christie doesn't have a chance.esn't have a chance. >> let me give you a republican horror story. rand paul is the nominee. if you're concerned about israel, foreign policy getting to mushy. and you got to decide between rand paul and hillary clinton. now your wife is going crazy for hillary clinton. you may also be, but your wife definitely is. and all the pressure is on you. you're going to push rand paul on me? these guys are going to step back and say i'm stepping out of this one. >> they'll support hillary. >> yeah. and they may be more aggressive. isn't that something? rich guys for hillary. that's where elizabeth warren comes in. thank you. next, opponents of president obama beware. heel be using humor tomorrow night here in washington as a dangerous weapon. he's also looking at you. discover card. hey! so i'm looking at my bill, and my fico® credit score's on here. we give you your fico® score each month for free! awesomesauce! wow! the only person i know that says that is...lisa? julie?! at discover, we tre

didn't like the way christie leaked to the media.an's office has been very frustrating for reporters to deal with. and that he is serious about building a case in a very methodical way. that's why if it seems leak it's been taking a long time, that's why. and it really hasn't. but if it were to seem that way, that's what's been going on here. there's been a sort of deliberate effort to make sure that whenever they come public with something, if there's an indictment, it will be a good case. >> yeah. well, we're in cable news, so anything over 24 24 hours is an eternity for us. the difference of how this has played, when chris christie was u.s. attorney, anybody who covered new jersey politics, everybody knew that office leaked like crazy. if they were about to move on somebody, you knew about it ahead of time. you had details leaking out to the press all the time. it's the complete opposite with paul fishman. very opaque, very tough to tell what's going on. but from your background, what can you tell us in terms of what you're expect

he testified he told christie's chief counsel christie was involved in the lane closures.hat msnbc at least the governor's chief counsel knew staffers were involved in what happened on the bridge well before the governor dismissed the suggestion as absurd to the new jersey press. well before this. >> i worked the cones actually on that unbeknownst to anybody i was the guy out there. i was in overalls and a hat. i was the guy working the cones out there. you're really not serious with that question? >> the p governor's spokesman testifying today that well before the governor said that to new jersey reporters he had informed the chief counsel that, in fact, christie staffers were involved in the shutdown of the bridge lanes. joining us is a reporter from wnyc, matt katz who asked that question in decembe it's nice to see you. thanks for being here. >> you got it, rachel. thanks. >> let me ask you about the timing and assertion. has michael druniak created a problem in terms of the explanation for who knew what when? if he says the chief counsel who the governor said he talke

if chris christie was digging into chris christie right now -- >> chris christie the governor would be>> it really stands out to me that the degree to which -- it wasn't just us. everybody who saw that when the e-mails came out in january and said, oh, my god, time for traffic in ft. lee. he was blindsided. nobody knew this e-mail was coming to light. >> they didn't know the evidence was out there. they knew there was a story there but they didn't know what kind of paper was out there to prove it. that's why this looks so bad for them right now. they had made all these statements in december and throughout the fall like, there's nothing here, nothing is going on, even as they knew there was something up. chris christie said on december 5th, i kind of wonder if my campaign manager might have been involved. why did he think that? if he did, why continue defending him for that long and why did he have him in that job? they've kept a lot of people around knowing something was awry -- >> his reaction is, i can't believe that. his reaction is, i suspect that. my thanks to brian murphy from b

christie continues do this. wants to be president, he's going to have to unite the party, not to continue to draw and divide between one wing of the party and the other. >> i think that chris christie's experience in foreign policy extends to jersey city. i think they better get a foreign policy for new jersey because some people don't like to go there very often. i don't think christie -- has he been any place in the world beside new jersey and new york to collect money? you know what you never hear out of people like christie, we never hear what are you going to do about it? what are the answers? as far as the dick cheney is concerned, this is a guy who led us into the war in iraq and disaster and made iran a major power in the middle east. >> i'm sorry, how do you blame dick cheney -- >> because the iranians took advantage of the iraqi war and they were held in check by saddam hussein. >> that's right. >> you blame bush for everything. >> no, i don't. >> we see that chris christie is trying to dip his toe int

