in the crossfire tonight bill richardson and john brabender.s news conference today governor christie went out of his way to make us feel sorry for him. yes, he spoke for almost two hour, but he mostly talked about himself, for two hours. >> i am embarrassed and humiliated. i am heartbroken. i am sad. i probably will get angry at some point, but i got to tell you the truth, i'm sad. i'm a sad guy standing here today. and very disappointed. >> enough about you, governor, the real victims are the people of new jersey. and there's a reason why this scandal is really settling in. it's chris christie's pattern of political retribution when he doesn't get his way. here's a sampling courtesy of "the new york times." christie punished a former governor by canceling his security detail. he eliminated a state senator's district after the senator criticized christie for staying in disney world during a snowstorm. and he personally canceled funding for a rutgers university program when the professor voted against his redistricting plan. so john, i want to

former hillary clinton adviser and democratic strategist kiki mcclain and republican strategist, john brabenderu. >> good morning. >> kiki, i have to start with you. >> we know what the record is, what the president's position is and she served as secretary of state to a president who opposed the war in iraq. at the end of the day, the president's position was clear. we know a national security team, including the president, secretary clinton, and secretary gates resulted in a safer united states, and that's what really matters here. i think that going forward what you recognize is that there are people who want to assign different thoughts, ideas, to other people in political situations and it's not just there, but what i do know about hillary clinton is she doesn't make important decisions based on politics, but on the substance of the matter. >> as she said, gates did have praise for clinton, smart, idealistic, pragmatic, tough minded, indefatigable, funny, very valuable colleague, and a superb representative of the united states all over the world. is that going to have any impact here? >>

steve mcmahon is a strategist, john brabender is a republican strategist. have my hard copy of "the times" here. it's nearly 8,000 words. i wonder how many of the individuals that we just saw in the montage actually took the time to read it. and i say that because my reading of "the times" shows how woefully unprotected ambassador stevens was on that date. i don't look at it as a whitewash of anything. how do you read it? >> that's a good point. it shows there was grave security risks that existed. and frankly the responsibility to that was with the secretary of state. so i think there's very big problems for hillary clinton in this report alone. but the real arrogance to me was the editorial that came out from the "new york times" saying, well, any rational person, this would be the end. even though this totally conflicts with what three "new york times" reporters had written before. what democrat and republican house intelligence members are saying. even part of the administration has said there could be al qaeda ties. and so i think this is remarkably arr

. >>> to break this down for us, daniela gibbs and ed brabender cox, john bray bender. john, some members of the party seem to have constant mouth in foot syndrome, despite the efforts to keep republicans from saying things that alienate so many women. what do you think needs to change in the party for some of these politicians to get the message? >> well, what they have to understand is there is a political reality to what we say and do, as well. when we have a mistake is we let ourselves be singularly defined by a very small number of issues. what we have to do a much better job is get hard working average americans understanding that we understand their life, we're on their side, we're fighting for them. instead we get very defensive on a small number of issues where most americans probably agree with us, but we get into terminology that's not helpful. take mike huckabee, i think he probably in retrospect would say it differently, but all he was doing is saying it's men and women in the democrat party that are being degrading to women, not the republicans. >> what's

thanks to bill richardson and john brabender. >> go to twitter or facebook, do you think chris christie told the truth today? right now 28% of you say yes. yikes, 22% say no. >> the debate continues online at cnn.com/crossfire as well as facebook and twitter. from the left, i'm stephanie cutter. >> join us tomorrow for another edition of "crossfire." erin burnett outfront starts right now. >>> next, chris christie's mea culpa. >> i had no knowledge or involvement in this issue, in its planning or its execution, and i am stunned. >> was it enough to keep his presidential hopes alive? >>> plus, a north carolina teenager shot and killed just 70 seconds after an officer arrived on the scene. >> did that officer yell for help or ask for someone to shoot this man? >> no, sir, did not. >> an exclusive interview with the officer's attorney tonight. >>> and you've seen this disturbing toddler video. >> [ bleep ]. you a bitch. you throwing a fit right now? >> but police just told me obscene language was the least of this baby's problems. let's go outfront. >>> good evening, everyone, i'm don lemo