our chief political analyst gloria borger is here. ria, of some very disturbing information. >> we are, wolf. this is a story, i should say, that was just reported by the bergen record. it's a story about four known ems responses that were delayed during the times of the lane closures. >> these are emergency medical responses. >> these are emergency medical responses. we have obtained a letter that was written by the ems coordinator to the mayor that you just interviewed earlier in the show, the mayor of fort lee, new jersey. >> mark sokolich. >> in which this ems coordinator talks about these emergency responses that were delayed, four instances of those. one of which was for a 91-year-old woman who was -- who did die. we do not know, wolf, whether she died as a result of the delay or whether she would have expired anyway, but this is the kind of story -- and again, the mayor referred to it in his interview with you, delayed ems responses that turn this story into a nightmare -- >> i'm just looking at this letter myself for the first

john king, who was in the room for the press conference, and chief political analyst gloria borger. what are you hearing about how he handled the crisis? >> reporter: they are saying that the governor handled himself pretty well assuming he has zero to do with this. if that turns out to be the case after the investigations, then he handled himself well but they are also saying that these investigations are not legitimate, both by the legislature and perhaps federal and state and criminal investigation. so on this day, christie gets high marks assuming the facts in the iend supported what he said. >> let's listen to what he had to say about why so few republican colleagues are standing shoulder to shoulder with christie today. >> you know, i don't know. sometimes when an issue is specific to an area, the fact that they don't know all of the details that are going on. it's presumptuous to comment. i don't know who e-mailed who. i've been in traffic before and i'm always wondering, who did this to me. >> reporter: do you think it had something to do with his leadership style that you d

. >> joined by john king, gloria borger. will tonight's speech, three, four days from now, will it be remembered at all except for that moment with cory remsburg, the wounded my ranger, ten tours of duty? >> i think all americans should tip their hat to the president for ending his speech with that. now it's smart for the president, you end on a high note, but we are out of iraq, we're coming out of afghanistan. whether you're a democrat or republican or somewhere else, this count try should be embarrassed if it forgets the 25, 30-year challenge of helping those veterans. the tens of thousands who need physical and mental help. we can't forget that. so the president ended brilliantly there. did the speech change anything? we'll see. i think the president spoke confidently. his performance as a politician was above the bar. the early reaction you just heard the democratic senator saying we'll see if the president comes to my state, i'll have to check my schedule. one of the unique things in american politics is mitt romney ca

let's bring in our chief political analyst, gloria borger, to talk about this. so gloria, we look at our latest cnn poll of polls. the president's job approval rating down from 52% a year ago, now 44%. now does that affect him going into tonight? >> look, he's not popular, and the congress is even less popular. and remember, he came into office saying to the -- to americans, he was going to change the way washington works. remember that, brianna? >> yep. >> now he's kind of admitting, okay, i couldn't change the way washington works, so i'm going to work around washington. okay? and i'm going to do, through executive order some things that i would like to get done, whether it's on the minimum wage for federal workers, as you point out, or maybe some climate change issues that he can do through regulation. but he's sort of taking the public's side against the congress, if you will, because he knows that's one area he may actually have some traction. >> so let's talk about this decision, this executive action that's going to be a huge part of his speech tonight, ra

i'm joined by our chief political analyst, gloria borger. some pretty tough stuff there.ng to play out specifically, as far as 2016 is concerned, if it will? >> well, first of all, i think it doesn't help hillary clinton. i mean, the point that he made in the book, wolf, on 2016 was that in a conversation, the president was having with hillary clinton, they both kind of admitted to each other that, in fact, they both -- she had opposed the surge in iraq, because she was running against barack obama in the iowa caucuses. and they were engaged in a presidential race, and she had supported the war in iraq. and that was giving her trouble with her democratic base. he said he was surprised and dismayed. i can understand the dismayed part. the surprised part i don't really get. because nobody was surprised by that. i think as a member of the military, clearly he would be dismayed that politics would enter this -- into this kind of a discussion. but that's the world in which we live. as far as president obama, i do think it has an impact. he leveled a charge against the presiden

