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Christie Scandal; Dying Teacher's Road Trip

Aired January 10, 2014 - 15:00   ET

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

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: CNN now has the documents we have been waiting for all day, 907 pages just released by New Jersey lawmakers, revealing exactly what went on behind closed doors in Chris Christie's office. This is all over the so-called bridge scandal. Two of Christie's top staffers fired in the wake of this, after they conspired to shut down the country's busiest bridge, a bridge that connects Fort Lee, New Jersey to Manhattan. Why did they do it? Apparent political payback. The mayor of Fort Lee refusing to endorse Christie. Joining me now, Peter Hamby, CNN political reporter and Paul Mulshine, opinion columnist for the New Jersey Star-Ledger. So gentlemen, welcome to both of you.

Peter Hamby, quickly to you, as you know, we have a team in Washington going through this document dump, the 907 plus pages. Can you just quickly tell me, what are we expecting to learn, specifically?

PETER HAMBY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We don't know. I mean--

BALDWIN: We have no clue.

HAMBY: No clue here. I mean, the New Jersey legislature, you know, ruining the nights of political reporters up and down the Eastern Seaboard tonight because we have to actually download these documents and go through all of them.

You know, early on, we're not sure there's going to be much in here beyond what was leaked already. It seems, you know, you would think that the most damaging stuff would have been leaked out of the gate. But we're still going to go through here and see.

Look, Brooke, I think if you look at the Christie story in isolation as a political issue, you can make an argument that he did what he had to do yesterday and he might survive politically.

The problem for Christie is things like this, the civil suit, if it ever gets to discovery, a potential investigation by the U.S. attorney's office, those are the things that are -- have the potential to really damage Christie, ensuring that there's sort of a drip, drip, drip surrounding the story that could drag him down over the next couple of years.

Remember, he's got to travel around the country in 2014 campaigning for Republican candidates. If he's surrounded by the whiff of scandal, are Republican candidates going to hold him at arm's length and say, hey, don't come here for a fund-raiser, I don't want to have the local media talking about your story, I want to talk about my own campaign?

Look at what the U.S. attorney investigation into Governor Bob McDonnell in Virginia did to his political career. It killed it. I'm not saying that's going to happen here, but these are things that we're looking at.

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: We don't know yet. There's the, of course, national perspective.

But, Paul Mulshine, you are on the ground, you are in the weeds on this story with "The New Jersey Star-Ledger."

Let's just -- I have so many questions specifically for you. We know that the deputy chief of staff, as he mentioned yesterday, out. And if this inner circle of Chris Christie's, as he continually referred to them as his family, then let's say Christie wasn't asking questions for the last four months over this whole thing.

His chief of staff, who has barely by name been mentioned, wouldn't he have been asking questions? Where is he in this whole thing?

PAUL MULSHINE, "THE NEW JERSEY STAR-LEDGER": Well, nothing Christie says has much credibility here, because his communications director, Mike Drewniak, a former "Star-Ledger" reporter, was called -- according to the e-mails, was called by David Wildstein, the crazy guy at the center of this, back in September, September 17, when "The Wall Street Journal" got on to it.

Now, at that point, they began crafting cover for this thing. I mean, you know, Drewniak is a smart guy. I would expect he tried to figure out what was going on there. And the explanation that there was a traffic survey just didn't pass the laugh test.

So it looks like -- and then, you know, in early December, when they -- they waited until the election. Then they threw Wildstein to the wolves. Drewniak crafted the press release, according to the e-mails. The press release was approved by Christie. Now, is Christie is supposed to -- are we supposed to believe Christie had no inkling of all this?

And Thursday, the most incredible thing he said was that until the e- mails came out, he still believed there was a traffic survey, when it's been obvious for months there was no traffic survey.

BALDWIN: That's my next question for you, because how is it -- we're talking about the busiest bridge in America, one of the busiest in the world, traffic mess for days. How could the governor of the state, especially when these Port -- these officials with the Port Authority, one of whom, you know, was a dear friend of his from childhood, up and resigned, how is it he was not asking a single question for four months?

MULSHINE: Well, it just doesn't -- you know, it doesn't pass the smell test. He's a former prosecutor. He should have been working on all these things.

But I have a theory here. The word around -- interestingly enough, Thursday, when he gave his press conference, was also the last meeting of the Transportation Committee that's been breaking all of this news, right?

Now, that Transportation Committee, the legislative session ends Tuesday. They lose their subpoena power Tuesday. I strongly suspect that the Christie crowd was sort of hoping to limp over the deadline, have the assembly lose its subpoena power, and the scandal goes away.

