this was not an angry chris christie tonight. he was still somewhat on the defensive which i thought was interesting. so you're seeing him present a somewhat contrite, a little bit on the defensive where his people more subtly and behind the scenes are going on the offense. and i wonder if that's a tone we're going to continue to see for a while, or if that's going to shift a bit at some point. >> matt, i want to ask you about part of that other tone we're seeing, part of that aggression. i have to say, i'm not saying it for a fact, i found it to be really, really strange reading that e-mail from the governor's office reportedly sent to friends and allies about david wildstein, attacking david wildstein's credibility in ways that are really embarrassing when you put them up next to the publicly glowing things governor christie has said about david wildstein in the past and the way they're palpably evidently close. and things his social studies teacher and as a teenager to try to cast out, it's not like i don't expect them to two

first, let's talk about chris christie's response there. very similar to the original response from the christie folks. in which the christie people said this confirms what we've always said, that the governor had no prior knowledge. again, when he's asked during the q&a on the radio, his response is, look, this is what i've been saying, i had to prior knowledge. it is not his prior knowledge subject to disfoot by david wildstein. >> what david wildstein said, evidence that the governor knew about the lane closings while they were going on and evidence exists to prove that. he said governor christie lied during the two-hour press conference. he said he made the truth and the evidence contradicts what christie said in the marathon two-hour press conference and he said things about me and i can prove what he said about me is wrong. you're right, christie is in some ways moving the goal post here, saying i never knew anything about this prior and what's the people of new jersey care about. he's leaving room for wildstein's accusation to be tru

christie's trip.ow, what every big and successful political fundraising event needs is a political superstar. someone everyone is excited about seeing, someone who, when he or she walks into the room, everyone else there believes they are in the presence of a future president of theite. united states. that's what the republican governor's association was bargaining for when they elected chris christie chairman. they wanted someone who all of the republican gubernatorial candidates in the country would want to have their picture taken with. they wanted someone who would convince campaign investors to pour even more money into republican gubernatorial campaigns. and what chris christie wanted was media coverage, and lots of it, of his political rock star fundraising tours of the united states, like the one in texas today. the one in illinois next week. in states that he would be campaigning in for president. and chris christie wanted even more contacts with even more republican campaign investors who wo

>> well, i think chris christie has hired the defense attorney version of chris christie.'s fine. you know, we want everyone who is being investigated by the united states to have the best possible defense. but at the end of the day, you know, the grand jury can subpoena testimony from these witnesses. they can make them talk. so they've just got a lot more power than the defense. it's not really like the scales of justice are equal at this stage of the investigation. >> i wonder what you make of this internal review. governor christie talked about it today out in chicago. he said when we have findings, we'll release them. randy masfltro is conducting ths review. as we showed according to the "bergen record" when you look at the people on christie's staff who presumably he'll be interviewing, they are all represented by his firm. to me, it raises the basic question, if he's investigating this and trying to get to the bottom of this and turns up anything suspicious about any of these people, how does he then turn around and be their lawyer, too? how can you wear both of tho

for governor christie. governor christie is already in trouble, at least it looks like he's already in trouble for what he has said publicly about this scheme. the scheme to use the george washington bridge as a way to punish this town of ft. lee. it was wednesday, january 8th, when the e-mails and text messages were first published that showed that the order to hurt ft. lee by shutting down those lanes had come from governor christie's office, had come from his deputy chief of staff. that was also the day we saw these heavily redacted text messages between someone who appears to be the same deputy chief of staff and david wildstein. they're talking about the gridlock they caused. "is it wrong that i'm smiling?" "no, no, it's not wrong that you're smiling." the person responds to david wildstein, "i feel badly about the kids. i guess." to which david wildstein responds "they are the children of buono voters." meaning they're the children of people who vote democratic. do not feel bad they're gridlocked for

longtime chris christie ally. governor christie's nominee for the new jersey supreme court. governor christie's appointee to the port authority after a more than decade working together not just in the governor's administration but in the prosecutor's office before that, too. "the wall street journal" reporting this week at phil kwon spent parts of four to five days prepping bill baroni to give that false testimony about a traffic study and that is not why those bridge lanes were shut down. that testimony from that hearing showing that the decisions about what could and couldn't be shown to the legislature about that fake study, those decisions were attributed to phil kwon who was sitting there in the room. who else participated in cooking up and presenting the cover story of what happened on that bridge? who else participated in cooking it up and presenting it besides bill baroni who has resigned and david wildstein who has resigned? is it possible that phil kwon was involved? if he wasn't involved in preparing this false story that was told to the legislature, this cover s