chief political analyst gloria borger is here now. oria, good morning. >> good morning, carol. >> you wrote -- you wrote a column for cnn.com. i just want to read our viewers a bit of that. it was titled "is christie presidential." you write in part, quote, if obama was not tough enough, he is hard-hitting. if obama was partisan, he worked across party lines. in some, christie could lead in the precise ways that obama disappointed. until a traffic jam on the george washington bridge. then came another stark contrast. the vindictive and petty christie culture as opposed to the stature the presidency demands. i understand where you are going. but the polls don't really reflect that because people haven't changed their opinion about chris christie. in fact, this scandal doesn't seem to be hurting him at all. >> well with i -- i think actually what you are seeing in the state of new jersey is people are still sort of saying, okay, he has been a good governor. we are going to give him a second shot. but there are questions about his tempera

gloria borger, john king as well. thanks. >>> let me know what you think about the story. do you believe the governor didn't know about what his staff was up to? >>> up next a very tough story no matter how you look at it. the question, does the state have the right to keep a brain-dead woman, this woman, alive against her wishes, against her family's wishes as well, if that woman is pregnant? she was pregnant. the hospital refuses to take her off life support as her family wishes, as her family says she would have wanted because she's pregnant. later, the video itself is troubling enough. a cursing toddler with grownups egging him on. get this, though. it was posted by local police organization. they say to educate the public. the question is, who's looking out for the child? details coming up. aflac! aflac! got 'em. ♪ yeah, he's clean, boss. now listen to me, duck. i have an associate that met with, uh, an unfortunate accident. while he's been incapacitated, somebody's been paying him cash. now, is this your doing? aflac? now, if i met with some such accident, would afla

our chief political analyst, gloria borger, joining us.ven if they get it through the senate, it's got to pass the republican majority in the house of representatives. the labor secretary, thomas perez, we just heard, he didn't completely rule out the notion and chuck schumer didn't completely rule out the notion that maybe they would compromise and pay for the $5 or of 6 billion it costs to extend these benefits. >> i think what you were hearing was a signal that there may be some room for compromise there, that the democrats might say, okay, if we can all get together and figure out how to pay for this, let's not let that stand in the way. so i think that's clearly a possibility. and then if john boehner had some kind of a way to pay for it, then he would conceivably raise it on the floor of the house. >> sail through the senate and sail through the house. all those people with the president and 1.3 million others and their families would get those benefits right away. >> because if the democrats are saying that this is that important, a

gloria borger, peter berg and jim showedo, all standing by. they will weigh in. ♪ humans -- we are beautifully imperfect creatures, living in an imperfect world. that's why liberty mutual insurance has your back, offering exclusive products like optional better car replacement, where, if your car is totaled, we give you the money to buy one a model year newer. call... and ask an insurance expert about all our benefits today, like our 24/7 support and service, because at liberty mutual insurance, we believe our customers do their best out there in the world, so we do everything we can to be there for them when they need us. plus, you could save hundreds when you switch -- up to $423. call... today. liberty mutual insurance. responsibility. what's your policy? >>> changes to the way the nsa operates, that's what president obama ordered just a little while ago. those changes include not spying on friendly heads of state. watch this. >> the bottom line is that people around the world, regardless of their nationality, should know that the united st

let's discuss with our chief political analyst, gloria borger, who is here, certainly not the first time hillary clinton has said some of these things. but on benghazi, the fact that she said this was her biggest regret during her four years as secretary of state, what do you make of that? >> well, i think she's sort of road testing her answers now on benghazi, because clearly, that's a political issue. it's been a political issue in the congress. and what was most interesting to me about what she said is that she talked about the decision-making process, which is what you think about when you want to consider somebody in terms of the presidency and making those decisions in the oval office. and she said you make these choices based on what she called imperfect information to the best of your ability. so you can see what she is saying here, wolf, look, we didn't have all of the information we needed to have. she talked about this large cia outpost that was there. now she can talk about it. and it's very clear that what she is going to say is, look, we just didn't have all the facts and i

gloria borger standing by to discuss this and more. we'll talk about the road ahead for chris christie. [ male announcer ] this is the story of the dusty basement at 1406 35th street the old dining table at 25th and hoffman. ...and the little room above the strip mall off roble avenue. ♪ this magic moment it is the story of where every great idea begins. and of those who believed they had the power to do more. dell is honored to be part of some of the world's great stories. that began much the same way ours did. in a little dorm room -- 2713. ♪ this magic moment ♪ [ chicken caws ] [ male announcer ] when your favorite food starts a fight, fight back fast with tums. heartburn relief that neutralizes acid on contact and goes to work in seconds. ♪ tum, tum tum tum tums! he was a matted messiley at in a small cage. ng day.ontact so that was our first task, was getting him to wellness. without angie's list, i don't know if we could have found all the services we needed for our riley. from contractors and doctors to dog sitters and landscape

