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Former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon Dies; Documents Released Regarding Bridge Closing Scandal in New Jersey; Effect of Scandal on Governor Christie's Political Career Debated; Colorado Opens Tours of Cannabis Dispensaries; Bullied Transgender Teen Charged with Battery; NFL Playoffs Continue; NFL Quarterback Andrew Luck Interviewed

Aired January 11, 2014 - 10:00   ET

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

CHRISTI PAUL, CNN ANCHOR: Israel mourning the passing of a leader this morning. Former prime minister Ariel Sharon has died. His leadership and his legacy ahead.

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN ANCHOR: The questions just keep coming as we get more documents from the New Jersey bridge scandal. We'll ask the state assembly man who released those papers if he thinks Christie is telling the truth.

PAUL: And a transgendered teen bullied for years fights back now, but is facing criminal charges. We're going to talk to her live.

I hope Saturday has been good to you so far. Thank you for sharing your time with us. I'm Christi Paul.

BLACKWELL: I'm Victor Blackwell. Good to be with you this morning, 10:00 here on the east coast, 7:00 out west. You are in the CNN Newsroom.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is CNN breaking news.

BLACKWELL: Israel is mourning the death of one of its political and military heroes. Former Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon died earlier today.

PAUL: He had been in a coma for eight years but his death still comes as a shock to a lot of people. As prime minister, he pulled Israeli troops out of Gaza. That was a decision that stunned a lot of people, including a former U.S. ambassador to Israel Edward Djerejian.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

EDWARD DJEREJIAN, FORMER U.S. AMBASSADOR TO ISRAEL: What's remarkable is that this man who is this hardliner, this military hero in Israel, and architect of the settlements policy, when he became prime minister, and this is what I think is going to be part of his legacy, sitting in that chair as prime minister gave him a different perspective, and he realized that Israel security could not obtained only through military means.

(END VIDEO CLIP) BLACKWELL: Just moments ago we received a statement from former president Bill Clinton and former secretary of state Hillary Clinton. They wrote, "Ariel Sharon gave his life to Israel to bring it into being, to sustain it and to preserve it, and at the end of his long service, to create a new political party committed to both a just peace and lasting security. It was an honor to work with him, argue with him, and watch him always trying to find the right path for his beloved country."

CNN's senior international correspondent Ben Wedeman has covered Israel for years. Ben, I want you now that we have that statement in to kind of talk to us about what Sharon meant to the people of Israel both in his role as a general and prime minister, but, if you can, that relationship with the U.S.

BEN WEDEDMAN, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Certainly he was a man who -- he didn't always have a good relationship with the U.S. when he was Israeli defense minister in 1982 and the architect of the Israeli invasion of Lebanon. There was a good deal of unhappiness in the Reagan White House at the time with that invasion and certainly Ariel Sharon was not a beloved figure among senior Israeli officials around the American officials at the time.

And certainly when he was elected prime minister in January, 2001, there was a lot of concern among American officials that, given his reputation as a hawk, as a hardliner, that he would certainly complicate an already complicated situation at the time. You will remember we were several months into the second Palestinian Intifada. There was violence, bombings in the streets of Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. There were daily deaths, dozens of deaths during that time. And they were worried that he would certainly make things more difficult.

Now, in the spring of 2002 he launched this Operation Defensive Shield, the reoccupation of the West Bank, a very bloody chapter. And certainly when that happened, American officials were really concerned that that was the way Israel was going. But certainly his decision to pull Israeli forces and Israeli settlers out of Gaza, that sort of changed his perception among U.S. officials. They began to understand that maybe this man was not all blood and guts. Maybe he also had a diplomatic vision, a strategy that might move this situation forward.

He was never a great fan of negotiations, but certainly by the end of his career in January 2006 the U.S. looked at him very differently.

PAUL: All right, Ben Wedeman, thank you for bringing us the latest there from Jerusalem. We appreciate it.

And now to the new revelations from more than 2,000 pages of documents that were released on the investigation into the New Jersey bridge scandal. And it is plaguing governor Chris Christie's administration this morning.

BLACKWELL: Late last night a state legislature leading the investigation released the documents. They show angry back and forth e-mails and confusion over the lane closures and that official close to Governor Christie tried to cover up political motives and block the media from learning more about it.

PAUL: Also they give new insight into some of the resignations that took place in the wake of the controversy, but the documents do not seem to show Governor Christie played a role here. CNN's Alexandra Field live in Fort Lee right now. I understand you've got information on the specific e-mails now, Alexandra?

