across the country that loves this kind of thinging from kris kobach. i think that's why he pursues it to a certain degree. what you didn't know the in your introduction but your viewers should know is that this opinion today from the kansas supreme court was unanimous or at least there were no dissenting opinions filed. it was per curiam which bush versus gore people will remember of the court. and so even the republicans on the supreme court arguably went along with this decision against kris kobach. that's why i say you get the sense even some republicans are saying let's give up, let's just now focus on the race was greg orman and you will find republicansal, frankly who say this helps us focus now on greg orman. we can now turn our attention to one candidate to really make him the issue and this decision in some ways cleary phis the campaign for the next six weeks.

>> dave helling political reporter for the kansas city star. i keep thinking it's not going to be as exciting the next time we talk but who knows. looking forward to talking to you next twist. thanks a lot. as you can tell, there's a ton of news going on. the world is soon going to find out if scotland voted to become an independent country. that's one part of it. we'll have live reports from edinboro. there's major breaking news about chris christie and the george washington bridge scandal. plus congress did something today i'm still choking on. please stay with us. for over 19 million people. [ mom ] with life insurance, we're not just insuring our lives... we're helping protect his. [ female announcer ] everyone has a moment when tomorrow becomes real. transamerica. transform tomorrow. i am so noh my gosh...now, it's not even funny. driver 1 you ready? yeah! go! [sfx] roaring altima engine woah! ahhhha! we told people they were riding nissan's most advanced

altima race car. we lied... about the race car part. altima, with 270 horsepower and active understeer control. how did you?...what! i don't even, i'm speechless. innovation that excites. do you have something for pain? i have bayer aspirin. i'm not having a heart attack, it's my back. i mean bayer back & body. it works great for pain. bayer back & body provides effective relief for your tough pain. better? yeah...thanks for the tip!

that corporate trial by fire when every slacker gets his due. and yet, there's someone around the office who hasn't had a performance review in a while. someone whose poor performance is slowing down the entire organization. i'm looking at you phone company dsl. go to comcastbusiness.com/ checkyourspeed. if we can't offer faster speeds or save you money we'll give you $150. comcast business built for business. as of tomorrow, congress is going to be doing one thing it is really, really good at, that is the thing not done in washington anywhere near the capitol. congress made amazing surprise decision today, one i'm still choking on a little and i don't feel i'm choking up i mean i'm choking on it like i'm gagging. that story is coming up.

means keeping seven billion ctransactions flowing.g, and when weather hits, it's data mayhem. but airlines running hp end-to-end solutions are always calm during a storm. so if your business deals with the unexpected, hp big data and cloud solutions make sure you always know what's coming - and are ready for it. make it matter. right here. with a control pad that can read your handwriting, a wide-screen multimedia center, and a head-up display for enhanced driver focus. all inside a newly redesigned cabin

of unrivaled style and comfort. ♪ the all-new c-class. at the very touch point of performance and innovation. ♪ between 1814 and 1905, this was sweden norway. all one place. much to the chagrin of norway it turns out. in 1905, norway said to heck with that and they seceded from sweden. now instead of being one big scandinavian country, they are two still sort of big but separate scandinavian countries. in 1863, similarly, what had been virginia instead became west virginia and virginia. one big thing devolved into two smaller but separate states. in 2006 -- serbia and month negro were like hey, we're going

to drop the and. we're actually serbia and month neg groelg three different words don't capitalize the a. we're two different countries. in 1993, same deal with slovakia and the czech republic when they decided they were each going to go their own way and instead make czechoslovakia people just say all the time now by mistake. breakups happen. tonight we're waiting to see if it's going to happen to our best and closest ali in the world, is the united kingdom. this is a live shot of votes being pg counted just outside of edinboro just after 2:20 in the morning there. voters in scotland today participated in a countrywide referendum on independence. there's one very simple on their one beautifully simple ballot. this is the ballot. look. should scotland be an independent country? yes or no. if the vote is yes, ha means the uk will go from being like this to instead being like this. losing essentially a third of

their land mass and over 8% of their population and all of their scottishness. the polls heading into tonight's vote were too close to call but maybe leaning toward a no vote in the last round of polling. about 97% of the electorate voted to vote in this referendum, the highest ever turnout in a referendum anywhere in the world when it wasn't against the law to not vote in the referendum. the highest was when quebec voted on independence from canada in 1995. the quebec independent vote got over 93% turnout in the referendum. that's the record that scotland is trying to beat tonight. they might do it although the early returns suggest probably not. the polls in scotland were open for 15 hours today from 7:00 in the morning till 10:00 at night. they closed 10:00 local time which is 5:00 p.m. on the east coast. the votes get counted in each of the 32 local authorities one by one across the country. there's a decentralized collection of ballots in