we're joined by gloria borger, chief political analyst and john fabro, former barack obama speech writer and karen hughes former bush campaigner adviser former white house communications director as well. john, you just came from the white house. you were kind of looking over the speech. there are a lot of different audiences for the speech. there's progressives within the president's party, there are republicans who he has to try to work with particularly on immigration reform the there's a lot of different audiences for this. >> i think the president's main audience is the american people. this will be as state of the unions tend to be a unifying speech where he will lay out his vision for the country. as he said, wherever he can work with republicans and democrats in congress he certainly will. >> last year there was a laundry list of items that he wanted progress on. we did the checklist. not a lot of them were actually accomplished. do you see that happening tonight as well? >> i think he's going to show tonight a flurry of action. there are going to be plenty of ideas he has that h

joining us now is gloria borger along with jeffrey toobin and charles blow. a, let me play you another clip. chris christy ultimately explaining his deep regret, his apology. >> ultimately, i am responsible for what happens under my watch. the good and the bad. and when mistakes are made, then i have to own up to them and take the action that i believe is necessary in order to remediate them. >> so did he go along way in cleaning up this mess, from his personal perspective? >> he did most of what he had to do, wolf. i would say today that he apologized to the people of ft. lee. he said he never saw this as political retribution because he didn't actually know the mayor of ft. lee, new jersey. he distanced himself from this. he fired a couple of people. what he did not do, as far as i was concerned, is really explain the why of this. which is, why would people in his office think that doing such a thing, a callous and stupid thing, as he called it, why would think think that would make him happy and what does that tell us about the way that he operates as a gov

let's discuss what is going on with our chief correspondent gloria borger, john king, and charles bloome throw the numbers out to you, charles. first, in this new poll, a hypothetical matchup between hillary clinton and chris christie a month ago it was neck-and-neck, 42% for hillary clinton and 41 -- 42% for christie and 41% for clinton. look at it now. 38% for christie and 46 for hillary. how much trouble is the governor in now? >> you can't say at this point whether or not that will happen. this is not, at this point, a fatal issue for him. what will be fatal if we find out relatively quickly that he knew more than he is letting on or that he had in that long, rambling press conference that he had. but here's the flip side of that, which is that other things happen in the news and if something -- another big political thing pops up before we know whether or not chris christie was completely part of this scandal, if it turns out that he's telling the truth, he was not aware of what was happening, even though it happened under his watch and under his nose, he basically told the truth a

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. >> dana bash is with us along with chief political analyst gloria borger. gloria, what do you think of the allegations? >> i think they're serious and that's why they're being investigated by a u.s. attorney. and i think what we heard tonight is that, the big question, which is, who used redevelopment as the bargaining chip? was it the mayor, as the governor's office would charge, or was it the governor, you know, as the mayor charges? but this is very serious legal issue. it also ties it -- if the mayor is telling the truth, it ties it directly to chris christie, because you have a lieutenant governor saying this is what the governor wants, and she was delivering the message, although she said, apparently, she would deny it. and this, of course, sandy, hurricane relief is so much a part of chris christie's brand, who he is, the sort of can-do governor. and what the mayor is saying is, you know what, there was more to it than that. >> if this conversation is accurate, as the mayor says, i mean, it's like something out of a movie for the lieutenant governor s

let's bring in our chief political analyst, gloria borger. gloria, what does he need to say in two hours when he addresses the folks in new jersey, and people will be watching all over the country. >> he needs to talk to the people of new jersey about the job he's doing for them as governor and the job he intends to do for them as governor. i'm not sure whether he needs to make a direct reference to the scandal. he can make an oblique reference. and as erin was pointing out, he can say, i'm committed to working in a bipartisan way, i'm not going to let petty politics get in the way of doing my job. he can acknowledge that he has made some mistakes along the way. but that he is turning the page for the state of new jersey. i think he has to convince the people of the state all over again that he is somebody that they can really trust to do their job. >> and so there's one potential scandal, obviously, involving the traffic jam of the george washington bridge. there's now this other scandal potentially that you've been investigating involving je

it was a direct jab at his potential rival. >> gloria borger, thank you.up, the teen who killed two people at a mall over the weekend left a journal that talked about being rejected by girls. that's not all we are learning today. could this journal help provide a motive that is next? first this. a legally blind teenager sees the world differentlily. that doesn't stop there. how she is impacting our world. >> meet 13-year-old maclaine. an avid reader and fierce competitive swimmer. behind that smile lies a deeper story. she is legally blind. her vision began to fail when she was 8 and in a few years she won't be able to see at all. >> i'm not mad. >> this seventh grader didn't want your sympathy. >> you can hand me that? >> she wants your old shoes. in 2009 her father showed her an article about footwear soles being recycled. >> they were giving people a $5 discount if they turned in shoes. >> we went and gave them to people that needed them. >> shoes for the soul was born. around 10,000 pairs of shoes has been collected over four years. today mcchain is ma