but i think realistically speaking people who know christie world say christie knew about it or maybe two or three people who have that kind of authority. but the idea it would be some mid-level staffer or low-level staffer isn't -- >> the official ruling is in at "the last word." christie knew about it. that's all done. and steve, unprecedented. a retraction of an editorial endorsing christie in his re-election campaign. biggest newspaper in new jersey retracted it. >> and it wasn't much of an endorsement to begin with. there was all sorts of qualifications in that. but you know, that was the story of the 2013 election. you could say the "star-ledger," that they screwed up or something. but the democratic party decided in 2013 in new jersey to take the election off. they decided they were not going to fight chris christie. aw lot of them had deals with chris christie. a lot of them thought he was inevitable. and they basically said at the start of that year, barbara bono, state senator barbara bono, you want the nomination, you want to go out there, fine. she's even saying now, we're

governor christie's press office today confirmed for us when they say governor christie made clear heduct that internal review, what they meant was his comments we just played for you here from the january press conference where he said he'd been talking to his staff one-on-one and would continue talking to them. that was governor christie clearing calling for an internal review. didn't much sound like it, but tonight, whatever else this internal review means, we do know now that it is not internal because tonight we can report exclusively that the lawyer hired by governor christie to do this internal review, that lawyer has contacted the attorney for the mayor of little ft. lee, new jersey, mayor mark sokolich. the mayor's attorney telling us tonight it was mayor sokolich -- the mayor's telling us tonight that he received that communication from governor christie's lawyer. it was mayor sokolich's town, of course, that got turned into a parking lot for four days in september. governor christie's deputy chief of staff apparently ordered up traffic problems for ft. lee and a christie al

the christie wing and then the not chris christie wing. what will be interesting to see is if people start to crowd the field that are in the establishment wing like chris christie is. >> we're obviously seeing a christie effect in that poll. >> look, no doubt. he was the punitive front-runner. the instability now that the situation has caused in the race is now people are sfek lating about a lot of different candidates. mike huckabee now top of the polls. the problem lawrence is for republicans, if you look at just the states democrats have won six out of the last six elections, there are 242 electoral votes. and that's a tough wall to overcome with 270 needed to bin. and the question, when you give consideration to a mike huckabee candidate see, what state when you look at the country does mike huckabee pick up that we haven't already won. there's just not a good answer for that. there's no a candidate you can win in a general election with if you're a republican and you care about winning. >> nia, i want to put the poll back on the scre

knew and what christie ordered, right, and how deep christie was involved in this.cause the sense that -- the sense that i get out of trenton is that there are three or four people who work around the governor, who talk to him. and that these people sort of relay to the junior staff what is going on. and one of those people -- >> kevin o'dowd and mckenna. now the question is -- >> and stepien. >> they can't lie. they don't have a client. they're government officials. so how do they protect -- he likes to say only two reports, a you like to say. >> right. >> but wildstein here, look at this guy. it's in his face. i'm not going to get screwed, that face says to me. >> exactly. >> i'm not your fall guy, mr. governor. and i did go to high school with you. and stop calling me a zero or a nerd in this stuff. if i were wildstein, i would be getting a little mad and say stop putting trash talk on me. here comes a week later somebody around the governor says we better disown that trash talk against this guy because he is going to be perhaps the star witness. >> and chris, ha

but not chris christie. here's chris christie discussing what has always been one of his favorite subjects -- how heroic he was in the aftermath of hurricane sandy. >> so when i was yelling and screaming about sandy aid in january of 2013, both at the other party and at my own, it wasn't because, you know, i needed a few extra bucks to balance the budget. it's because every dollar that we've been shorted will have an impact on the lives of the people of my state. and as governor, your job is to fight for those people as hard as you can. >> now, of course, christie knows that he's talking to an audience that knows nothing about what he's talking about. that's his specialty as a public speaker. that's how he became known as a good public speaker because he works best to audiences who do not know what he's talking about. he was talking to an audience that did not know that he helped funnel $6 million in federal hurricane sandy money to a senior center in bellville, new jersey, a police that suffered no damage.

