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GOP's Christie Faces Traffic Jam Scandal, Possible Legal Consequences; What Does Christie Need to Say about Jam?

Aired January 09, 2014 - 10:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. I'm Carol Costello. Thank you so much for joining me. We're now just about a half hour away from a news conference with Chris Christie, New Jersey's governor and possible presidential contender. Chris Christie is now facing a blossoming scandal, one that could cast a long shadow on that 2016 race.

Let's turn to CNN's chief Washington correspondent Jake Tapper.

Jake, take it away.

JAKE TAPPER, CNN CHIEF WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Thanks, Carol.

Well, as everyone knows Governor Christie is a rising star in the Republican Party. Today, of course, he faces calls for an investigation -- pardon me -- into possible abuse of power. This traffic jam is at the core.

Lane closures near the George Washington Bridge connecting New Jersey to Manhattan, it snarled traffic for days last September, frustrating thousands of motorists, delaying school buses and emergency vehicles.

New e-mails and text messages suggest that top Christie aide, Bridget Anne Kelly, his deputy chief of staff, arranged for the closures to punish a political rival.

Mark Sokolich is mayor of Fort Lee, the Jersey town at the foot of the bride, and it deeply impacted Fort Lee, the traffic jam. Sokolich, a Democrat, had refused to endorse the Republican Christie. It was a time when Christie was trying to build up a bunch of Democratic endorsements as a way of talking about his bipartisan bona fides in the re-election.

Pushing through the closures, David Wildstein, another Christie aide, he -- Christie had appointed him to the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. Wildstein and Christie actually are old high school pals. Now Wildstein resigned in December.

We don't know if Wildstein with testify today before the state legislature at noon. They are subpoenaing him when they hold a hearing on who was behind this traffic mess.

Let's continue drilling down on this.

CNN's Joe Johns is piecing together what happened and the fallout. Joe, Christie is due to speak at the top of the hour. What do you expect him to say?

JOE JOHNS, CNN CRIME AND JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Jake, the trouble for the Christie administration starts with calls for some type of state or federal investigation. So there should be a question or two about that. Then there are the hearings. Plus questions are already being asked about the scandal on Capitol Hill.

On top of all of that, the -- the governor is going to have to answer questions about abuse of power and political retribution.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOHNS (voice-over): This morning, the pressure is mounting.

JOHN WISHIEWSKI (D), DEPUTY SPEAKER OF NEW JERSEY ASSEMBLY: That's not the kind of leadership that New Jersey needs and it's certainly not the kind of leadership the nation needs.

JOHNS: The New Jersey bridge e-mails igniting a full blown scandal with increasing calls for a federal investigation.

BARBARA BUONO (D), FORMER NEW JERSEY GUBERNATORIAL CANDIDATE: There's more than enough evidence to warrant an investigation to determine what -- you know, what -- we need to know what this governor knew and when he knew it.

JOHNS: And now this, new revelations that the actions of the Christie aides may have put lives in danger with EMS crews unable to reach people in need of emergency care.

Wednesday afternoon, Christie released a written statement. He did not apologize, but blamed the problems on his staff.

"I am outraged and deeply saddened to learn that not only was I misled by a member of my staff, but this completely inappropriate and unsanctioned conduct was made without my knowledge."

His administration is accused of shutting down several lanes of the George Washington Bridge for four days in September, causing major traffic problems in the town of Fort Lee. The mayor of that town had refused to endorse Christie. At the time, Christie's office denied any political revenge and blamed the bridge snarl on a traffic study.

GOV. CHRIS CHRISTIE (R), NEW JERSEY: I actually was the guy working the cones out there -- you really are not serious with that question.

JOHNS: But CNN obtained texts and e-mails that many say proved otherwise.

"Time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee." That e-mail was sent August 13th from the account of Bridget Anne Kelly, the governor's deputy chief of staff, to David Wildstein, one of the governor's top appointees at the agency that controls the bridge. "Got it," he replied. When the mayor of Fort Lee called about the gridlock, Kelly then e- mailed Wildstein to find out if anyone had called him back. Radio silence was the response.

Christie's critics are questioning whether he was truly ignorant of the communications of his staff. They want an investigation.

REP. DEBBIE WASSERMAN-SCHULTZ, DNC CHAIRWOMAN: His statements and actions thus far have proven that he's not the straight shooter that he has claimed to be. And the questions require answers, and he needs to step up and face the music and answer those questions.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

JOHNS: The other headache for Governor Christie is that he says he did not know what was going on in his own office and while he says he was misled by a member of his staff, the e-mails seem to suggest that others, including some at the Port Authority, may have had knowledge of what was going on so a lot for the governor to answer to -- Jake.