. >> gloria borger is with me. here we have the examinations and this is just the beginning. chris christie has to move on but how does he do that with all of this -- >> he knows he can't. he's got committees investigating him, subpoenas flying. he announced today that he's going to have his own internal investigation. so what he has to do is keep his eye on the ball, which is what i think you saw him doing today in the state of new jersey talking about sandy recovery while understanding that these other issues are going on at the same time. his problem is -- the good news for him is that on a national scale people are paying an awful lot of attention to this. the bad news is, that since december, he's lost a lot of ground against hillary clinton in a potential 2016 race. it's early. the problem, though, is his favorability ratings are upside down. more people think negatively of him than positively. so he's got some problems but he's doing exactly what he ought to be doing. >> you have seen many, many stories like this, gloria. you have been at this for a number of years. ho

governor chris christie new jersey traffic jam ♪ >> bruce springsteen got them and jimmy fallon, gloria borgers. do you think that could help chris christie? that jam session? >> look, chris christie of course is going to laugh at that and think it's fabulous. he should laugh at it and he's a big bruce springsteen fan. i don't think it hurts them. when you enjoy people who are making fun of you and speaking you, that's all to the good. >> let's talk about the new poll. it shows surprisingly little damage. 55% still approve of the job he is doing. quinnipiac conducted a poll in the wake of the scandal and christie's bully rating is one of the lowest he had at 45%. that's a word used to describe him many times. they said the traffic jam scandal raises real questions about christie's temperament and the word you use is petty. are you surprised. and the numbers have been all over the place and another new jersey poll didn't think he had the right temperament to be president. that's a big number. people are stepping back from this now. people in new jersey have been paying a lot of attention to thi

dana bash, gloria borger, and john wisniewski who is leading the investigation on the bridge investigation. let me ask you first what do you make of what the mayor is saying there? do you believe her? >> they are very troubling allegations. we have seen the lieutenant governor acknowledged she had a conversation with the mayor. >> but the mayor's perception of the conversation is wrong and offensive. >> that's where we need to get to the bottom of it. there is a dispute as to who said what. >> someone is lying. >> the mayor is making serious allegations. they are very difficult in the light of the redevelopment, the port authority money used for a redevelopment study and the facts those are linked together with the redevelopment and the words that the lieutenant governor is said to have used linking it to the governor. there are a lot of facts we don't know. and it would be premature to rush to any conclusions. >> obviously, you a supporter of governor christie. do you believe that the lieutenant governor would say that? >> no. simply put these are two former federal prosecutors. they pros

our chief political analyst, gloria borger, joining us. oria, as you know, some of these factions are urging republican candidates to take a tougher stand on abortion. this is obviously a very sensitive issue out there. what's going on here? >> well, look, wolf, you have a republican party that in the last presidential election, president obama won with women by 11 points. that's something they have to pay attention to. what some republicans are saying is, look, we can't just let the democrats say we're waging a war against women without responding to it. and so what some republicans are saying is, look, the public is with us on certain issues. certain issues like parental consent, for example. before a child would be able to get an abortion. being against late-term abortions, for example. polls show the public is with republicans on that. so what some republicans are saying is, look, there have to be issues that we can talk about in records regards to women we shouldn't shy away from. and we all know from a month or so ago, the congression