scotland. that is easy in some places but hard in others. for example, it was apparently a bit of a challenge tonight in places like the shetland islands way up there on the top of your screen and also some of the western islands way out there on the west part of your screen. there was heavy fog today. that threatened to disrupt a chartered plane supposed to pick up ballots from the western islands and fly them to their local authority counting center. should the fog be so heavy to disrupt the flight, they made a plan b to transport the ballots by way instead of a shellfish boat. the fishing boat is slower than the plane obviously. but there's also the fact if. the mist is too misty, maybe even the boat would be slowed down by that. so there's any number of reasons that could have delayed some of the more far flung scottish votes tonight. in terps of the early returns, the first results so far two out of the 32 local authorities have announced their vote counts. not just their turnout but how

people voted. if you add the two of those local authorities together, they're reporting 42.2% in favor of the referendum to secede while 57.8% where is voting against. early returns in at least 13 of the local authorities report the just voter turnout so far. voter turnout in the mid to upper it's the normal. just over 90% in at least two others bup but we're still awaiting further results. a lot of folks in scotland won't be getting much sleep tonight including local reporters hard at work with unto the minute updates throughout the night. they're saying to expect the results sometime around breakfast which depending on what time they eat breakfast we're expecting sometime in the couple of hours after midnight tonight here in new york. joining us now is alastair jamison a reporter with nbc news in edinboro tonight along with the assistance u.s. editor for the guardian here with us in the studio. alastair, i want to start with

you. edinboro right now, give us a sense what it's been like there tonight and what the early results are telling people about the overall polling. >> absolutely. as you said, rachel, with a turnout that high, it just goes to show the intensity of the debate that's taken place and the real passion with which scotts have voted for either side. and with opinion polls really suggesting the vote could go either way even at this stage, neither side making any confident prediction about how they're going to perform. those twos early results although they're interesting don't really give us a full picture. we'll have to wait till bigger cities declare their results later on such as glasgow and edinboro two or three hours from now. the most recent polls giving a slight edge to the no campaign to keep the united kingdom but really it's within the margin of error. neither side willing yet to jump and say concede defeat or say

they have likely won this. this is where all the results from around the country are being fed in and there's a real intense atmosphere here tonight. really britain is really just holding its breath for the outcome of this result because it is entirely possible even at this late stage that there could be a vote to split apart from the united kingdom. that is such a significant constitutional change for britain. >> alastair in, terms of the sort of late turn toward no which we au indicated in some of the very last polls in which people i think anecdotally are starting to use as part of their analysis for what we've seen thus far even if it is relatively premature to extrapolate in the two local authorities. but in terms of the late surge on the no side if there's been one, is that because of new arguments being made or new energy on the no side or is that simply the emergence of people who weren't very vocal about their preferences deciding to turn out to vote even if they

hadn't been expressing themselves local little about it before doing so? >> i think it's definitely the latter rachel. the thing is, if you're promoting the yes campaign, you have a very positive and exciting message, one of opportunity of what things could be like. and you're painting a picture of a country that could be liberated from westminster government and make its own decisions. that's a very engaging message and one that found a lot of favor. and it's been difficult i think for the no campaign the better together pro uk campaign really to find a message that is exciting and canrous passion. that hasn't happened till the last week or so when we found opinion polls that put the sides medication and neck. a lot of people woke up to the real possibility that eight yes vote could win. that has gotity think the a lot more people out on streets. and although the there hasn't been much in the way of new substantial campaign developments in terms of new

information or new argument, it certainly has got people energized and has brought more people out. i think you've seen that reflected in the massive turnout. >> alastair jamison in edinborough tonight. thank you. i appreciate you being there for us. matt wells assistant u.s. editor for the guardian. matt, do you agree there's no reason to extrapolate from those two early results from two local authorities of the 32, that that's not necessarily indicative of way things are going to go? >> niece are the come pull sill warnings we put on all these early results. we might, as well do extrapolation. the two results we've got so far, one of them is from automaticny island in the north of scotland and that went very much as expected very hard in favor of the union. but completely unexpected was clack manshire in the middle of scotland, very small county, only 9% of the vote but almost