Now, unfortunately, when the e-mails leaked, you know, there was no reason to hold a press conference after the e-mails leaked, except the embarrassment. If he wanted to apologize for the bridge closure, he could have done that on September 14, you know?

So the timing, I think they were trying to get past that deadline and hope the whole thing would go away with the loss of two officials. Now there's two more and I think you're just going to see more and more and more come out.

BALDWIN: Here is the next layer of myriad layers in this story.

Peter Hamby, let me throw this to you, because there is also now a class action lawsuit, New Jersey folks suing over lost wages. You have the FBI now assisting the feds in this investigation. This is -- this is -- for lack of a better word, this is snowballing pretty quickly. What are the long-term effects on Chris Christie's political career?

HAMBY: Well, again, I think it depends on what has turned up in e- mails like this. Again, if that class action lawsuit...

BALDWIN: Let's say he's telling the truth. Let's say he's telling the truth yesterday, that he was blindsided.

HAMBY: Right.

If he is telling the truth, I mean, I think the perceived wisdom in Washington at the moment is that he did well yesterday. He fired people. He gave on a sort of bravura performance. He was humble, but also pugnacious at certain times, vintage Christie.

The problem is, I think it's hard to separate the politics from, as you mentioned, the sort of snowballing effect of the U.S. attorney's investigation, of these e-mails today, of a class action lawsuit again, if that goes to discovery and documents are requested. You know, that can drag on and on and on.

If this was purely a political scandal, I think he might be OK. He gave a press conference yesterday. The attention span of the news media is notoriously short. And we move on and, you know, the presidential -- the first contest of the presidential race is two years from now. But, again, I just think it's hard to separate those two things, Brooke. BALDWIN: Paul, what about his constituents? You're there in New Jersey. I don't know if you have grabbed coffee and bent the ears of people in line, but were there a lot of eye rolls after the news conference, no love lost? What's the sense where you are?

MULSHINE: Well, I think his problem with his constituents is, you know, this is a story you can grab. Everybody hates being stuck in traffic. Remember of the Whitewater scandal, where you couldn't even explain it in 200 words, you know?

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: This, we can understand.

MULSHINE: A 91-year-old lady dies in an ambulance, you know, it's something everybody in America can relate to very easily.

It's funny. You know, it's a humorous scandal, really, the idea of sticking people in traffic as revenge for some political stunt. So it's, you know -- now, here, he's just -- he still hasn't begun his next term. So, you know, he won that big landslide. And the other thing he said that was very odd on Thursday, he talked about -- I think he said, like, he got 60 Democratic mayors to endorse him, right?

Now, in the midst of all this, you sort of say, if this is one Democratic mayor's way of getting -- you know, getting the endorsement of one Democratic mayor, what about the other 60? Like, were they threatened with anything? Were they -- you know, was that just good politics? So that was kind of funny.

BALDWIN: Paul Mulshine, you may be laughing. I know one person who is not. But I appreciate you. We will be looking for your column this weekend in "New Jersey Star-Ledger."

Peter Hamby, my thanks to you.

Once again, a reminder to all of you. We have a team of CNN producers and reporters. They are combing through these 900-plus pages, these documents. We will have an update later just as soon as we get more information and we can read through all this stuff for you.

And 300,000-plus people banned from drinking, from cooking, from bathing in their tap water right now, all because of this massive water contamination leak in West Virginia. This spill happened yesterday at a chemical storage facility in Charleston, that's the capital, at this place called Freedom Industries.

The water then traveled downstream into this local water treatment plant. And now you have the Army Corps of Engineers on site conducting all these different tests just to see how bad this is, how pervasive this contamination is. Nine counties have been affected. And the U.S. attorney's office is also investigating.

We just heard from West Virginia's governor, Earl Ray Tomblin, moments ago. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. EARL RAY TOMBLIN (D), WEST VIRGINIA: Until we receive an all- clear, we are focusing efforts on helping the most vulnerable, those in the hospitals and in our nursing homes.

We have asked the Department of Health and Human Resources, Bureau of Public Health, Senior Services, and the West Virginia National Guard to develop a long-term plan to help ensure that adequate supplies of water and food is available. If you are low on bottled water, don't panic, because help is on the way.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: The ban has forced people to rush to grocery stores. They're trying to grab bottled water, even ice to melt into water, because you see the shelves, they're empty, just trying to get something to use in place of tap water.