. >> gloria borger, many thanks to you. >>> i have to read live to miami beach because miami beach police a press conference on the arrest of justin bieber. let's listen. >> when he noticed what he believed at the time was two lamborghinis, one red, one yellow, drag racing on pine tree drive going northbound. the officer called it off on the radio. he made a u-turn and tried to catch up to the vehicles and was able to stop the red vehicle, which turned out to a red ferrari. the vehicle that mr. bieber was driving, the yellow lamborghini, continued north and made a left on 44th street traveling eastbound. another officer was able to stop mr. bieber and upon approaching the car, when he opened up the window and confronted mr. bieber, he smelled a strong odor of alcoholic beverage. mr. bieber at that point was not cooperating with the officer's instructions. the officer asked him to exit the vehicle. he was questioning why he was being stopped. ultimately, he eventually did step out of the vehicle. would not follow the officer's instructions. the officer at that time did place mr. bieber und

chief political analyst, gloria borger, cnn investigations correspondent, chris frates. t the scene for us now. we're going to hear what chris christie says. he's not necessarily going to address the specific issue at hand, namely the charges, the allegations being leveled against him. >> no, he really isn't, wolf. just to set the scene for you. everybody knows that chris christie has had an awful lot of difficulty lately. this is a man who won re-election by a landslide. who managed to get a lot of support from democrats, as well as independent voters. it was supposed to set the stage for a presidential campaign, and still may well set the stage for that. as somebody who is able to win as somebody who is able to win bipartisan support. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com ththen the ththen th stallpthen the sn bridgr bridge, sap brid about it. spent and over the last couple weeks, wolf, more stories have come out, along the lines of the theme of did chris christie abuse his power as governor. and so as -- as he is sworn in today -- >> gloria, hold on for one moment. lie

joining us is gloria borger. talk about the person who is pushing this story. are politics involved? >> well, i'd be shocked to think there are not politics involved in the state of new jersey. yeah, look, people see a weakness in chris christie. this story about -- that you just referred to about the money for the ads, the story is that the ads would have been a lot cheap for they hadn't included the family. a democratic congressman, frank pallone who is a political enemy of chris christie asked for this investigation. >> why would they have been cheaper if the family was not included? >> that's a good question. so, we're trying to get the answer to. that he asked the inspector general to look into how the money was spent and that was last summer. so now, the inspector general said this is worthy of a serious investigation. the fact it leaked out at this particular time, i think you'd have to say is a little bit politically suspect. >> and to the question you were asking. part of the $60 billion given to new jersey there was a line item for marketing budget. t

. >> i want to bring in gloria borger, political analyst, to talk about this. gloria, what is your perspective on this? it was two hours we were listening to governor christie explain and explain, he didn't know, but he apologized. he seemed very forceful about all of this. was it potentially a little bit overdone, protestses too much here, two hours, to go through this? what do you make of that? >> there is no way to deliver a perfect apology press conference, right? and what i think he wanted to do, and there's some precedent to this, you know, is to take every single reporter's question and answer it. what he tried to do is say, look, i am not just another politician. i found out what the people who were doing some things that were clearly wrong and i fired them. but tried to distance himself from it, saying at the same time, i didn't know, i can't figure it out. he called their moves callous and stupid. so the wide question out there. i'm presuming his lawyers were walling him off from talking to people he fired directly. but we still don't know why they dec

gloria borger is live in washington.be addressing the george washington bridge closure, that whole scandal, specifically head-on. but do we know if he'll be making news? do we know if he'll tell us something we don't know, such as who came up with the closures in the first place? >> i would not anticipate that governor christie is going to be talking about what happened and why bridget anne kelly, his deputy chief of staff, apparently ordered the lane closures on the george washington bridge. if you talk to the christie office, people close to christie, they say he does not know. he hasn't talked to her. he doesn't understand why they did what they did. so for him to come out right now and give a big explanation would be contradictory to what he has said so far. generally speaking, most of the speech is going to be about new jersey and what they have accomplished in his first term, what he hopes to accomplish in the second, talking about education reform, extending school days, extending the school year. there will be so

glor gloria borger is here, jake tapper, gloria, first you. what's your assessment of how he did? this was a major event not only for him but the people of new jersey and maybe the country if he decides to run for president. >> look, under the circumstances he was confronted with, wolf, i think he did well. i mean, he said he was humili e humiliated, blindsided, lied to and stunned. he called it a callous act. he called these e-mails stupid. he said he had no knowledge or involvement in this issue. and he tried to address the question of whether this is a culture that he would promote or that he has promoted. and he said it is not the environment that i worked hard to achieve. the answer -- the question we did not get an answer to, wolf, because it's clear that he was being walled off from this and maybe that was his attorneys who were doing it is, why did bridget anne kelly -- why did she decide that this was a good, smart thing to do from the governor's office? >> out of political vengeance allegedly to go ahead and disrupt traffic in this town of ft. lee because the mayor suppo