54% for no and just 46% for yes. the yes campaign were really hoping to get clack manshire. it was number one on their list of areas they should get if they were going to win the whole country. they didn't get it. so the no campaign is jubilant and the yes campaign not very happy at this moment. still early stages. it could go either way yet but it's not looking good if you add that with the latest polling, poll of people who actually voted today, not quite an exit poll but a poll of people who went into stations and exited very nearly an exit poll, they just went back to their panel of people they prex polled after they voted and that was 54-46 too so the same as clack manager. so it isn't looking good for the yes campaign as we speak right now. >> in terms of the changing over time, we saw this panic in westminster and the british government in the uk over polling results that suggested a lot of momentum on the yes side.

and eventually, essentially it felt like they were blind sided by the fact that yes was doing, as well after it hadn't done well leading up to that. is there anything you can tell us about why the momentum may have shifted back in the no campaign's direction if in fact it did. >> that poll you mentioned for the sunday times indianapolis newspaper. london which gave it 51% for the yes campaign xaen, yeah, that sent london into a total panic. they will rounded up all the spare kitchen sinks in london and threw them at scott lad in the past two weeks. they announced that the government in london announced that a program of reform and further devolution of powers to scotland would be undertaken immediately after a no vote. that's what we'll hear tomorrow friday if the results go the way we expect. there's expected to be announcement in london that further powers will be siftly deinvolved to the scottish government. a bill will be published by

burns knight, a national day in scotland on the 31st of january. that has got all of england's mps into something of a tizzy. because if you grant more powers to the scottish government, what does that mean for the rest of england? should it it be a federal system in britain. cat chrissism and chaos is in the cards whatever happens. >> it defends if it's tonight or is in january. fascinating. matt wells, assistant editor for the guardian. this is going to be fun to watch. it's one of those huge news nights that was before we got on the air and is going to keep getting bigger overnight. stay with us. defects. so i offered to help. at ge capital, we bring expertise from across ge. so i call in our access ge engineers, and together with columbia, we work backwards. from the cabinet factory, to the place they peel the logs. we find the source and help replace the machine. problem solved. if you just need a loan, just call a bank.

but at ge capital, we're builders. what we know, can help you grow. yeah! vo: don't just dream of being the hero. make it happen. i can't believe we're missing the game for this. we're not. i've got xlte. vo: it doubles our 4g lte bandwidth in cities nationwide, so be that guy with verizon xlte. now get 1gb of bonus data, and our best pricing ever on the more everything plan. 3d white brilliancele with the toothpaste and boost.m crest: after brushing, our exclusive boost... ...polishes your smile and whitens with 3x the stain lifting ingredient... ...for a smile that dazzles. only from crest 3d white.

ugh. heartburn. did someone say burn? try alka seltzer reliefchews. they work just as fast and taste better than tums smoothies assorted fruit. mmm. amazing. yeah, i get that a lot. alka seltzer heartburn reliefchews. enjoy the relief.

it has been a big news day already on top of everything else. we also have some late breaking news out of new jersey to bring you. it's a big update the ongoing investigation into the forced lane closures that happened this time last year on the busiest bridge in the world. and what, if anything, governor chris christie of new jersey had to do with this now very famous e-mail. time for some traffic problemses in ft. lee. it was a big development in that story tonight coming up next with the man who has been leading the investigation since the beginning. please stay with us.

who's going to do it? who's going to make it happen? discover a new energy source. turn ocean waves into power. design cars that capture their emissions. build bridges that fix themselves. get more clean water to everyone. who's going to take the leap? who's going to write the code? who's going to do it? engineers. that's who. that's what i want to do. be an engineer. join the scientists and engineers of exxonmobil in inspiring america's future engineers. energy lives here. nineteen years ago, we thought, "wow, how is there no way to tell the good from the bad?" so we gave people the power of the review. and now angie's list is revolutionizing local service again. you can easily buy and schedule services from top-rated providers. conveniently stay up to date on progress. and effortlessly turn your photos into finished projects with our snapfix app. visit angieslist.com today. ♪

no question about that. but your erectile dysfunction - that could be a question of blood flow. cialis tadalafil for daily use helps you be ready anytime the moment's right. you can be more confident in your ability to be ready. and the same cialis is the only daily ed tablet approved to treat ed and symptoms of bph, like needing to go frequently or urgently. tell your doctor about all your medical conditions and medicines, and ask if your heart is healthy enough for sex. do not take cialis if you take nitrates for chest pain, as it may cause an unsafe drop in blood pressure. do not drink alcohol in excess. side effects may include headache, upset stomach, delayed backache or muscle ache. to avoid long term injury, get medical help right away for an erection lasting more than four hours. if you have any sudden decrease or loss in hearing or vision, or any allergic reactions like rash, hives, swelling of the lips, tongue or throat, or difficulty breathing or swallowing, stop taking cialis and get medical help right away. ask your doctor about cialis for daily use and a free 30-tablet trial.