the christie administration and one of chris christie's fellow republican politics are feigning off aury of inquiries about number's pay to play laws and new jersey truery rules and whether they have been violated. the kicker is the fellow republican politician, charles, charlie baker, happens to be running for governor of massachusetts for their second time. here's the timeline that no one is disputing. republican gubernatorial candidate charlie baker donated $10,000 in may 2011 to the state party committee of governor chris christie of new jersey. now, only seven months latary christie administration controlled pension fund committed $25 million to an investment firm that lists baker as a partner. baker has av offered many arguments, disclaiming wrongdoing, he was not a registered investment professional and never discussed the investment at the firm and he did not contribute at the behest of others and even that he was not an annual employee in the strict legal sense of the firm general catalyst partners. that, even though he -- 33 documents have been discovered which suggest other

so what did governor christie do? he unleashed full chris christie wrath. >> so they needed to call in the dr. kevorkian of the numbers. david rosen, the dr. kevorkian, from the partisan office of legislative services. why would anybody with a functioning brain believe this guy? how often do you have to be wrong to finally be dismissed? >> let me read that again. "why would anybody with a functioning brain believe this guy? how often do you have to be wrong to finally be dismissed?" and the numbers began to come in, and while they weren't quite as bad as rosen predicted, christie attacked rosen again saying, man, the guy can't get it right. but days later, the christie administration informed potential wall street investors in a bond offering that, actually, there would be lower than expected revenue. in the end, after two fiscal years had passed, rosen was exactly right, prompting richard coater to state, looks like dr. kevorkian is alive and well and 100% correct. for christie, the budget shortfall may be as bad a f

a long and storied history with chris christie, one of the deputies when christie served as u.s. attorney and served in the new jersey attorney general's office when christie stepped down. in 2012, governor christie unsuccessfully attempted to appoint kwan to the state supreme court. joining me now, the host of msnbc's "up," resident chris christie expert, steve kornacki. thanks for joining me. >> sure. >> when i heard about the kwan pea piece of the investigation, did kwan advise barone to lie and if he didn't, who was involved in crafting the notion of a traffic study? do you think that's the most kind of relevant question to be asking at this point? >> yeah, i mean, look, the thing about the testimony was, in especially in hindsight, but at the time, it was so over the top in terms of what -- it wasn't just claiming there was a traffic study. this was -- he went on and on, repeatedly throughout his testimony, talking about how these lanes only exist for the people of ft. lee, they're ft. lee only lanes, special lanes only for the people of ft. lee, 4% of the traffic on the bri

the same may be true from the chris christie administration.ining me now from denver is the author of that piece. all right, david, baker's folks are saying you're out of line, this was completely innocuous, and he's not really part of this firm. convince me they're wrong. >> well, i think he's already tried to convince you that you're wrong when he filed as his employer on 33 separate documents the same firm in question. the fact remains that charlie baker made a $10,000 contribution to the new jersey republican state committee a few months before the new jersey pension fund controlled by chris christie gave that same firm a large pension contract. charlie baker never disputed that he was an investment person. never disputed that he was an employee at the firm. all of the news coverage previous to this, only now when pay to play rules have been brought up is charlie baker saying all those 33 campaign documents that i said general catalyst was my employer and i said i was an investor, executive or partner with that firm, all that stuff now was

yesterday, one of christie's top campaign staffers whose job it was to secure endorsements on christie's campaign for re-election provided us with another link between the chain of christie's campaign and the office of the governor. he said he received a call around 7:00 p.m., 7:00 p.m., on august 12th from christie's deputy chief of staff bridget kelly. she wanted information about fort lee mayor mark sokolich. here's mowers testimony. >> she called to check in, if i recall correctly, and some of this is going to be paraphrasing from recollection, she said, is mayor sokolich endorsing? i said, no, you know, he's not. he's definitely not endorsing, right, not going to happen. i said, no, not going to happen. from everything i know, it's door shut, not going to happen. she said, okay, that's all i need to know. >> bridget kelly discovers from him, learns officially at 7:00 p.m. one night the door's shut on any endorsement for governor christie by the mayor of fort lee. well, the next morning she comes into the office at 7:35 a.m., beginning of business, kelly sends the infamous e-mail to