the christie one is. about that christie statement and next week is a big week with subpoenas coming back. >> monday and wednesday. >> we have bill stepien making a pretty dramatic statement yesterday. we will talk that over when we come back. indulge in the pleasures of parmesan with olive garden's best 2 for $25 yet choose two melt-in-your mouth entrees like new parmesan crusted chicken or tortellini topped with velvety alfredo 3 full courses of our best 2 for $25 yet, at olive garden! ♪ ♪ ♪ told ya you could do it. (dad vo) i want her to be safe. so, i taught her what i could and got her a subaru. (girl) piece of cake. ♪ (announcer) love. it's what makes a subaru, a subaru. probably wasn't talking about dollars. pretty much everybody wants to keep those. ♪ most car insurance companies know this -- because they keep yelling about it. only they don't say how they're saving those dollars. ♪ but esurance was born online, raised by technology, and majors in efficiency. when they save, you save. so you can k

"it has also come to light that a person within the christie administration communicated the christie administration's order that certain lanes on the george washington bridge were to be closed, and evidence exist as well tying mr. christie to having knowledge of the lane closures during the period when the lanes were closed, contrary to what the governor stated publicly in a two-hour press conference he gave immediately before mr. wildstein was scheduled to appear before the transportation committee. mr. wildstein contests the accuracy of various statements that the governor made about him, and he can prove the inaccuracy of some." it's clear that the attorney wants to win immunity for his client as a price for delivering this evidence. the question is does this evidence contradict statements made by governor christie. michael isikoff is national investigative correspondent for nbc news and the co-chair of the super committee that is leading the state's investigation into the bridge scandal. michael isikoff, when you look at the statement made by christie made in the press conference

christie told a few jokes. new jersey, jon bon jovi, we know he spent about 30 minutes there and was able to avoid reporters. >>> if there's any weekend that new jersey can nut afford distractions is this that weekend zblnt state, of course, hosting the super bowl there and in new york city, we should point out police have got their guard up. we'll show you live pictures at times square and super bowl boulevard. yesterday's hoax where suspicious white powder was found at several sites just kind of added to the tension. cnn's alexandra field is live there for us. >> you got an up close look at all the precautions that police are taking. tell us about it. >> reporter: sure, good morning, christi, victor. we know that state police and military aircraft will both be used to help secure the super bowl sunday afternoon. really, on the front of that, you'll find u.s. customs and border agents. they took us up in the air and showed us exactly how they would respond in the case of any kind of threat. protecting metlife

"it has also come to light that a person within the christie administration communicated the christie administration's order that certain lanes on the george washington bridge were to be closed, and evidence exists as well tying mr. christie to having knowledge of the lane closures during the period when the lanes were closed, contrary to what the governor stated publicly in a two-hour press conference he gave immediately before mr. wildstein was scheduled to appear before the transportation committee. mr. wildstein contests the accuracy of various statements that the governor made about him, and he can prove the inaccuracy of some." it's clear that the attorney for this key witness, wildstein, wants to win immunity for his client as a price for delivering this evidence. the question is does this evidence contradict statements made by governor christie. michael isikoff is national investigative correspondent for nbc news, and john wisniewski is co-chair of the super committee that is leading the state's investigation into the bridge scandal. michael isikoff, when you look at the state

this is christie talking to romney. if you jump the gun and start raising money here, you can almost certainly kiss my support goodbye. romney left the meeting incredulous at christie's dictate and back room delivery. it was like something out of "the sopranos." are you kidding me, mitt romney thought? is he going to do that? your thoughts. give us any background you can on that reporting? because i think it's fascinating that you get called into a back room up at drumthwacket, the mansion up there and basically told buddy, don't good on my turf. even though you have been raising money here for years, you're not to raise a nickel until you talk to me. it had a quality to, a new jersey quality. >> not only had romney raised money in new jersey in his past campaign and had a lot of supporters there, but christie during the same period goes up to massachusetts and raises money for himself because what this illustrates to me more than anything else is governor christie famously, consistently plays by his own rules. because