. >>> let's check in with our political panel, gloria borger, it's a word season in hollywood. some a-listers are destined to be denied, but the political world can snub with the best of them, too, check out this event honors ted cruz. not their own senator marco rubio, but ted cruz as their statesman of the year. gloria, which is worse? that or "good fellas" losing out to "dancing with wolves." >> can't answer that until february 2016. you know what happens them -- fla in prime year. we'll see then. >> from sarasota, a key part of the state. >> you bet. >>> much more when "the lead" returns right after this. c explore what's new. for 575 calories or less on our lighter fare menu. enjoy fresh tossed. go fish. and try our new rosemary garlic chicken at olive garden. in fact, they depend on a unique set of nutrients. [ male announcer ] that's why there's ocuvite to help protect your eye health. as you age, your eyes can lose vital nutrients. ocuvite helps replenish key eye nutrients. ocuvite is a vitamin made just for your eyes from the eye care experts as bausch + lomb. ocuvite

to bring in john king on the phone from trenton and here with me in washington wolf blitzer and gloria borger. john, what's the atmosphere there? i'm sorry, john is not available. wolf, would you encourage him to say? >> get all the bad news out and say it yourself. don't let enemies and investigators, law enforcement, political bring it out. if you know there's bad stuff that was done by some of your top aids as loyal as you feel to them, you have to come out right now and have to say, here's what i know. this is what happened. it's awful, i take responsibility, they worked for me. they didn't do the right thing, i didn't want this to happen, i feel awful. we're going to work and try to fix this, mark sure it doesn't happen again, going to learn from lessons. if there's bad news that there was a cover up for example to close traffic lanes on the george washington bridge, he's got to bring that out. let him do the worst of it. i think that's the best advice i could give him. >> one of the reasons we probably didn't hear from christie yesterday and got the statement from him is because he was

joining me now is chief political analyst gloria borger. i have so many questions for all of you. david, i'll start with you. bob gates worked for every president since nixon. with the exception of president clinton. he served under democrats and republicans. he's savvy. he knows what he's doing. the question is, why? >> why does he share his views at the end of his career? >> why is he releasing this now? >> people do tend to share their views. they are free to speak. they have messages they want people to hear. i think his message on afghanistan is especially important. because remember the afghanistan surge was the signature barack obama foreign policy of 2008. he campaigned on it. the bush administration was careful about overinvesting in afghanistan and candidate obama slammed the bush administration for that, promised deployment of troops to afghanistan. some wondered was that a way of looking strong on defense or did he mean it? and now it looks like the answer is it was a cynical politics. he didn't really mean it. >> but wouldn't it have been more effective to do it at th

our chief political analyst, gloria borger, and cnn investigations correspondent, chris frates. wolf, your take on governor christie's speech. does this help him at all? will it help him get past any of the controversy, do you think? >> i think it will help him. i think it was a powerful speech, and he delivered the proper tone. it would have been a really amazing speech if he didn't have these clouds of these current scandals in new jersey hovering over. that would have been a nice step in the direction potentially toward a 2016 presidential run. he's obviously being well-received right now. you look at that standing overation he's receiving. he clearly wants to take the high road and try to bring everyone together in new jersey. certainly not going to be easy, given some of the accusations that have been hurled against his own aides, accusations that he has acknowledged, especially in the decision to close some of those lanes leading to the george washington bridge, which were totally inappropriate. he's got a lot of problems right now. but i think on the whole, it was a very

let's talk about it with political analyst gloria borger, joining us. with the federal investigation. the timing, obviously, could hardly be worse for governor christie. >> yeah, could hardly be worse. and the real problem for chris christie with this story is that hurricane sandy was the prism through which most americans got their first real look at the new jersey governor on a national stage, and they loved him because he was a truth-teller, he's somebody who took control of a terrible situation, and he was somebody who was protecting people. this is bad, a bad story for him. the person who is talking about it now is clearly a political enemy of his, and the governor's staff is saying, look, this is a routine investigation. and by the way, these ads were a part of getting the jersey shore recovered. but in any case, it's not good for him, because you know what, he looks like just another politician in this particular story, using hurricane sandy for his own re-election, perhaps. >> the flip side of that, though, and we should point this out, and ther

let's talk about it, raw politics, chief political analyst, gloria borger joins us.t's start with this federal investigation. the timing, obviously, could hardly be worse for governor christie. >> yeah, could hardly be worse. and the real problem for chris christie with this story is that hurricane sandy was the prism through which most americans got their first real look at the new jersey governor on a national stage, and they loved him because he was a truth teller. he's somebody who took control of a terrible situation. and he was somebody who was protecting people. this is a bad story for him. the person who is talking about it now is clearly a political enemy of his and the governor's staff is saying, look, this is a routine investigation. and by the way, these ads were a part of getting the jersey shore recovered. but, in any case, it's not good for him. because you know what, he looks like just another politician in this particular story, using hurricane sandy for his own re-election, perhaps. >> the flip side of that, perhaps, though, and we should point this