TAPPER: All right, Joe Johns.

Let's bring in Wolf Blitzer and CNN chief political analyst Gloria Borger.

Good morning to you both.

Wolf, let's begin with you. Christie set to speak in about a half an hour. One person, the mayor of Fort Lee, New Jersey, directly affected by this and his constituents even more so, says he has yet to hear from the governor.

You talked to the mayor. What did he have to say?

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR, THE SITUATION ROOM Yes, he said the governor -- don't bother calling me, he said. Call the people in Fort Lee and the areas, who were immediately affected. Start apologizing to them. Start explaining what was going on.

Let me play a little clip of what the mayor of Fort Lee, Mark Sokolich, said yesterday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAYOR MARK SOKOLICH, FT. LEE, NEW JERSEY: Don't call me but call the families who were waiting three, four times longer for emergency service agencies, when their loved ones were having heart palpitations or when their loved ones had extreme chest pains and were waiting for ambulance court to arrive.

Do me a favor, call and apologize to thousands of families whose kids were late for the first day of school and the three or four days that ensued thereafter. Call our police department and call our administrators in the school system that had to deal with this. Call the folks that had to deal with traffic Armageddon here that week.

Don't call me.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: I'm going to be interested to see if he takes the advice that he himself gave -- we're talking about Chris Christie. That he gave President Barack Obama in that interview with you on Election Day. You make a mistake, you acknowledge it, you come out, you apologize, and you say let's move on and fix whatever -- let's see if he says that at the of the hour.

TAPPER: He was very direct when I asked him about that. This was last November when President Barack Obama was being attacked for not being honest with the American people about if you like your health plan, you can keep your health plan. He said don't be so cute. Be a leader. Not a lawyer.

BLITZER: Don't lawyer up.

TAPPER: Yes.

BLITZER: Nobody likes lawyers.

TAPPER: Nobody likes lawyers.

GLORIA BORGER, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: So far he's been kind of cute in his responses --

TAPPER: Well, you saw the --

BORGER: To questions about this.

TAPPER: Yes, the thing in Joe Johns' piece --

BORGER: Exactly.

TAPPER: When Matt Katz, the reporter, the local reporter, he's now with WNYC, asked him about the traffic incident. He said yes, that was me putting out the cones.

BORGER: Out the cones. Right.

TAPPER: Yes.

BORGER: That -- he cannot do that today.

TAPPER: Well, this is supposed to be an era of Christie solidifying everything and getting ready for a presidential run.

In fact, Gloria, as you know, he was appointed head of the Republican Governors Association. He'll be out there fundraising, trying to elect Republican governors, earning a lot of chips that he can cash in 2015, 2016 if he runs for president.

BORGER: Right.

TAPPER: Any indication that people maybe aren't going to want him to come into their states?

BORGER: You know, look, I think this is early to say that.

TAPPER: Yes.

BORGER: I think a lot depends on how he handles today. I mean, he's got to fire a bunch of people which so far we haven't -- you know, we haven't seen. He's got to, you know, answer the question, really, about how they thought they could do this and did they do this to please him because that's the culture in Chris Christie's office?

I mean, why did they think that something like this would make the boss happy?

TAPPER: Would be acceptable.

BORGER: Not just acceptable.

TAPPER: Exactly.

BLITZER: Well, I'm curious to see --

BORGER: But to please him.

BLITZER: What would he explain -- will he explain what happened, all of a sudden for three days they had these cones that were put out there. They closed three lanes of the George Washington Bridge.

BORGER: Right.

BLITZER: The busiest bridge in the world, between New Jersey and New York. There are a lot of people involved in making that kind of a closure physically happen. Did they ask, why are we doing this? What's going on? Was somebody -- did somebody say, well, we're trying some new traffic patterns so we're going to close these lanes, these toll booths for three days?

People are going to want to know explanations because clearly if these e-mails are to be believed and they're pretty damning obviously, it was done for political vengeance, if you will.

TAPPER: All right. Wolf Blitzer, Gloria Borger, we have to take a quick break.

Still to come, what are the legal implications of the Chris Christie bridge scandal?

CNN's Ashleigh Banfield, she's looking into that.

ASHLEIGH BANFIELD, HOST, CNN'S LEGAL VIEW: You know what, Jake, it's not just political. It is legal. And there is a litany that not only the governor, if he can be tied to this, could face but also those staffers, and I haven't even begun to talk about the civil liabilities here.