christie is -- christie has a reputation as a very hands-on manager. the thing about this that gets even more confusing is when you dig into those documents that were released, there were many people in the governor's office who knew not to take the ft. lee mayor's call during that week. so it begins to -- and early on after there was a problem identified, an e-mail is forwarded to someone on the governor's counsel's office who is charged with having relations with various agencies. that woman was slated to be the incoming chief of staff until this whole thing blew up. so it's not just the four people. >> let's go back to that bombshell you just dropped, at least to my ears. >> okay. for a week the people working for the governor in his office knew not to take the phone call from the ft. lee mayor's office. >> right. >> tell me about that. how do you know that? >> because it's in documents released by the assembly committee. and one of the women who resigned over the weekend, she resigned last friday in advance of the subpoenas being answered, her assi

chris christie, the u.s. attorney, reaching out to me, the report er for politicsnj.co, during his work day, without any prompting, i might add, to volunteer information about his office's election day hotline. like i said, it's a boring e-mail. it's not the only one i got from chr christie when he was u.s. attorney. he would read what i wrote. he would read the site and he would occasionally send me notes like that one. he wanted to be on our radar. he was one of our readers. he was one of the many political leaders in new jersey who helped make an anonymous blogger known as wally edge the proprietor of a credible, respected, must-read site for the political new jersey class. again, make your own decision about christie's statement of wildstein's character. i think you should know when i was covering new jersey, he seemed to have no qualms about reading and feeding the anonymous political blog he's now attacking. to talk about the latest developments overnight welcome in our panel. we have wnbc's brian thomp

todd christie was spared and the man who spared todd christie, chris christie as the u.s. attorney, was able to give him a contract. another interesting part of alex's piece. the largess that christie was able to spread around, sort of like a politician would as u.s. attorney when he had these deferred prosecution agreement where is he was able to spread money around and use it like a politician would, like he's done as governor. i just quickly add one thing on norcross. the amazing thing about not prosecuting george norcross in 2006, you can see the roots of everything planted right then. in 2009 always rumors in new jersey that norcross' machine kind of went to sleep on jon corzine, the democrat, the northward democratic machine went to sleep, union city went to sleep, these democratic machines went to sleep oncor sine. at the height of that 2009 campaign, there was basically a coup in the state senate when they took out this sort of anti-christie democrat and replaced him with a george norcross guy. when chris christie came to power he was aided by this alliance with no

christie to having knowledge of lane closures. team christie decided to attack the messenger, including actually attacking david wildstein's performance as a high school student. and david wildstein's past, people and newspaper accounts have described him as tumultuous. he was publicly accused by his high school social studies teacher of deceptive behavior. that attack on wildstein, the juvenile, high school attack on wildstein is clearly the most desperate moment yet in team christie's attempt to save chris christie's political career and presidential ambition. after the weekend of desperate lashing out at david wildstein last night, chris christie said this -- >> if prior to that -- i know prior to that there were press accounts about traffic issues up there. and if someone, you know, if i read that or someone said something to me about traffic issues up there, it wouldn't have been meaningful to me because i didn't know there was any problem up there. i didn't know we had actually closed lanes up there before that. when this fi

sincerely, chris christie. well, the spirit in which that apology was made is that it was legally required of chris christie after he was sued over those ads and he had to settle the lawsuit. mr. christie ran those, the ads with a false claim about his opponents being under investigation by the county prosecutor. he ran those ads when he was making his first run for public office. you can see how young he is there. in 1994. in morris county, new jersey. that claim that he made in those ads was totally false. the people he was running against were not under criminal investigation. but the ads worked anyway and chris christie won that race. he won that seat on the county mission. the freeholder seat. when he got sued over those false ads, though, he ended up settling the lawsuit. he had to pay money to the people who he'd made the false ads about, and he had to run that humiliating quarter-page ad in the sunday "star-ledger." and ultimately none of it sat very well with the people of morris county, new jersey. he

chris christie is fighting now to save chris christie. you're watching "hardball," the place for politics. >>> well, the fact is we've been listening to governor chris christie answer questions about the george washington bridge scandal and other matters on a new jersey radio station. he didn't deny knowing about the traffic problems in september, and says it didn't rise to the gubernatorial level. however, he also said he didn't know it was an issue until some time in october. msnbc political analyst howard fineman is back with us, and we're joined now by clarence page of the chicago tribune. howard, i thought it was interesting. they didn't add anything we didn't know on the record already. >> no. but he is very carefully and selectively climb do you think off the dangerous perch he has been on. >> of i didn't know nothing. >> of i didn't know nothing. he is now saying, well, okay, it's possible that i heard about the lane closures after they began, which is september 9th. but i didn't know they were an issue. that's sort of the indirec