. >> lots to talk about tonight with david gergen, john king and gloria borger. david, do you believe it's possible, first of all, that christie did not know about this, that all these people around him -- >> i think it's possible, but in my experience going back to the nixon days, and i hesitate to make the comparison, is that sometimes the boss does not order something, but people who -- i don't know whether nixon ordered watergate, but i can guarantee you that the people who carried out watergate thought that's what he would have wanted. sometimes there's an environment where if you're on staff, things don't have to be said, you sort of know. >> so, even if he didn't know about it, the fact that everybody around him thought this was the kind of thing he would want says something about him and his leadership. >> i think there's bearish reporting on that subject, because it has all -- there's something about this that's so petty and so vindictive, and it feeds into this narrative that has been building up that he's a bully, and i think he's now, you know, he's o

in the meantime, i want to bring in our chief political analyst, gloria borger, dana bash, jim acostayork, our cloo chief business correspondent, christine romans. the president is going to come out, welcome this procedural vote allowing the bill to go forward in the senate but there is still a long struggle ahead if the 1.3 million americans who will require this additional emergency unemployment insurance are about to get some more money. >> that's right, wolf. they know they are not out of the woods yet. this is going to have to go through another vote or two in the senate before it goes over to the house where this extension of long-term benefits is by no means a sure thing. this is necessary to the jobless americans and the white house. interesting to note the objects of this event. the president is going to be surrounded by people whose unemployment has expired. the person introducing the president will be a woman by katherine hackett of connecticut. she is someone who wrote to the president to talk about how she relies on these unemployment benefits. according to a white house

. >> let's bring in our oh chief political analyst, gloria borger. these kinds of statements, the ones we heard from mccain, guiliani, how helpful are they to christie? >> they're helpful, because they're supportive of him, and they make the point that he's answered every question, in a two-hour press conference. but they do leave a little wiggle room here, wolf. you know, as guiliani said, look, if for some reason what he is saying is not true, he has put his political career at risk, and mccain says as long as another shoe doesn't drop. so you can see where republicans are coming from. but you know, they're also making the case that the governor went out, had a two-hour press conference, they want to compare that to president obama on issues like the irs and benghazi where they believe he has not been as forthcoming. they want to compare the two and say, look, chris christie answered every single question. but they're all waiting to see what the investigation turns up in the state legislature. >> could there be sort of a plus side for him? all the

chief political analyst gloria borger is here.e fact that barbara bush said, he is qualified but i hope he doesn't run, does that make it harder for him to decide to run if he decides to run? >> it's a little awkward that a 60-year-old guy has to kind of say publicly, come on, mom, you know. no, it doesn't make it anymore difficult for him. look, she's expressed it before. she clearly doesn't want to have to go through a campaign again. she's had a husband who did it, she's had another son who's been president. she makes an interesting point, which is isn't there anybody other than the clintons and the bushes who can run for the presidency? so i think it's kind of embarrassing for him, but he handled it very well. >> yeah. he's obviously a smart, talented person. >> he's 60. it's not like he's 15, right? >> let's look at this new abc/washington post poll on republican potential for 2016. paul ryan, you see with 20%. jeb bush 18%. chris christie 13%. ted cruz 12%. rand paul 11%. so it's pretty tight right there. i think christie's

let's bring in our chief political analyst, gloria borger. she is also up for re-election. there is a lot of suspicion she decided to stay in washington, not welcome the president in her home state of north carolina, because she doesn't necessarily want to be photographed with the president. >> sure. notwithstanding what her staff said, it's very clear that there are about a handful of red state democrats up for re-election, who don't want to be photographed an awful lot with president obama, who is seen as a political liability in their state, particularly after the obamacare rollout. so right now they just want to keep their distance, and not give their opponents anything to use in the campaign ad against them. this certainly would be. she is not the first democratic senator to do that. mary landrieu of louisiana also did that. and i think, look, it's completely understandable. she has an excuse. there's business in washington, but believe me, if she wanted to be there, she would have been there. >> mary landrieu is up for re-election this year, as well. so when the presi