this is governor christie giving a talk today at a fiscal summit, all about his chris christie wisdomn fiscal matters and fiscal conservatism. governor christie had to give that long planned talk this morning, just hours after the credit rating in new jersey got downgraded for the sixth time. mr. christie has now tied the record for credit rating downgrades in his state. in the morning after the sixth downgrade, he has to give the, you know, look at my fiscal policy talk, to a national audience. this is very awkward. beyond that awkwardness, here's good old david serotta and "the boston globe" reporting on a $10,000 donation made to the new jersey republican state committee by charlie baker. charlie baker, the republican candidate for governor in massachusetts. mr. baker, in addition to being a candidate, is also a partner at a financial firm called general catalyst in massachusetts. and a few months after charlie baker gave that donation to the new jersey republican party, his company, general catalyst, got told that they were getting $25 million new jersey pension money. general cat

i saw governor christie.

christie had a conversation with them where they discussed this on the 12th and christie went out onhe 13th and said nobody was involved on my staff in this. >> he says it's clear to everyone on my staff that if anyone had any knowledge they need to come forward and tell me. does that include stepyan. stepyan is saying that's a straight up lie. >> that time line got more complicated because christie's press secretary testified that they had a conversation on the 5th of december where the spokesman told the governor, bill stepyan and bridget kelly might have a role in this and christie said apparently if we believe him, christie told drun yak, i've been wondering if bill is involved in this. >> there's afamous moment in his press conference when he said i was reading my ipad and that was the first time i heard of this. he gave a three-hour thing. he was out there for a long time. this is what rudy giuliani said about it. take a listen. >> if for some reason it's not true, the man has put his political career completely at risk. if it turns out that there's some evidence that he knew a

or christie saying i don't remember anything about it.st important things is simply to find out if, in fact, that conversation took place. we now have drewniak in effect corroborating the account of wildstein that conversation did take place. and consider also timing which is extremely important. this is timing before this became a major issue. >> right. >> before the feds were investigating. so all of that gives at least some backing to wildstein's statement that there was a conversation that involved the governor, because wildstein told him back in december. and now drewniak has confirmed that at least wildstein was making such allegations well before things got really out of hand. >> jonathan, how credible is this? because he's right about bridget kelly, he's right about stepian, how credible is he now that he's brought the governor in? >> look, he's someone who works directly with the governor. he's in that suite of offices. he worked with bridget ann kelly. he worked with stepien. he knew wildstein. talking about the dinner that they

he cold christie on september 11th ceremonies about this. on one hand, he says i had no reason to suspect that the traffic study wasn't happening, but then he also called the lane closures essentially a bone headed move. so, the fact they did something so bone headed would suggest there is reason to doubt there was a traffic study. nobody's story hangs together. we haven't heard anything more from wildstein other than the initial release of the e-mails because he is still in legal jeopar jeopardy. >> chris, the other piece of this is the new york/new jersey rivalry. according to drewniak, he says it didn't garner much attention because of well-known bad blood between pat foye and david wildstein. now, at some point, governor cuomo, you know, has to worry about his folks being implicated in this and the po littizization of this. i wonder how much you think this becomes an issue for the new york side of affairs. >> look, for a lot of people who not like me, didn't grow up in the northeast and grow up close to this, the idea there's a shared ag

this is chris christie's playbook.just catching up with him now. >> there was also the issue that you had a sort of independent, technocratic guy who was part of the legislature -- >> dr. kevorkian. >> he basically said, look, you're projecting these very optimistic, rosy scenarios about low employment, high growth, and he took hatchet to the guy, killed him. and now he's got the shortfall. >> absolutely. so the governor, when you don't agree with the governor, when you show facts to the governor, all he does is personal attack. but here's the reality. all right? the governor worked with a small number of democrats to move this pension reform. the real promise, the promise that he made to new jersey was that they were going to fix the system, ask public sector workers to pay more. and in exchange, he was going to fully fund this. they were going to put in one seventh each year, growing, growing -- >> that's the key, the social contract. the promise was, yes, it's going to be tough, you'll pay more and get less in benef