The exposure, we're going to lay it all out coming up after the break. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

TAPPER: Welcome back. We're continuing our coverage of the George Washington bridge scandal swirling around possible presidential hopeful and New Jersey governor, Chris Christie.

The governor is expected to speak at the top of the hour. We'll have that live.

Right now I want to bring in CNN's Ashleigh Banfield, host of the CNN's "LEGAL VIEW."

So, Ashley, we've been talking a lot about the political fallout. What are potential legal implications here?

BANFIELD: Well, there are some serious ones actually, Jake. And we're talking about not only on the civil end of the spectrum but also potentially the criminal end of the spectrum. And let's be really clear. There's a lot of unknowns right now but from the e-mails it does indicate that it is possible, and I'm just saying possible, that there could be at the very least some kind of a -- an official misconduct that's being looked into.

At the very least being looked into. New Jersey has a long and storied history of some of their leaders involved in official misconduct. And that can also lead to conspiracy. Those are two different charges involving the same kind of activity. Because if a whole bunch of people were in on it, as those e-mails -- just at first blush -- seem to indicate is a possibility, well, clearly officials will want to look at that.

So on the criminal end, those are sort of the -- I hate to say the lighter end of it but the lighter end, because let's not forget a 91- year-old woman died because of a medical emergency. It's not tied, it's not tied at this point to that but if it can be, there could be a lot more coming.

TAPPER: That's right. We got hold of a letter here from September 10th, 2013 from the EMS coordinator in Fort Lee to the mayor. This is September 10th right after these closures happened which happened actually right in the middle of the closures. And it mentions a number of holdups of EMS.

None of the political implications of this were -- discussed. And it talks about a woman, it took seven minutes to get to her and she later was pronounced dead at Englewood Hospital. Now obviously she was unconscious at the time, but could that actually be tied to her death?

BANFIELD: Sure. Look, this is where the intersection of politics and law comes because this is a politicized event no matter how you look at it. And jurisprudence is often spearheaded by those who are elected. So there may be untold numbers of people who want to get in on this, and get headlines on this at the very least.

And then there can also be the very serious possibility that a death resulted from the actions of someone. Right? So if that's the case, an extraordinarily serious end of this could be felony murder because it is a felony to do this kind of thing if -- if it can be proven to shut down those lanes for no good reason, and then if a death result, that's a murder.

Now that's really far reaching, however, Jake, and this is where it's critical. Those are very strong words that you can dangle in front of someone who could be very scared and ultimately be persuaded to give up testimony to a higher level.

These are only suggestions, there is no tie to the governor at this point. But if for instance an investigator at the federal or state level wants to squeeze information out to try get to a higher level like a governor, that's a really strong incentive for a low-level aide to say, do not hang any kind of murder or manslaughter on me, I've got information.

TAPPER: Well, just to be precise about this letter, it says that the paramedics were able -- the response time was shortened because they were heading to the accident scene to assist. But it also says the paramedics were delayed due to heavy traffic on Fort Lee Road and had to meet the ambulance en route to the hospital, instead of the scene. Very, very serious issue.

BANFIELD: And by the way --

TAPPER: Let's bring in -- yes, Ashleigh.

BANFIELD: Before we go, I just want to be really clear because when you bring up those words, felony murder or negligent homicide or manslaughter, they're terrifying and they do scare people. And investigators can lie when they're investigating as well. It's legal to lie to someone you're interrogating to scare them into giving you information. So it's not out of the realm that investigators are looking at this and considering these kinds of questions.

TAPPER: I see. So you're talking more of the felony murder in terms of an investigation, not in terms of a charge.

Let's bring in Chris Cuomo right now. He's anchor of CNN's "NEW DAY."

Chris, obviously, you're aware of what happens in politics and state houses as well as anyone. How does this scandal strike you?

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR, NEW DAY: Well, I think, Jake, you know, obviously, not to teach anything to you, you know politics as well as anybody, but I think for our viewers this is a really interesting look into things that happen in politics all the time.

I think we're getting insight, windows into two different dynamics. One is how it works in politics. It is a blood sport. Very often there is revenge taken, there is a lot of power brokering done. It is entirely plausible that Governor Chris Christie was not aware of the machinations that led to this political payback that we see in this string of e-mails. It's very possible.

Could he have had his head in the sand? Could he have said, don't tell me? Was he given plausible deniability? That's also possible.