he announced he had been told by the christie administration, that the christie administration policy the governor's office are allowed to appear before legislative committees. senator gordon told the new jersey spotlight this is a christie administration policy? there was no such policy before this in previous administrations. now senator gordon wanted testimony from people who work in the governor's office on a matter sort of unrelated to bridge gate, it was something having to do with hurricane sandy recovery, if it is a blanket policy of the christie administration that's just being announced now, that no staff from the governor's office is never allowed to testify before the legislature, this has big implications for the whole scandal. we got four more subpoenas for people. getting a subpoena doesn't mean you're necessarily going to be called to testify. anyone who works in the governor's office isn't allowed to testify. >> tonight governor christie's office says despite what he was told by the governor's office, the governor's office tells us tonight that there is no policy in t

my name is chris christie. i got into this race for the promise of a better future for my family and yours. but "the daily record" has called the current incumbents fumbling, bumbling amateurs. and now they're being investigated by the mars county prosecutor. >> great ad, huh? but it wasn't true. his opponents were not under investigation. but in the final days before the primary, there was no time to respond and so chris christie came in first in that primary, pushing out the republican incumbent. later, they successfully sued chris christie for defamation, which is so rare in a political campaign you can't believe it. sued for defamation successfully. christie was forced to issue a formal public apology that said in part, the ads, quote, were not accurate. neither of you were under investigation by the morris county prosecutor at anytime. i fully intend in any future campaigns in which i am involved to be much more sensitive to the impact of such tactics. three years later, christie lost his re-election bid.

jovi to sing "dead or alive" at howard stern's birthday party -- >> i happen to be a chris christie fan and i think it's been very good for new jersey. >> a "new york times" story broke quoting david wildstein's lawyer that evidence exists that vi christie had knowledge of the lane closures in ft. lee. then it got worse. saturday afternoon the christie administration sent out a rambling buzzfeed style liftical to friends and allies titled "five things you should know about the bombshell that's not a bombshell." the two-page document included a section focusing on david wildstein's reputation at livingston high school. he and christie both went there over 30 years ago. >> i was the class president and athlete. i don't know what david was doing during that period of time. >> according to team christie, wildstein was "publicly accused by his high school social studies teacher of deceptive behavior." the list did not mention that wildstein was known as governor christie's eyes and ears inside the port authority after he was appointed by the governor to work at the port authority.

one rally around christie. there's go negative. and then there's just kind of sit on the sidelines and be as quiet as possible. do you sense that the tide is shifting internally in the republican party as the drip, drip, drip continues? is the mood shifting? >> you need another whole bucket for rudy juliany. there are calls for him to step down as the republican governor's association chairman. that was a position he sought to take after he got electe eelect. you've heard some people suggest that maybe christie should step aside. that, to me, alex, is where you should look because that's a plausible thing that a reporter that in any state has a serious republican politician can ask and answer. rick scott, not really around. when he's got to other states, other candidates have been a little -- they're more than happy to take the money that chris christie raises for him, but don't want to appear in public. if that keeps happening, i think there might be a little bit of a momentum here. christie will resist that to the end because tha

i'm christi paul. >> i'm victor blackwell. this is "new day sunday." >>> today, super bowl xlviii, denver broncos versus the seattle seahawks. here's a look at metlife stadium in east rutherford, new jersey. >> peyton manning, quarterback for denver, and russell wilson for seahawks. we were just talking about bruno mars and red hot chili peppers performing at halftime but i want to give a little love to my co-anchor because the baltimore ravens are still, people, for the next 10 1/2 hours or so, world champs. >> yeah. they are the nfl world champs. tonight get it twisted. that vince lombardi trophy as christi informed us earlier, made by tiffany & company. >> more than 100 million people expected to be watching on television. >> the thing is when we talk about new jersey, the super bowl is taking place in governor chris christie's home state. think about this. this was supposed to be a big celebration. but now this morning he's fighting back, defending himself against new claims regarding that scandal over lane closures of the