it comes from bill stepien, arguably at one time christie's closest ally.er campaign manager and the guy who was rumored to run christie's 2016 run for president. stepien has taken the fifth, refusing to hand over documents. he's connected to all of the key players. he had a relationship with bridget kelly, who sent that e-mail "time for some traffic problems." he also wrote e-mails about the traffic to david wildstein, the bridge official who carried out the closings. governor christie has always claimed stepien assured him he didn't know about the lane closings. here's the governor's last december statement. >> i have absolutely no reason to believe that, angie. and i've made it very clear to everybody on my senior staff that if anyone had any knowledge about this, they needed to come forward to me and tell me about it and they've all assured me they don't. i've spoken to mr. steb ypien, who's the person in charge of the campaign and he's assured me the same thing. >> that was december 13. governor christie saying bill stepien assured him he had no knowle

that man was not governor chris christie.sident obama wrapped up a speech to push republicans in congress on infrastructure. the bridge is in the midst of a $3 billion replacement effort expected to create 8,000 jobs. >> it's time for folks to stop running around saying what's wrong with america. roll up your sleeves and let's get to work and help america rebuild. that's what we should be doing. >> the president's proposal, the grow america act would allocate resources to improve america's deficient bridges and ageing highway system. the white house says it will support millions of new jobs. while the senate is working on their own transportation plan to the surprise of no one, republicans in the house refused to take up this plan or anything similar. they call it bridgegate part two. just ahead, speeching of bridges, governor chris christie tries to deflect the latest revelations pushing his awesome fiscal record. there's one problem with that. his fiscal record is terrible. that's next. (mother vo) when i was pregnant... i

the christi administration.be that questions could have been asked and due diligence could have been done but they were not asked and doouf diligence wasn't done. there was a -- i've heard the term, willful ignorance. the idea of plausible deniability. the question will ultimately be whether plausible deniability is, one, is it plausible and is that a defense? is it enough of a defense for a governor to say, look, i didn't ask questions and i probably didn't want to mo the answers to questions and therefore, i have no responsibility. that's a question the public will have to answer and legislature will have to answer. >> and one is the legislature court and the court of opinion and that's governored by different laws. david, always great to see you, my friend. >> thanks for having me, alex. >>> coming up, at the movies nothing better than popcorn and a couple of cokes. specifically, charles and david coke. the tals just ahead. detoday details just ahead. in retiremenl you outlive your money? uhhh. no, that can't

he met christie because he was originally working if that office as christie took it over, as i mentionedletproof here? >> i guess we'll have to see. who knows what he said to the grand jury? i thought it was also interesting during the hearing, a lot came up about his work at the u.s. attorney's office and trying to establish that he had a relationship with david wildstein when he was an anonymous blogger known as wally edge, the democrats tried to hammer that point that they knew each other and potentially he was leaking information to wally edge, which he said he wasn't. >> well, he was involved in authorized and unauthorized leaks as part of his normal job being in the press liaison for that long as well. look, the thing here is all these people in new jersey, they're all like old friends until they're not. we'll keep an eye on that. heather haddon and hunter walker, thank you both. >> thanks so much. >>> coming up next, what jay-z, beyonce, barack obama and you probably have in common. the end of privacy in a world of corporate surveillance. >>> and then we have some developments in

these are not good things for chris christie.potentially even more damming than anything else we've talked about today. >> substantively they are but i think he's not in a position where even the substance of what he does matters in terms of 2016 because bridgegate is far from over, particularly the part of bridgegate that will look at the misuse or possible misuse of sandy funds and all the deals that went on at the port authority. that still has yet to come out. >> one last note just on the fiscal stewardship here. new jersey has recovered 37% of the jobs lost during the recession, new york state has recovered 122%. just a river that separates the two cities, states, but, oh, what a gulf it is. hunter walker and david corn, thank you for your time. >> sure thing. >>> coming up; his books have tackled elevator inspectors, post-modern press junkets and, yes, zombies. now author coleson whitehead is taking on the world series of poker. i will talk with him about his latest work plus las vegas, beef jerky and robotrons. that's ahea