But I'm slow on that, Jake, because in our understanding of how we've seen this game played for so long and, you know, full disclosure, I've grown up in the offices of the governor -- two different governors now, so I understand how difficult the game it can be.

But this is such small ball going after the Fort Lee mayor. It pays so little dividend to Chris Christie's cause that it doesn't smack of the intelligence that I would then pin on somebody like the governor. To me it's suspicious. It sounds like a smaller time type of feud, somebody who would motivate this.

Now we'll have to see what comes. Certainly if you show that the governor is involved, you have a problem. If you show that he created a culture that this is what he's about, that this is what he encouraged, he has a problem. It's not a lethal problem. It will shade his perception. But I don't think this is a kill shot for him in this situation unless he's led to it.

And just one quick thing, Jake, the idea of criminal charges arising from this is -- is more than remote. To make a link between the potential death of this older woman because of slow response time and an individual's actions is really remote. I just think it adds to the gravity of the political wrongdoing here.

TAPPER: All right, Chris Cuomo, thank you so much.

In a matter of minutes, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie is expected to address the brewing scandal in his administration. One issue that's enraging a lot of people, officials at the time of the bridge traffic scandal noted unnecessary delays for emergency vehicles, as we've discussed. In one case a 91-year-old woman who had been unconscious. Later was pronounced dead at the scene -- I'm sorry, later was pronounced dead at a hospital, after paramedics were delayed in traffic.

So it's not clear if the delay in treatment contributed to her death in any way. This is something that is being discussed quite a bit in terms of the gravity of the situation.

CNN's Alexandra Field is live in Fort Lee with more on the troubles the traffic caused -- Alexandra.

ALEXANDRA FIELD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Jake, it was September 9th, and the access lanes to the George Washington Bridge were shut down. And by September 10th, just one day later, the EMS coordinator here in Fort Lee, New Jersey, Paul Favia, who's already waving the red flag and alerting the mayor that the traffic being called by those closures was putting people in potentially life-threatening situations.

He wrote a letter to the mayor on September 10th and we'll read part of it for you. He writes, quote, "This new traffic pattern is causing unnecessary delays for emergency services to arrive on scene for medical emergencies." That letter goes on to say, "Perhaps some type of modification or change can be made to this traffic pattern." Favia says that he was driving around, he noticed the heavy traffic, he asked a police officer what was going on. And that police officer told him there had been a change in the traffic pattern of the toll booth. Favia, in his letter, goes on to document four different medical cases in which he says that emergency responders were delayed because of the traffic. He says that calls that should have taken just a few minutes took as much as three times that long.

In one case, four people who had been injured in a car accident had to wait for help. In another case, a 91-year-old woman has a heart attack and emergency responders aren't able to get to her, they have to meet her en route before she's taken to the hospital.

People here in Fort Lee say they remember this traffic jam, they are trying now to understand how this happened. And most importantly they want to know who knew what when.

Here's what they're saying.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It would be good to find out who was responsible for it. I don't -- frankly I don't think we ever will really know whether the -- whether Governor Christie was really -- knew about it. He probably didn't. But I don't think we'll ever know for sure. And somebody is going to -- somebody is going to get fired.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I feel bad for Governor Christie. I think he was betrayed by the people that he really trusted in his -- in his office. And I think hopefully when he makes his announcement he'll clean house and just settle it. You know, enough is enough.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FIELD: A lot of questions here in Fort Lee, New Jersey. And people are hoping that they will hear some answers when Governor Chris Christie speaks in just a little bit -- Jake.

TAPPER: All right. CNN's Alexandra Field, thank you so much.

Still to come, Chris Christie meets the press as the scandal involving alleged political revenge swirls around his administration. A political panel weighs in on what Christie needs to say now.

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

TAPPER: Minutes from now, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie will step before the cameras. This is a live photo from -- live picture of where the press conference will take place in Trenton, New Jersey.

Let's bring in Alec MacGillis, a senior editor at the "New Republic" and Anna Palmer, our reporter for Politico.

Good morning, guys. Alec, what is Christie need to say this morning? If you were his top adviser, what would you tell him to say?

ALEC MACGILLIS, SENIOR EDITOR, THE NEW REPUBLIC: I think he's got to come really clean. I think it's not just a matter of talking about holding people accountable which he already did in that statement that he made yesterday. I think he's got to come really clean about his own role in this.