ALEXANDRA FIELD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Christi. This documents are full of emails. Some express outrage, others express attempts to keep things quiet. It starts with an email from Patrick Floyd, the executive director of the Port Authority here. He sends out an e-mail expressing his outrage that he wasn't warned that these lanes would close. In that e-mail to other Port Authority officials he writes, in part, quote, "I will get to the bottom of this abusive decision which violated I've everything this agency stands for."

Bill Baroni then responds to that e-mail, he's Port Authority official appointed by Governor Chris Christie who has resigned in the wake of the scandal, but not before responding to Foye with this e-mail, quote, "On way to office to discuss. Can be no public discourse."

While all of this was playing out over e-mail people here in New Jersey were sitting in gridlock for four days back in September. At the time Fort Lee's mayor was trying to find a fix to this problem, but he says he was actually being blamed for the problem. That's in the documents as well. Here's his e-mail to Bill Baroni. He writes, quote, "Many members of the public have indicated to me that the Port Authority police officers are advising commuters in response to their complaints that this recent traffic debacle is the result of a decision I as mayor recently made." That's from Sokolich there.

What we should point out is that nowhere in these 2,000 pages do we see any evidence that would connect Governor Chris Christie to this alleged plot. Governor Christi did hold a two-hour press conference earlier this week saying he had no knowledge and no part in any of this. He apologized to people and later came here to Fort Lee to deliver that apology in person.

BLACKWELL: CNN's Alexandra Field for us in Fort Lee, thank you.

PAUL: Joining us, the man leading the investigation into the scandal, New Jersey state assemblyman John Wisniewski, a Democrat. He's head of New Jersey's transportation committee and released the 2,000 pages of documents. So John, thank you so much for being with us. We appreciate it. I have to ask you first and foremost, you've gone through these documents. You released them. Is there anything that you found that directly links Governor Christie to knowing about the bridge closures or participating in a political way?

JOHN WISNIEWSKI, CHAIRMAN, NEW JERSEY TRANSPORTATION COMMITTEE: No, there's no document that has Governor Christie's name on it. There's no e-mail to the governor or from the governor on anything we've looked at so far. But there's still a lot of documents we haven't gotten we would like to see.

I also think you have to understand how the New Jersey governor's office works. And the other names that are in all of these e-mail, Regina Egea, Michael Drewniak, other senior officials in his administration, it really strains credibility that all of these senior officials starting on the day the lanes were closed had been involved in either discussing the press strategy or the spin or the cover-up, that they were involved and the governor had absolutely no knowledge? I mean, this Regina Egea, who is in the one of the e-mails, is slated to become the governor's new chief of staff. It just strains believability the governor's incoming chief of staff, who must have a lot of trust with the governor, never shared any of this with him, never had a discussion.

BLACKWELL: So to find out if the governor actually knew about this, David Wildstein this week, he was in front of the committee, he pleaded the fifth. And his attorney at one point said, well, if he is afforded immunity, then he will have a story to tell. Do you think it's worth giving him the immunity that he is asking or his attorney is requesting to get to if Governor Christie is involved?

WISNIEWSKI: Sure. Well, it's not up to the assembly committee or the assembly itself to grant immunity. That would be something that either the New Jersey attorney general or the U.S. attorney would grant to him. But I certainly think it's something that they should consider. He's clearly made it known to the entire committee in his testimony as well as his attorney made known to me personally that he has a lot of information he would like to talk about. But he is concerned about criminal liability, and he'd like to have immunity before he discusses any of that.

PAUL: You know, I know that you have accused the governor of holding back, saying it would be, quote, "If he did the right thing and voluntarily released all communications." That's a quote of yours. Have you asked him for more information and he's denied you that, or what kind of information do you still think is out there?

WISNIEWSKI: Well, look, Bridget Kelly was an employee of the governor's office as is Michael Drewniak. Bill Stepien has been an employee of the governor's office and had been working for the state party. Regina Egea is an employee of the governor's office. Our investigation would be made measurably simpler if the governor's office would say, please tell us what you would like. We'll turn over all of those documents, the governmental e-mails, the personal e- mails, the correspondence so that you can look at them and determine for yourself.

I know the governor said he is going do an internal investigation, but the assembly committee has been looking at this for some four months now, and I think it would be fair, and if the governor meant which he said that he wants to get to the bottom of it, and he also said he thought the committee should continue it's work, it would only be fair for him to make those documents available. And I intend to formalize that request in a letter to the governor's office on Monday.