>> reporter: hi there, christi and victor.truly baffling in all of this, that some 276 girls as we're told that number which fluctuated in the days since they were abducted, 276 girls abducted and not any significant statement from the president of my jaer why, no on camera statement and to the best of our knowledge no visit on the part of the visit to the area where these abductions happened and no significant paper statement put out. there has been radio silence. the people on the ground in nigeria are outraged they could be in the midst of this tragedy that has struck at the collective heart of this country and their president has been largely silent. lot of people have said to me president obama of the united states something like boston happens and he's immediately on screen. he's making his way to the area of the tragedy. he is there with his people visibly suffering with them. that has not been the case here in nigeria and we have had little or no details about the operations or what effort is under way to secure the re

a former christie aide is expected to testify this hour about what she knew as the new jersey governor tries to keep the 2016 buzz alive. good morning. i'm chris jansing. the outrage over the abduction of more than 300 girls in nigeria is blowing up after the leader of the terror group released a disturbing 57 minute video saying that allah gave him permission to sell the girls and some as young as 9 years old for as little as $12, and we are learning how one girl escaped from the abductor's truck. and she told the associated press, we ran and ran so fast and this how i saved myself, i had no time to be scared. i was just running. this is the white house sek press secretary who said that the president is being contin continually briefed on the situation. >> in is an outrage and tragedy and we are doing what we can to assist the nigerian government the support its efforts to find and free the young women who were abducted. >> i want to bring in our journalist "chicago sun-times" lynn sweet and d. jchj.dionne oe "washington post." and now, there were some protests that we have seen, and

>> yes, it is. >> the profligate, liberal corzine made christie this nation a aal figure, the thing christieting him up on, christie will fail the benchmark set by jon corzine? >> yes. and one that christie condemned repeatedly throughout that campaign. it's like a piece of delicious sweet jersey irony. >> brian murphy, thanks so much. >>> up next a brand new and disturbing look into the influence of the big food lobby in america. >> over 90% of all americans will be overweight or obese in two decades. >> we're toast, as a country. >> laurie david joins me to talk about "fed up," next. (man) when i can't go, it's like bricks piling up. i wish i could find some relief. (announcer) ask your doctor about linzess-- a once-daily capsule for adults with ibs with constipation or chronic idiopathic constipation. linzess is thought to help calm pain-sensing nerves and accelerate bowel movements. it helps you proactively manage your symptoms. do not give linzess to children under 6, and it should not be given to children 6 to 17. it may harm them. don't take linzess if you have a bowel blockage. get i

that was christie's response. what did you make of of the jokes joel mchale directed at christie?> the size jokes were over the to top. what you wear, what you said, what your policy is, maybe hit it one time. he hit it too many times. a lot of america is going to say, well, to whatever extent america watches, he went over the top on his weight. >> at this point we have been hearing the jokes for five years. when did d'oh they stop? it's like the bush dumb jokes. >> they're still funny, by the way. >> is christie right? i guess this is what you've got to say. is it better to be the butt of the joke at something like this than not to be mentioned at all? >> yeah. absolutely it is. from the standpoint of, you know, as long as you get my name spelled right, the mindset and publications that talk about youmeyo you. the same is true. you are at the this dinner, being talked about. you're part of the conversation. even though it's stinging and hurts a little bit maybe. to your point, i still think for chris christie, yeah, he was laughing. he was nodding along. he got the joke. >> so di