There were a lot of names and numbers redacted in those e-mails that came out yesterday. There's more that's going to be coming out. And while it's not clear yet that he knew about this, the people that were involved in this were really, really close to him. And if he was involved or had some awareness of it, that's going to come out. And to protect his reputation as a straight shooter, he's going to have to tell -- if that was the case, he's got to tell us today.

TAPPER: Anna, Governor Christie is known to run a tight ship. If he says or continues to say as he said yesterday that this happened without his knowledge, does that undermine a different part of the Christie reputation, that of the uber confident leader, governor?

ANNA PALMER, SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT, POLITICO: Absolutely. I think for Chris Christie the biggest concern is that his whole reputation and bravado and -- you know, the reason why he's the national figure for Republicans that he is, is that he has made the case that he isn't, you know, partisan in the Republican-Democrat traditional ways that it cuts for politicians in Washington. He's that straight shooter.

And if this continues to dredge out, which I imagine it's going to be days and weeks, that he's going to have to continually deal with this issue as the investigation goes on, it definitely is worrisome, I would imagine, not only for his second term as governor, but also for his 2016 ambitions.

TAPPER: Alec, do you think this is going to be necessarily a part of the 2016 campaign for presidency assuming he launches one? Do you think that this is something we're going to hear about after this year?

MACGILLIS: Definitely. I don't think this necessarily precludes his running. I wouldn't go that far. But I do think it's going to be a part of his campaign. This really goes to the heart of who Chris Christie is, both his strengths and his weaknesses.

I mean, we've heard a lot about his reputation as a bully. This plays into that. But, you know, it also plays into his -- the kind of transactional way that he does politics. We've heard so much about how bipartisan he is and how he had always Democrats in New Jersey supporting him. We're now being reminded of one reason why he had so many Democrats supporting him which is that a lot of Democrats were worried about what would happen if they did not support him.

Fifty Democratic local officials endorsed him. And we're going to start hearing a lot more now about why they endorsed him, why they made a decision different than that Fort Lee mayor did.

TAPPER: Anna Palmer from Politico, I don't think I need to tell you this is not exactly an era where people in politics or Wall Street for that matter are held accountable. We haven't seen much accountability when it comes to what happened at Benghazi, we haven't seen much accountability when -- comes to the IRS scandal.

Obviously what happened on Wall Street leading up to the financial crisis, a lot of multimillionaires and billionaires who got rich causing the problems that undermine the economy are still living in those luxury estates haven't seen a day of jail time or paid a dollar in fines.

Is there an opportunity for Christie here to buck that trend and be the super accountable individual here?

PALMER: I think if you're looking at how this plays out politically for him, that's what he's going to hope. That would be the best scenario in a bad situation. But certainly, if you're Chris Christie, the bigger worry is, a lot of Republicans are already concerned that you're a northeastern, you don't really represent their values.

And if you're looking at your political future at laying the ground work in New Hampshire or Iowa, this is the exact worst type of story because it bleeds into everybody's concerns and fears that he -- you know, he's not going to be the kind of candidate that can actually get it done and get all the way to the White House.

TAPPER: All right. Alec MacGillis with the "New Republic" and Anna Palmer with Politico, thank you so much for your thoughts and views and talking to us this morning.

Our coverage continues right now.

Good morning, everyone. I'm Jake Tapper. It's the top of the hour and this is LEGAL VIEW.

Any second now, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie will step into this room you're about to see for what may be the most important news conference of his career.

Since this time yesterday, a squabble over traffic in New Jersey has blown up into a national spectacle that could conceivably kick this governor's presidential ambitions to the curb or possibly the scandal will fade away with the snow by springtime.

It may all depend on what Governor Christie says or does not say about those newly public e-mails and text messages that tied his office, top officials, top aides of his, to lane closures that caused monumental traffic jams on the George Washington Bridge last September, and revealing them to be not born from a traffic study but out of a vendetta against the mayor of Fort Lee.

The jams caused monumental headaches for the New Jersey city, Fort Lee, right across the bridge from -- from New York. The Democratic mayor had declined to endorse Christie's re-election bid. And this is conceivably vengeance, this traffic jam was conceivably vengeance for that refusal to endorse.

And while we wait for the governor's news conference, I want to bring in my CNN colleague John King who's on the phone from Trenton, and of course here with me in Washington, our Wolf Blitzer and chief political analyst Gloria Borger.

John, let's start with you. What's the atmosphere there on the -- I'm sorry, John King is not available. Let's go to Wolf Blitzer.

What do you -- if you were a political adviser to Governor Christie, what would you tell him to say today?

BLITZER: I would say get all the bad news that you know out there and say it yourself.