FEMA has sent in 75 truck loads of bottled water to these areas affected. CNN went inside the water treatment plant in Charleston just to see what it was like and we're told there was an odor similar to black licorice.

Senior medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen is there in Charleston at this facility.

Elizabeth, when we talk about this water, you have seen this for yourself, tell me exactly what it does smell like, and what is this chemical?

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: It smells black licorice mixed with something really kind of putrid.

It doesn't smell good. It's when you get near the plant, it smells really overwhelming. I actually felt a little bit nauseous when I was standing there. What we know about this chemical, Brooke, is that it's used to clean coal, and needless to say, it does not belong in the water system.

And so I have here with me Jeff McIntyre, who is the president of the water system.

Thank you for being with us. And this chemical on its label it says that it's an irritant if you're exposed to it at full force. When this chemical is diluted in the water, as it has been in this case, what do we know about what it can do to people?

JEFF MCINTYRE, PRESIDENT, WEST VIRGINIA AMERICAN WATER COMPANY: I don't know all of the different health effects that it could have. It depends on the concentration.

But I have been given information that because we have to protect the health and safety of our workers who contact this water fixing leaks, we talked to a toxicologist. He indicated we should have no concern with contact in the dilutions in the drinking water. COHEN: But still, how about concerns with drinking it? What are the health concerns about drinking it?

MCINTYRE: We're still working on what are the health concerns.

This product, as you said, is not supposed to be in drinking water. It's new to us. We have a lot of people working on trying to help us assess what level of this contaminant can be in water and be safe and maybe still have an aesthetic issue, but how much could be there and still be safe.

COHEN: Right. You're faced with really an unprecedented situation here, having this chemical in drinking water. I mean, other people haven't faced this situation before.

MCINTYRE: I can't say no one and I can't say never, but in my 30 years, I have never come across it, I have never heard of it.

COHEN: And so I know you don't have a crystal ball, but about how long will it take do you think to get this out of the system so people can start drinking their water again?

MCINTYRE: That's a good question. The key piece for us is to understand how much of it our treatment plant is effectively removing, so how much is actually in the system being delivered to the customers?

It could be days. We're working to keep it very short. I don't think we're talking weeks at all. But the company is committed to working with the state and the agencies to make this a short-lived, you know, issue as possible.

COHEN: OK, so days, but you're thinking not weeks?

MCINTYRE: I'm definitely thinking not weeks. But I don't want to overpromise because we haven't gotten to the point where we know what quantity is in the water.

COHEN: OK. So, speaking of quantities in the water, is it possible when you tell people hopefully in the near future, OK, it's OK to drink this again, is it possible there will still be small amounts of this chemical in the water?

MCINTYRE: We're going to have to work with our partner agencies and come up with a consensus. There could be an aesthetic issue, a smell, a small slight smell issue that remains, but doesn't pose a health hazard.

We have to look at our customers and say, do they need that water to wash their hands, wash their clothes, shower? If they decide if it's safe, then they can possibly drink it. We haven't made those determination, but it's entirely possible.

COHEN: It's possible there might still be a little bit of this left in the water?

MCINTYRE: That could be determined to be the proper course of action.

COHEN: The first time you smelled it, what did you think?

MCINTYRE: I smelled it on my way into the office. And I thought someone -- it smelled like Anisette or black licorice, as you indicated. I just thought it was an air release of some kind. Wouldn't have considered that it had anything to do with a discharge to the Elk River.

COHEN: Right. And of course then later you found out it was actually in the water.

But Jeff, thank you so much, thanks for joining us, really appreciate it -- Brooke, back to you.

BALDWIN: OK. It sounds like he's saying maybe days, but it could be just days until you can wash your hands and then who knows how much longer until you can finally ingest this stuff. What a mess in West Virginia. Elizabeth Cohen, thank you. And thanks to Jeff McIntyre for joining you.

I do want to include this. We did finally hear from the chemical storage facility Freedom Industries. This is their statement to us. "Since the discovery of the leak, safety for residents in Kanawha and surrounding counties has been Freedom Industries' first priority. We have been working with local and federal regulatory, safety and environmental entities to fix the issue. Our team has been working around the clock since the discovery to contain the leak to prevent further information (sic)."

Stay with us, because obviously we will be staying on that story for you.

Coming up here, you have seen the shocking video. It's gone viral, a toddler in diapers swearing, making obscene gestures. Adults in the video cursing at him. Now the mother of this little boy is responding to the criticism.