. >> very much uphill for chris christie at this point.ut of new jersey is just not going to get better. it is not necessarily his fault. he is going to have to accept it and deal with it somehow. >> do you think she still going to run? anybody here think she not going to run? >> he will try. >> try. >> he will run. >> he's going to run. all right. is he going to have a good shot at the nomination? james? >> i think these economic challenges are -- make me think maybe it is going to be someone else. hay is a contender. if he is not the lark he once was, still a formidable candidate. >> thank you. we have to take one more break. when we come back, hits and misses of the week. i have low testosterone. there, i said it. how did i know? well, i didn't really. see, i figured low testosterone would decrease my sex drive... but when i started losing energy and became moody... that's when i had an honest conversation with my doctor. we discussed all the symptoms... then he gave me some blood tests. showed it was low t. that's it. it was a number -

with christie. billionaire ken langone said christie has a better chance of connecting with people who vote democrat than bush. wynn disagrees saying in the bright lights, bush will wear better than christie and that the big money will follow the best bet. >> we have had several losing campaig campaigns. everybody wants to win. there's a sense of urgency that we have to win. the country needs us to win. >> wynn who changed from rick perry to mitt romney in 2012 says it will be a tough decision for those close to christie to switch horses. ken indicated he might get behind jeb bush, but only if christie decides not to run. >> john, thank you. >>> still ahead, pomp, circumstance, and political correctness. it's commencement season on campus. first trying to pin down insurance executives on the real effects of obamacare. over 400,000 new private sector jobs... making new york state number two in the nation in new private sector job creation... with 10 regional development strategies to fit your busines

the christie/walker bond runs deeper.e christie walker has taken a relatively progressive state and turned it into a right wing policy. he has seen the efforts met with disastrous results. walker took office in 2010 vowing to create 250,000 private sector jobs. >> 250,000 new jobs. that is my goal. 250,000 new jobs by the end of our first term in office. >> what does scott walker do to get there? stripped wisconsin public employees including school teachers of their ability to bargain. chris christie made rolling back pensions a hallmark. he has singled out school teachers in some cases physically as a source of the problem. scott walker passed a tax cut that blew an $825 million hole in the wisconsin budget, one that largely benefitted the top 1% of wisconsin. over in jersey christie faces an $800 million budget gap going into the end of the fiscal year, his solution? tax cuts, $600 million worth of them. what about the jobs? with less than five months before the end of the term how is scott walker doing on the goal of h

. >> reporter: tony, one of the key assertions chris christie has made was now been contradicting by his campaign manager. he said he did not have prior knowledge and no one on his staff had prior knowledge as well. but an accusation comes as christie has been trying to convince donors and organizers there is nothing to the bridge gate scandal. >>> two other candidates former governor jeb bush and marco rubio are now being encouraged to run by condoleezza rice. >> marco rubio, i have great respect for. i like his immigration stance.

jeb bush and chris christie can appeal to them, too. you talk to the base, winning isn't the thing. it's about principle. >> let's talk about chris christie because there was an interesting story in "the new york times" today about donors who like both guys but seem to be -- perhaps they were in christie's camp. in 2012, donors tried to get christie to run late in the game. they are looking at jeb bush and what is going on. in fact, a former chair of the south carolina republican party, barry wint said, they feel good about jeb. they don't have any questions about his integrity. that's a pretty pointed quote in a story about jeb versus chri y christie. >> the republican party, you talk about the establishment, is the bush people. george h.w. bush became chairman of the rnc. another thing going on here is chairman of the south carolina republican party and the south is going to be difficult for chris christie. i mean, that's going to be tough. >> quickly, do you think chris christie is going to look at jeb warily for the next few months?

christie smith, thank you much. >>> 6:04 a developing story. thousands of people in southern california have no where to go today as numerous wildfires are keeping them from their homes, their schools, their jobs. today all schools in san diego and in more than 20 nearby cities will be shut down. this includes cal state san marcos. a graduation ceremony scheduled there this weekend at the university. thousands of people in several cities were evacuated, in some cases, just minutes before flames completely devoured their homes. right now nine fires have burned about 9,000 acres and destroyed 13 homes and 18-unit apartment complex, as well, was taken down. the biggest of the fires is burning on camp pendleton and it's caused hundreds of marines to evacuate. crews will have to battle high temperatures and strong winds yet again today. now, take a look at this situation here, a perfect mixture of fire and wind created actually a small twister of flames being brought up into the sky. this video here was taken at the highway fire which is burning in