BLACKWELL: Initially there was speculation that this possibly had something to do with the mayor of Fort Lee not endorsing the governor in his campaign for re-election in 2013. Do you give any credence to the theory that this is retribution against Senate Democrats for possibly holding up the tenure of a member of the court there, and that angry statement we heard from the governor was on the 12th. The 13th we heard that the Fort Lee traffic is held up in the district of the leader of the Senate Democrats.

WISNIEWSKI: Right. Well, I think anything is possible. One thing's clear. The anger that was displayed by Pat Foye and Bill Baroni and other people in the governor's circle after the lane closer was terminated on Friday the 13th, rises to the level of why are they so angry and why are they so mad at this process being shut down? Because if it was really a traffic study, if it was really legitimate government operation, you don't express the kind of anger that for instance the chairman of the Port Authority wrote that in an e-mail that Pat Foye is playing in traffic, or the other e-mail that said Dave Sampson is going to help us retaliate.

So they were mad about something, and they were trying to accomplish something. That something, we don't know. We were hope that David Wildstein's testimony would have shed some light on it. We certainly would like to call Bridget Kelly to come and testify, Bill Stepien, the governor's campaign manager, Regina Egea, his slated to come in chief of staff, and the man he's now got nominated for attorney general because O'Dowd, who is slated to become attorney general, is Bridget Kelly's boss.

PAUL: So what you know so far, do you believe that something criminal is afoot here?

WISNIEWSKI: Well, I'm not a prosecutor but I do think laws have been broken. Clearly Pat Foye said that on September 13th. And public research, the bridge, the police officers, the people who move the cones, all were used for a political purpose, for some type of retribution. And this violates the law. And so I think law enforcement ought to be looking at this as well to make sure that any violations of law are addressed.

PAUL: Assemblyman John Wisniewski, thank you so much for sharing your time with us. We appreciate it.

WISNIEWSKI: Thank you very much.

BLACKWELL: Still to come in the Newsroom, it is a mad rush for clean water in West Virginia. Have you heard about this? We're going to go live to Charleston with the latest on a contaminated river that's left hundreds of thousands without usable water.

PAUL: And speaking, well, let's say in new terms in Colorado here. A new kind of business is cropping up and it's not just the pot retail business, it's pot tours. Yes. You can ride along in a bus.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PAUL: We knew they were on their way but we have learned this morning more emergency supplies of water are arriving in West Virginia this morning.

BLACKWELL: And 16 tractor trailers were sent by the Department of Homeland Security to help more than 300,000 people who cannot use their water to drink or cook or bathe or wash anything. All this after a chemical seeped out of a coal industry facility and into the water supply of nine counties. Tests show the chemical level is dropping, but there is no end in sight.

PAUL: Alina Machado has the latest for us from Charleston.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Now it's utter chaos. Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I see people just grabbing every ice bag they can.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. It's about gone.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's hard. I got to use bottled water.

ALINA MACHADO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: There is growing outrage and a concern in West Virginia where at least 300,000 people are without usable running water thanks to a chemical leak at Freedom Industries.

GARY SOUTHERN, PRESIDENT, FREEDOM INDUSTRIES: We are very, very sorry for the disruptions.

MACHADO: Gary Southern, the president of the chemical company, offered few details during his first press conference more than 24 hours after the leak was discovered.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So can you give us an exact timeline as to how this all happened?

MACHADO: Southern says his employees found the leak Thursday morning. The chemical is typically used to clean coal and can be harmful if ingested. State officials say they were alerted to the problem when residents of the county reported a foul smell similar to licorice in the air. The leak was traced to one of freedom industry's 35,000 gallon storage tanks along the Elk River, about a mile from the water plant.

GOV. EARL RAY TOMBLIN, WEST VIRGINIA: We're doing water tests on an hourly basis and the chemical level is declining but we're just not sure exactly how long it's going to take until it's acceptable to lift the do not drink ban.

MACHADO: The warning has rattled those who live in the nine counties, where a state of emergency has been declared.