Plus, we all have those teachers who we remember who had just profound impacts, of course, on our lives. And this one teacher you have to stick around to watch this, making sure his former students know he remembers them. He is driving across the country to visit them before it is too late. That is because this teacher is terminally ill. This is a remarkable story. We get to talk to him live.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: The mother of a Nebraska toddler taken into protective -- protective custody -- easy for me to this -- this week is defending her son after this video went viral.

It shows several adults cursing at her son, saying racial slurs. They even manipulate this little boy to say explicit words right back to them. The Omaha Police Officers Association, this union here posted this on the Web site, saying this video is an example of, I'm quoting them, cycle of violence and thuggery. We will play here just a piece of this video. Please be warned the language is very crass, it may be difficult for you to watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You a bitch (EXPLETIVE DELETED).

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You a bitch (EXPLETIVE DELETED).

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You throwing a fit right now (EXPLETIVE DELETED)?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Pick that chair up, you (EXPLETIVE DELETED).

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (EXPLETIVE DELETED). You ain't talking that (EXPLETIVE DELETED) now (EXPLETIVE DELETED) (EXPLETIVE DELETED) you too.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Say bitch. Say (EXPLETIVE DELETED).

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's why you can't fight. (EXPLETIVE DELETED).

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You a bitch.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You a (EXPLETIVE DELETED).

UNIDENTIFIED KID: You a ho, bitch.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Say I need some (EXPLETIVE DELETED). I'm throwing a fit right now.

(LAUGHTER)

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BALDWIN: The boy's mom is 16. She talked to affiliate KETV. She says she does not condone what happened, but also says all kids curse. Watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They weren't worried about the video because he had a clean diaper, the house was clean, and like I said, kids cuss. Every kid does it. He's a smart little boy. And all the cussing he did, he doesn't do that unless somebody -- the person that told him to do that. My son doesn't cuss like that. I don't allow it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Her son is now in child protective custody along with two other children for safety reasons.

Kelly Wallace, our CNN digital correspondent, editor at large for CNN Digital, mom, every kid curses? Really?

KELLY WALLACE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: No, no.

BALDWIN: Really?

WALLACE: No, no, no. Right. Right. No, we know that. We know.

A 2-year-old child in diapers? I mean, the mom, as you heard in that clip there, Brooke, she did go on to say, you know, he doesn't do that, they were telling him what to say and he was just in essence repeating them.

And that's kind of -- there's so many troubling aspects to this. But kids model what grownups do. And so if you're cursing and swearing and laughing about it and saying sexually explicit things, a 2-year- old doesn't know what you're talking about, but might repeat it because he hears it from the grownups around him.

BALDWIN: It's two issues. It's what we're seeing in this video and the fact that people are clicking on and clicking on and clicking on it and laughing at it when there's such a bigger story and bigger picture with this family.

But then you also have this police union, they're the ones who choose to post this online for everybody to see. And you say, no, they should have gone to child protective services first.

WALLACE: Yes, I really disagree with their move here. I understand they say they want to bring attention to obviously troubling issues in our society, but going to child protective is really the way to make sure that this child in question is being taken care of.

You know what, Brooke, you know, we're not in the minds of the police officers union, so obviously we don't know sort of their motivations, but what happens here, it leads to some really racially charged conversations and people saying, well, would you have posted this video if it were a white child? We all know this kind of thing happens in all cultures. There's lots of issue here.

We're talking teens having kids. We're talking poverty. We're talking class. We're talking lots different cultures. It just led to a very racially charged kind of reaction. It seems like the best way to protect this child would be to go to child protective services, not post it for all the world to see.

BALDWIN: That is precisely where he and these other children are. It just sparks such a conversation, a debate here at CNN. Kelly Wallace, thank you so much.

Coming up next, it is a remarkable story of a teacher reaching out to his former students. This teacher is terminally ill. But, before he dies, he wanted to see exactly what impact he had and all his students. And what he found surprised him and his students. He's writing this book. We get to talk to him live next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Now to a story about life triggered by a prognosis of death. It centers on a man who taught 11th grade in Miami schools for 16 years earning him a teacher the year award along the way. In 2006, David Menasche found out he had terminal brain cancer with less than a year to live. A seizure later forced him out of the classroom. No longer able to teach, dying, Menasche could have been overwhelmed by the sadness, but instead he chose a path that has led to this book.

He's calling it "The Priority List: A Teacher's Final Quest to Discover Life's Greatest Lessons." It chronicles his visits to some of the 3,000 students he taught.

And David Menasche joins me now live from New Orleans.