chris christie's own spokesman says christie was told about the traffic tie-up plan as it was happening. also, if you thought the right hadn't sunk low enough with karl rove's comments about the mocking of people like michelle obama and others concerned about the fate of those kidnapped nigerian girls, ann coulter, alan west and of course, rush limbaugh whom john stuart fileted last night. how do you turn a damage control interview into more damage? don sterling wound up making matters worse. and stephen colbert took on the conspiracy theory that hillary clinton was herself behind the recent monica lewinsky "vanity fair" article. >> hillary is trying to make this 16-year-old news old news. you see, if he talk about the lewinsky scandal now, then we won't be talking about it when she's running in 2016 because if there's one thing the conservative media is known for, it is letting things go. ] hi, g! mommy! i travel a lot for business, and it's hard to leave these two. mom! my llama smells like you. i use tide plus febreze in the wash. it keeps their clothes and stuffed animals smelling f

i'm christi paul. >> ike' victor blackwell.i'm feeling sorry, believe it or not, for the speaker of the house as well. these days the house republicans actual give john boehner a harder time than they give me, which means orange really is the new black. >> got some laughs from the president last night, had to hit obama care and bridgegate, john boehner's tan, that orange tint. few topics were immune to the zingers at last night's white house correspondents dinner. the political power brokers, hollywood a-listers, you saw the crowd out in full force. erin mcpike was there. erin, good to see you up early with us this morning. >> did you get any sleep? >> reporter: a little. little. not much. >> who got the biggest laugh? >> i will have to say you know how we were talking about yesterday morning joel mchale would be talking about "the real housewives of atlanta" and the kardashians? >> yes. >> reporter: that didn't happen at all. he took quite a few pot shots at chris christie so you heard a lot of audible whoas from the crowd but

jeb bush against hillary clinton or chris christie against hillary clinton christie is going to be fare assertive and aggressive whereas governor bush will do it on intellectual plain which i'm not sure is going to be very effective against an icon against mrs. clinton. >> first thing you have got to do is get your party to nominate you. chris christie in the eyes of some conservatives is not conservative enough. that's true also with bush. it should be added. the same thing can be said of bush. so, you know, the first contest, the one that he would have to win to ever face hillary clinton is one in which he has got to win over some conservatives or at least hold on to enough of them that the hard right is not able to defeat him. and i think his bluff and blunt style, his sort of candor and his spirit that, you know, we can do this and i'm the guy strong enough to lead may be just the thing. i think people are eager to hear that i think they believe at least those in the republican ranks believe that we're suffering from a presidency characterized by weak leadership as christie himself

the report claims to exonerate christie.lie style writes in his column today in the bergen record newspaper, ever since that mastro report came out, democratic lawmakers have been interested in christina renna and they've been interested in what else she might know, what maybe she didn't say or wasn't presented in that report. because by the time that report came out christina renna had already resigned her position and she hired a lawyer of her own. her records had already been subpoenaed by the legislative committee. and just a few weeks ago the committee issued another subpoena for renna to testify. and that is the testimony that is set for 10:00 a.m. tomorrow morning. all of this comes amid signs that the criminal investigation by the u.s. attorney for new jersey may be intensifying. u.s. attorney's office recently subpoenaed the legislative committee for all of the documents it has collected as part of its investigation. there's some suspense and a lot of chatter about what renna might say and there are a few reasons. n

so i think christie is in a bind right now political.on is can he still offer himself to the republican party out there in the country as a strong political personality. and i think that is probably where he has to go now and start talking about national issues. >> but, mary, you need a reaction na rationale that says i presided over gridlock. that's not much of an alternative to obama. >> and i think in the end his record as governor in new jersey will be the most important element. i agree with dan. the country is looking for someone who can articulate ideas, who looks like a leader. and he has some of those qualities. but i would say this is going to make it an uphill climb for him. and he also has a little bit of baggage with his style. i mean some people just don't like his style. so he has to offset those things and i think he was counting on good performance in new jersey. >> you talking to me? you talking to me? >> i like his style. i think he's got challenges in terms of how he is going to show in turnaround, but i like his styl