MAYOR DANNY JONES, CHARLESTON, WEST VIRGINIA: It's a disaster. And it's caused us -- it's caused us more problems than you can ever imagine. Not only can we not wash dishes, we can't wash our hands after we go to the bathroom. You can't wash your clothes and you can't drink the tap water, you can't cook with the tap water.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MACHADO: The company has been ordered to empty out its remaining storage tanks, and also cease operations until they can prove that these tanks are safe and that they're not leaking. Meanwhile, the U.S. attorney's office has announced an investigation, and they say that even if this was a negligent act there could be still be some criminal violations.

BLACKWELL: Just the beginning here, Alina Machado in Charleston, West Virginia for us. Thank you.

PAUL: And, oh, are the layer being peeled back on this security breach at Target. The company now says the hack affected an estimated 70 million shoppers, not 40 million as initially reported. And in addition to credit and debit card pin numbers, Target says they're talking about customer names, your addresses, phone numbers, e-mails, all compromised. Target is going to offer one year free credit monitoring to its customers. Shoppers, you have three months to enroll in that program if you so choose.

BLACKWELL: New this morning, upscale retailer Neiman-Marcus may be the latest victim of cyber hacking.

PAUL: The company says it is investigating a possible security breach that may have compromised its customers' credit card information. CNN's Jennifer Mayerle in with us now. What is the story on this one?

JENNIFER MAYERLE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We learned that Neiman-Marcus found out about the possible security breach in mid-December. The first thing they did, they contacted law enforcement. They began working with Secret Service or the forensic team with a host of other people to find out when it happened and how widespread this is. Of course, that forensic team learned on January 1st that there was evidence of an actual security breach, which means that they were a victim of a cyber-security hack. And that means that customers could also be potential victims here. We don't know how widespread it is or how many customers have been effected. That's what I'm sure a lot of people are wondering today.

But when possible, Neiman-Marcus will notify those customers to tell them that they were -- that they may have shopped during that time frame, and Neiman-Marcus said they are taking measures to enhance security already. So as soon as we find out more we will keep an eye on this one.

PAUL: Jennifer, thank you so much.

BLACKWELL: Thanks so much.

PAUL: So the best teams in the NFL hoping to score one more victory as they eye the biggest game of the year. CNN's Rachel Nichols has the playoff preview.

RACHEL NICHOLS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This year's NFL playoffs have already set viewership records thanks in part to the fourth quarter heroics of quarterback Andrew Luck. Andrew is going to join me to discuss the thrill of victory and a whole lot more coming up right after this break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLACKWELL: Big game in New England today as the Patriots host the Colts in the NFL playoffs. So will quarterback Andrew Luck keep up his winning streak?

PAUL: CNN's Rachel Nichols sat down with number 12 to talk about heroics and if he has what it takes to win tonight's big playoff game.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NICHOLS: Andrew, you authored one of the greatest comebacks in the history of NFL and afterwards your teammates talked about your force of will. What do you think that lets you keep going and fight with almost a 30-point deficit?

ANDREW LUCK, NFL QUARTERBACK: One, like any competitor, you want to get back on the field after you mess up throwing an interception. You want to go back out and atone for your sins and be accountable for your teammate. I think that's what's great about football is the trust, the accountability factor, and fun to go out and try to right your wrongs.

NICHOLS: Your general manager compared you to Michael Jordan the other day. He said you have the ability to raise the game in the fourth quarter, to meet the moment. Why do you think you're a guy who plays up with the stakes go up instead of shirking from them?

LUCK: I'm not sure. I know I'm no Michael Jordan by any means. A tenth of what he's done.

NICHOLS: You're about to play Patriots, something that hasn't gone so well in the past. In fact, when you played them in New England last year, that 59-24 loss, that was the worst of your career. I know your coach joked afterward that he burned the film from that game.

LUCK: Yes, you know, I think it was a bad lost loss. A lot to learn from that game, but we understand also that it has no bearing on this year and, you know, we're excited about a great opportunity to go back to Foxboro.

NICHOLS: I know you're also an avid board game player. You have the strategy games you like to do at home. You're not playing Monopoly, right? What do you play at home?

LUCK: Settlers of Catan, that's sort of the game of choice right now. It's fun.

(LAUGHTER)

NICHOLS: I think people like the idea that you can be out doing anything, going to parties, going to all kinds of black tie events, and you're at home playing a strategy sort of nerdy board game.

LUCK: It's much more relaxing than the alternatives.

NICHOLS: I can't let you go without asking you about the playoff beard. What has it been like having that thing on your face?

LUCK: It's been all right, I guess. I got too lazy toward end of the season to shave it, and I guess it's turned into what it is now. I don't think my parents like it very much, but they'll put up with it.