yeah, it's that kind of day. more breaking news to report tonight. one of those days in the news. tonight's breaking news from new jersey concerns the ongoing investigation swirling around republican governor chris christie of new jersey. it was almost one year ago exactly that aides to governor christie for reasons still unknown orchestrated a massive traffic disaster at the world's busiest bridge.

starting the first day of school last september, members of govern christie's inner circle planned and executed a week long shut down of access lanes heading onto the gw bridge that gridlocked the town of fort let new jersey, caused a four-day long traffic nightmare on the new jersey side of that bridge. eventually it launched a blizzard of investigations into who decided to cause that traffic jam and why. the who as far as we know turned out to be a pair of chris christie officials, his deputy chief of staff bridget kelly and david wildstein. those two at least are known to have conspired to create that traffic jam on purpose. but there have remained a few key questions. why did they do it, who else was involved, who else knew they were doing it and did someone above them order it? because is he the governor and because this apparently emanated from his office there is the question of specifically whether chris christie knew anything about it and whether he ordered

as some sort of political payback scheme. you can see governor christie during that shutdown last year sanding and chatting with david wildstein one of his aides who ordered the shutdown. governor christie as first mocked the idea his administration had caused this thing. then he was forced to acknowledge that yeah, they did cause it. then apologized for the incident and said he felt betrayed, then he fired his top aide directly involved in it since then he came out and expressed public contrition for the actions, there have been on going investigations to try to find out if something criminal happened here. one of those is the inquiry conducted by the new jersey state legislature, special bipartisan committee tacked with figuring out what happened here and why. that investigation has been going on for months now and not yet wrapped up its work. the other investigation that's been on going is the investigation from federal prosecutors. from the u.s. attorney's office in the state of new jersey. the u.s. attorney in new jersey's is a man named pull.

fishman. his office has been investigating this scandal since january and other than confirming they are investigating, the u.s. attorney's office there has not confirmed much else. they've been really tight-lipped where that investigation stands. kind of a no leak office. earlier this year, we learned that federal investigators have been taking testimony from top chris christie aides including his chief spokesman but we learned that by staking out the courthouse. local reporters staking out the courthouse has been the only real means of gettings nefgs about what's going on. tonight though, the first leak. tonight there has been a development in what has been an investigation that before now was essentially leak freel for months. the development tonight is that somebody is now leaking somebody's leaking the news specifically that new jersey governor chris christie is basically off the hook in federal criminal investigation. our nbc affiliate in new york, wnbc broke the news earlier tonight. watch. >> federal sources briefed on

the criminal investigation say prosecutors and the fbi have found no evidence governor christie knew or had played any role in the plan to shut down traffic lanes approaching the george washington bridge. officials caution the investigation being led by u.s. attorney paul fishman is not yet complete but we're told that the federal investigation on going since january simply put has turned up nothing to indicate the governor had any involvement in bridgegate. >> so again, federal sources now leaking word that governor christie has essentially been cleared of wrongdoing in that investigation. there's no confirmation of that by the u.s. attorney's office. governor christie's office isn't commenting on it formally yet. but federal sources are now putting out word that the governor himself had nothing to do with the bridge scandal, nothing to see here. we spoke with the u.s. attorney's office in new jersey tonight. they told us in no uncertain terms "the investigationing is not over." they tend to speak in sentences

that short. but governor christie as he's tried many times in recent months is trying right now to put a book end on this scandal. earlier today he publicly called out the state legislature for their on going investigation into this matter telling them at a press conference today "wrap up your work." and then tonight, the governor for the first time in three months appeared on a local radio call-in program in new jersey where he was perfectly positioned to comment on this new reporting from wnbc. he said tonight "this is a report that comes as no shock to me. i'm not surprised by it," and again criticized the legislative investigation into this incident headed up by john which isness ski. joining us now is democratic state assembly man, john which isness ski the chair of the panel investigating this. assembly man, thank you for being with us. appreciate you being here. >> thank you. first your reaction to this reporting from wnbc that federal