David, it's truly a pleasure. I tip my hat to you as the daughter of a former teacher myself. Welcome.

DAVID MENASCHE, AUTHOR, "THE PRIORITY LIST": Thank you, Brooke.

BALDWIN: Let's begin with a point in time you could not physically be in a classroom. Instead, you choose to bring the classroom to you. Describe the process of when you picked up the phone and called all these former students.

MENASCHE: Well, actually, I didn't initially use my phone. I used social media. I had posted on Facebook that I would like to do some traveling and asked who had a couch for me.

And I was shocked that within 48 hours I had offers from over 50 cities around the country.

BALDWIN: Wow.

MENASCHE: So from the Facebook step, I then began contacting all my students and asking them when it was good for them to have me.

And it was just overwhelming, the generosity and love that I got back in return from my kids. And they made this entire trip possible. Not only did they give my life meaning while I was a teacher, but even after I left the classroom, they continued to give me a sense of purpose fulfillment.

BALDWIN: David, reading your column at CNN.com, I didn't have dry eyes. And, normally, I quote people who come on my show. But, if I may, I know you have a tough time seeing with everything, but can you quote this particular graph that we selected out of your piece for me?

MENASCHE: Certainly.

I hope you don't mind, but my vision is very limited. And I need to have it on a small scale, so I can just hold it in front of my face, so I'm just going to read it from here.

BALDWIN: OK.

MENASCHE: And this excerpt reads: "What I learned from my travels was that my students had grown up to be kind and caring people, people who picked me up when I fell over curb, read to me from books I could no longer see and cut my food when I could not grasp a knife. They shared me with their deepest secrets, introduced me to their families and friends, sang to me my favorite songs and recited my favorite poetry.

"As I had hoped, they recalled favorite lessons in books from class. But, to my great surprise, it was our personal time together that seemed to have meant the most to them, those brief intimate interludes. Between lessons, when we shared heartaches and vulnerabilities and victories were the times that my students remembered."

BALDWIN: How much did that mean to you to learn that it was the moments in between lessons, the moments you may not even remember that meant the most?

MENASCHE: It meant the world to me, it really did, because the truth of it is, those were the moments when I was trying my hardest, when I really wanted to be at my very best, so that I could set an example for them that they could look to and perhaps even some day look up to.

But when standing in front of the classroom, I was standing on the shoulders of giants. I was standing on Mark Twain's shoulders, Ernest Hemingway. But when it was just one on one, me talking with one of my students with my undivided attention and theirs, those were the moments that meant the most to me as well as them. But I'm surprised that Mark Twain got forgotten quite so easily.

BALDWIN: Can we -- let me ask you, David, students aside, this happened back in 2006. What has life been the last seven or so years thinking you could die tomorrow?

MENASCHE: It's true.

I am one of those people that has had to face my fate squarely. And my reality is that I have a brain tumor. And it's not going to go away. But in some way, rather than taking that as a death sentence, it just gave me a sense of urgency that if there was living to be done, now is the time to do it.

I mean, if I had waited to be fully healthy to take a trip around the country to visit my former students, I never would have gone. But with that sense of limitation on longevity, I got off the couch and went right out to see them.

BALDWIN: You went.

Let me ask you a question...

MENASCHE: Certainly.

BALDWIN: ... i have never, ever, in my 12 or 13 years doing this asked anyone. And that is, walk me through your death. Have you envisioned it, envisioned your death? Would you want students present? Or what would you want your former students to know on that day?

MENASCHE: Oh, my.

I want them to know that I have got this. I mean, since we were speaking about Mark Twain earlier, one of his lines that has always resonated with me was, "I was dead for billions of years before I was born, and it didn't hinder me in the least."

And that's similar to my attitude towards it. It's not something that I'm afraid of. It's a natural process that we all go through. I would rather not die in front of my students, as I do not want to traumatize them. I would sneak out of my classroom whenever I had a seizure because I didn't want them to see it.

And I have done my best to keep my disabilities away from my students, because I don't want pity. I don't want sympathy. I want to have a good time with them.

BALDWIN: David Menasche, thank you. There are no other words.

MENASCHE: Thank you very much.

BALDWIN: Thank you so much.

And make sure you check out David's entire story. Read it at CNN.com/opinion.

Wow.

Coming up next, we have more on our breaking news. We are getting our very first look at the e-mails surrounding the bridge scandal and New Jersey Governor Christie, including the conversations between staffers and how to answer questions from the media.

A live report on these documents, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)