NICHOLS: How quickly are you going to go get rid of it after the playoffs are over? Are you waiting to peel it off your face?

LUCK: I know it's not the greatest look. But, yes, I guess it will come off, hopefully in February.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PAUL: Rachel Nichols, thank you so much.

BLACKWELL: And more on the bridge scandal and who knew what when. We'll have that political discussion after the break.

And later, we'll take you on a behind the scenes pot tour.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PAUL: It's the top of the hour right now, and we are so grateful for your company. I'm Christi Paul.

BLACKWELL: I'm Victor Blackwell. Let's start with five things we're watching this morning.

PAUL: Number one, former Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon has died. He had been in a coma for nearly eight years and was recently suffering from kidney failure. Sharon stunned the world in 2005 by ordering the complete withdrawal of Israeli security forces from the Gaza Strip. He also, though, was a backer of Israeli settlements in occupied Palestinian territory.

BLACKWELL: Number two, FEMA is sending 75 tanker trucks filled with freshwater to West Virginia where as many as 300,000 people have been warned not to drink or bathe or wash anything in the tap water. This is coming after a chemical at a coal industry facility seeped into the water supply. Tests show that the chemical level is dropping but there's still no end in sight.

PAUL: Investigators have released more than 2,000 documents connected to the New Jersey bridge scandal. Many are e-mails sent between angry and confused Port Authority officials. There's some correspondence that shows Christie's officials tried to link the traffic jam to a traffic study and wanted to avoid public discourse. But the documents do not show whether Christie himself played a role in this scandal.

BLACKWELL: Number four, we are saying goodbye to a civil rights pioneer. Franklin McCain has died at the age of 72. McCain was one of the Greensboro Four. In 1960 he and three other black students sat down at a Woolworth's lunch counter in North Carolina and waited to be served. Their civil disobedience fueled sit-ins across the country.

PAUL: And number five, it's that time of year again. Hollywood's biggest names ling the red carpet tomorrow night for the annual Golden Globe awards. Two stars likely to steal the show, you know, comedians Tina Fey and Amy Poehler. The duo is going to host it for the second year in a row. Golden Globe nominees include big screen hits like "American Hustle," "12 Years a Slave," and "Gravity."

BLACKWELL: Now to the bridge scandal in New Jersey and possible political motives for the mess. A new stack of documents released yesterday suggests some of the key players surrounding Chris Christie knew they were inflicting pain on drivers in September, I believe it was August, and hard to shield themselves from any blame. Still, there isn't a smoking gun that directly implicates the governor himself, but lots of questions remain.

Joining us now political strategist and progressive activist Sally Kohn along with CNN political commentator Ben Ferguson. Thanks for being here, both of you.

SALLY KOHN, POLITICAL STRATEGIST: Pleasure.

BEN FERGUSON, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Good morning.

BLACKWELL: I want to start with you, Sally. What do you make of these 2,000 pages of documents? Do they prove a cover up or point to a governor who has no idea what's going on in his own office?

KOHN: The answer might be both. So, you know, media are still poring through them. From what I have read and what we've all seen, it raises two issues. The first is, you know, what we don't know. We still don't know -- we don't have any independently verifiable information about what Christie and when he knew it. So that remains on the table.

If -- let's give the governor the benefit of the doubt for a second. If he's being honest that he didn't know about any of this until yesterday or two days ago when the other e-mails became public, then the questions of these documents continue to raise, looms as a dark cloud hanging over him, why didn't he try and figure this out sooner, why was it only a couple of weeks ago he questioned his staff when now it looks like not only were the media and legislators in New Jersey already speculating about this political motives, but members of his senior staff, a widening circle were aware of these issues far earlier on. If the governor didn't know, it suggests he did know or else he's really not involved in the management of his high senior staff team.

BLACKWELL: Ben, what about that? You've got two members of port authority leaving and then you've got the reporters asking, you've got local officials writing letters and e-mails, and the governor finds out after a workout from a newspaper?

FERGUSON: I'm going to go with when there's a cover-up, the people that know they're going to get fired that are around the governor, did everything they could to make sure they kept him in the dark as long as possible because they knew it was going to cost them their jobs.

I mean, there isn't one single e-mail, one single document out of the thousands that have been released with every Democrat in the state, every newspaper in the state, every major news organization combing through them, that linked the governor to this.