investigators have so far found no evidence that governor christie had any knowledge of or played any role in the bridge shutdown. what do you make of that reporting? >> well, it could be true or it could not be true. we noticed that we have federal investigators saying that but then mr. fishman's office when contacted had no comment. look, the fact is that this is not an investigation into chris christie. this is an investigation into why these lanes were shut down who authorized the lanes to be shut down because i don't think anybody believes that bridgette kelly on her own decided one morning it would be a fun thing to do to shut these lanes down. we need answers to very basic questions. who gave her the authorization and what did they hope to accomplish? only by knowing those answers will we be able to make sure it can't happen again. >> the other key player in all of this implicated thus far is former port authority official david wildstein. he's alleged in writing through his attorney that in his words

"evidence exists tying governor christie to having knowledge of the lane closures. that's been his contention since he got nailed for his role in this basically. we reached out to his attorney tonight to get his reaction and haven't heard back yet. but has your committee been able to essentially substantiate that allegation from david wildstein? have you been able to figure out what that evidence might be that he's saying exists? >> there's a lot of e-mails out there, rachel. there already documents that we have not yet gotten from this administration because they're relying on executive privilege as a basis to not turn them over to the committee. so it could very well be in documents that they're withholding that there is more proof that would make some conclusive determinations. we don't know that yet. and don't forget, we also have this shifting timeline of when the governor knew what he knew. so we know that on december 13th, he said that he knewing into about this but we do know

that literally the day before, he had meetings with his senior aides about this very issue. >> i want to play a clip for you if i can, just because it's specifically about you. governor christie addressed you personally went after you personally in a press conference that he held on this matter earlier today about what you've been able to turn up so far in your investigation. listen. >> unfortunately, assembly man which isness ski is attempting to just keep his name in the newspaper. we have fully cooperated with him and i'm growing tired of him. you know, i've known all along that this is a partisan pursuit. an absolutely partisan pursuit. and the leaking that's being done by about the legislative committee is just further evidence of the fact that this is a partisan pursuit. >> so governor christie saying about you today i'm really growing tired of him accusing you of running a partisan

pursuit and i guess i got to ask for your response to that. >> i'm crushed. the reality is is that this is a legislative inquiry. i understand why republicans are unhappy about it. it's embarrassing. it makes the governor look bad. it makes the republican party look bad. so certainly they're going to try to characterize this as a partisan pursuit. this is an abuse of power that started on his watch. the fact that he's claiming to have been fully cooperative doesn't meet with the facts on their relying on executive privilege to withhold documents. i mean, if the governor truly believes that there's no bull penability here and take the governor at his word, what's he afraid of? why doesn't he turn all the document over and stop parsing words and holding back documents. >> john which isness ski, chair of the panel looking into bridgegate in the state legislature there. it's nice to see you. >> thank you. >> all right.

again, the breaking news tonight wnbc in new york reporting that sources say the federal investigation into the bridgegate can dal in new jersey has as yet turned up no evidence tying mr. christie governor christie to knowledge of or playing any role in the bridge shutdown. that is the first leak of really any kind from the federal prosecutors looking into this in new jersey. as yet unconfirmed by the u.s. attorney's office. lots more ahead. stay with us. so now we've turned her toffee into a business. my goal was to take an idea and make it happen. i'm janet long and i formed my toffee company through legalzoom. i never really thought i would make money doing what i love. we created legalzoom to help people start their business and launch their dreams. go to legalzoom.com today and make your business dream a reality. at legalzoom.com we put the law on your side.

whenwork with equity experts who work with regional experts that's when expertise happens. mfs. because there is no expertise without collaboration. how much dirt can we manufacture? more than you think. very little. [ doorbell rings ] what's this? what's that? swiffer sweeper. [ lee ] i came in under the assumption that it was clean. i've been living in a fool's paradise! and other car insurance companies? yes. but you're progressive and they're them. -yes. -but they're here. -yes. -are you... -there? -yes. -no. -are you them? i'm me. but the lowest rate is from them. -yes. -so them's best rate is... here. so where are them? -aren't them here? -i already asked you that. -when? -feels like a while ago. want to take it from the top? rates for us and them. now that's progressive. call or click today.

we know we're not the center of your life, but we'll do our best to help you connect to what is.