our chief political analyst, gloria borger, is here. >> still trying to think of a convention in vegas, wolf, and what that would be like. >> a lot of conventions in vegas. they did a good job. i've been in las vegas, including an nba all-star weekend, i went and vegas was fun. let's talk about reince priebus. i think he was smart in doing this. they had their postmortem, what went wrong. he came up with a bunch of ideas and now he's implementing them. >> he doesn't want to have a rerun of what he called the circus of debates. and the way that candidates were going after each other for months and months for a six-month period last time around. it didn't hurt the party. lots of republicans who talked to privately believed that all the circular firing squads, they formed, did not help mitt romney in the general election, because he had to move so far to his right in debating candidates to his right and was out there for so long that it was very difficult for him to present himself as a credible general election candidate and move back to the center. so what priebus has done is said, okay

. >> that's the question we'll start off with our panel, gloria borger, david marinas. they were just talking about immigration reform or compromise on that. are there other things the president can accomplish? >> i do there are. i don't think he's a lame duck by any stretch of the imagination. when people believe in congress that it is in their own self-interest to do something on immigration reform, they will do it, not because they want to make barack obama a transformational president but because they think it will work for them. >> are you talking about comprehensive immigration reform? >> no, i think that the one of the lessons of the affordable care act is that these huge pieces of legislation don't do well. and i think what the white house has learned and what republicans are talking about, the ones that want to do immigration is that they might be able to do it in a piecemeal way. as john pointed out, the key problem is going to be whether there is a pathway to citizenship or whether there's some detour that would be allowed. >> david, do you think he's a lame

so let's bring in our chief political analyst, gloria borger, for some analysis of this and other political stories. she did have a major uphill struggle. >> she did. >> the polls showed in wyoming she wasn't doing well. >> i mean, there were some polls that showed her as much as 50 points behind in the primary. look, mike enzi was very conservative. very popular inside the state. and so it wasn't exactly a fight between a conservative and a liberal republican or a moderate republican. these were two conservatives, and when you talk to people inside the state, they couldn't figure out why she was running to unseat somebody they had considered pretty satisfactory and just as conservative as she is. >> yeah, he's a real conservative, mike enzi. all those conservative credentials and very well-liked in wyoming. the feud that we saw unfold in recent weeks within the cheney family over same-sex marriage between liz cheney and her sister mary cheney, is there a similar feud going on on a bigger notion within the republican party? >> yeah. i think so. i mean, the irony here, of course, is that liz

. >> let's discuss what we just heard with our chief political analyst, gloria borger. >> he said mistakes were made. he did not say he made them but he said mistakes were made and pledged cooperation with the authorities in getting to the bottom of these issues. he got it out of the way early. he said what he needed to say and when he got the round of applause it was because of his use of the word delay. >> he got a nice standing ovation. >> if you watch the pictures, it's the republicans standing up. most of the democrats sitting down. he did exactly what he needed to do by getting to it first. his trademark is to be blunt and get it out there. it's tarnished right now but now he has to cooperate. he said he will cooperate. people will be subpoenaed by that committee. this is a first page in the chapter of chris christie. we don't know what the chapter is going. >> assuming he hasn't lied or anything like that, there's no smoking gun, could all of this help him showing him he's a straightforward kind of guy? >> well, in many ways he's going to be defined by how he handles this mess and h

gloria borger is here, our chief political analyst, ryan lizza, gloria, what do you make of the mikecomment? because as dana just reported, some women were probably out there wincing. >> it's not exactly what i think republicans were planning on. i mean, in the autopsy that dana was talking about for the republican party, the prescriptions about how to win, they said you've got to get more aggressive on the so-called war on women, fight back against democrats who say you don't need to worry about the women. what mike huckabee was saying was that democrats are insulting women by essentially trying to women over by giving them free birth control, as he puts it, under obama care. that's not exactly the discussion they want to have. the republicans i talked to say we have some issues that the public is with us on. for example, parental consent on the issue of late-term abortion, for example. let's talk about that stuff. >> i was there and watching him lie and talk about this. it was really the word libido. >> yeah. >> one of his friends actually told me afterwards, somebody who is a very