>> we're liking live at footage from edinbrogh, scotland. polls closed five hours ago. right now, almost 3:00 a.m. local time, we're beginning to get some results. voters in the shet laland islan were expected to vote no. 36% yes, 64% no. that's the most recent results. in the yorkney islands, 33% yes to 67% no. no has a big two to one lead there. and this was the first local

authority to report its results, clackmannanshire was predicted to vote yes. again, it's a small local authority, there aren't very many people. a very small proportion of the population, but this is a place that was expected to vote yes. and tonight, the no vote came in there ahead 53-46. so there are 32 local authorities altogether who are going to report results. those are the first three out of the 32 that are dpu to report. they are not the biggest in terms of population by any means. they're just the first three, do not extrapolate like you don't in american elections either. this is fascinating to watch as this comes in. [ kinda ] we are the saunders.

and we're new to the pacific northwest. the rain, the mud -- babam! it's there. the outside comes in. it's kinda nasty so you start the towel-mop shuffle. where are you sun?! [ doorbell rings ] oh, wow, it's a swiffer wetjet.

this puts my towel mopping to shame. whoa! ewww. sunshine is overrated, now we can get messy. [ laughs ] do you have something for pain? i have bayer aspirin. i'm not having a heart attack, it's my back. i mean bayer back & body. it works great for pain. bayer back & body provides effective relief for your tough pain. better? yeah...thanks for the tip! machines will be sprayed to be made.

and making something stronger... will mean making it lighter. one day, factories will work with the cloud. one day... is today.

>> of today, strike against the terrorists continue. we're taking out their terrorists. we're destroying their vehicles and equipment and stockpiles, and we salute our dedicated pilots and crews who are carrying out these missions with great courage and skill. as demander in chief, i could not be more proud of their service. >> president obama making a statement a couple of hours ago, changing up his schedule today to make those remarks, praising u.s. military pilots flying air raids in iraq, thanking congress as well for passing an amendment today to okay the administration's plan to arm and train rebels fighting the syrian government and who hopefully can be persuaded to fight isis, too, while they're at it. they voted 78-22 today. the house passed the same thing yesterday. and tonight president obama said thank you to congress for that. the cia is already training rebels in syria, but the expanded effort that congress just approved will start some time in the next three months or so. and in completely unrelated

news, the united states military continues to wage a war against isis. u.s. air strike number 176 against isis targets in iraq. congress is yet to say anything about that use of force by the u.s. military in iraq, let alone the 1,600 american troops who have been deployed back to iraq to take part in that fight. congress hasn't weighed in on that at all. and then today, they left. the house announced today, surprise, they're calling in sick for the next two months. they were supposed to be back at work tomorrow, but they canceled that day of work tomorrow. then they canceled all the rest of their days at work for the rest of this month. then they canceled all the days they were going to work next month in october, and now they're not planning on coming back to work until after they run for relek in november plus another week after that. to be clear, they just took five weeks off for all of august and the beginning of september. since their five-week vacation, they have worked a grand total of two four-day weeks. and today they made the surprise

announcement they're giving themselves the next 54 days in a row off work. it's not like there's anything going on they ought to be interested in, right? air strikes august 8. they've been going on for five weeks now. they're about to explanned into syria. the president announced a 40-nation coalition involved in this effort. france is going to start dropping bombs in iraq alongside our pilots who are already done it. there's a war under way already, which congress habit said anything about. today they decided that war will apparently continue for the next two months while they go home and take two more months off work. the house announced it first, then the senate followed suit. they're gone. 1,600 u.s. military families got the call. they're flying missions right now, but congress, on another seven-week break. they can't be bothered to think about that right now. they've got to get re-elected buz that's the most important thing they do, right?

there's a reason the american public finds this congress repellant. there's a reason why this congress has the lowest approval ratings in the history of congress and the spectrum of all major institutions in our country. there's a reason congress, this congress, repulses the people of the united states. but a decision like this today stretches the pounds of even the low standards of decency that they have sunk to already. amazing. that does it for us tonight. we will see you again tomorrow. now time for "the last word." good evening, ari. >> good evening, amen, and thank you, rachel. we have some special coverage of the scottish independence vote. tonight, a look at breaking political news in kansas, but first a break through in privacy protections for your phone today, and not from congress or the courts. >> we we're not reading your e-mail. >> a new policy for privacy for apple.