And so part of it is, let's just look at the reality. Is there a chance the people who did this purposely did everything they could to make sure their boss didn't find out because they knew they were going to be fired? There's a real chance that if you screw up you're not going to go to your boss and tell them you screwed up when you know you committed something that quite possibly could be a crime. So when he did find out about it, he's a governor of a state. There's a lot of stuff going on. He's not monitoring these people's e-mails like they're his children.

BLACKWELL: I get that.

FERGUSON: He doesn't have an auto e-mail going to him every time they send an e-mail. I think a lot of people are trying to make this a way bigger than it really is. He found out about it. He's dealing with it. And he fired people. That's pretty good.

BLACKWELL: OK. So let's say that the governor knew nothing about this but all of this happened in his office. Today it's his staff in Trenton and a bridge coming through Fort Lee. If he's run for president in four years, is it not a state and the people in the White House running something in his foreign policy that could be nefarious, but he has no idea about?

FERGUSON: Hold on. Let's look at this stand car that you just talked about. I wish the same standard you just talked about applied to Barack Obama with Benghazi.

BLACKWELL: Here we go. You throw Benghazi in. Let's talk about Governor Christie.

(CROSSTALK)

FERGUSON: Hold on, timeout. I am talking about the governor. I'm saying that I wish the same standard that you just described applied to the current president. How can you have two different standards here? On the IRS targeting conservatives there was not this standard there. On Susan Rice lying to the American people there wasn't the same standard there. So how can you have one standard for Chris Christie that you're acting as is the new reality but not have the same standard on the healthcare law.

BLACKWELL: Susan Rice said that day what we learned to be true and we learned about the involvement and noninvolvement of Al Qaeda on the embassy there in Benghazi.

But again, I'm going to pose this question to you again. Today it's Trenton, the governor's staff in New Jersey, and a bridge and the people of Fort Lee. Could it tomorrow be the president's staff and policy with Iran?

KOHN: I absolutely love that Ben went --

FERGUSON: He fired people.

BLACKWELL: OK. Sally, let's go with you.

KOHN: I love that ben went there, because the massive difference here is that first of all, scandals like the IRS scandal have been disproven. There was no political motive at work there.

FERGUSON: No, they haven't.

KOHN: But that was the president -- the president was held to task by the media and by all sides for including, by the way, some of us on the left, for what happened in the Cincinnati branch of the IRS, right, distantly removed from the 4.4 million employees of the federal government.

This is the governor's deputy chief of staff, and now we know also possibly his new incoming chief of staff, his director of communications, his spokesperson. This is his tight knit senior staff. So I agree with Ben. The president was held accountable for these things that happened in his administration. The governor should be held accountable for what he didn't know or what he did know or what he didn't have the curiosity to dig about. That's what's odd here.

BLACKWELL: Let me come to you, Ben. Final thoughts. Does this disqualify Governor Christie from the nomination of 2016?

FERGUSON: Absolutely not. I mean, it's almost laughable to me that people are acting as if this somehow should disqualify him if his staff lied to him and there's no e-mail connecting him to any of this and/or a cover-up. What else do you want him to do? There are people that are using this solely for political reasons. He came out --

BLACKWELL: Sally?

FERGUSON: He fired them.

BLACKWELL: One at a time, Ben. Let me get an answer from Sally. Sally?

KOHN: Ben would sure like the president to be hung out to dry for far less. This is an ongoing issue. It's effect on his future depends on what not just what he knew but why didn't he find out sooner. He should have. It looks like he should have.

BLACKWELL: I just wonder if this is a case, typically the cliche is when the cat's away the mice will play. The cat was there and the mice still run amok.

KOHN: And did he create the culture for that.

BLACKWELL: And we'll continue to conversation. Sally Kohn, Ben Ferguson, thank you so much.

KOHN: Thank you.

FERGUSON: Thanks for having me.

PAUL: People are riled up on the Saturday morning.

Still to come, in the Newsroom, she stood up to her bullies, and now she's the one who is facing charges. Some say it's because she's transgendered. We're going to speak to that young woman at the center of all of it, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PAUL: After years of being bullied by classmates Jewlyes Gutierrez, a transgendered teen from California, that's her on the left you see there, said she reached her breaking point. She physically went after her bullies, and the fight was caught on tape. And I just want to give you a warning here, it's rough to watch. You can make out the hair pulling. You see it there? Kicking. I know it's grainy cellphone video, but you get the gist of it.

The school punished those girls, all four of them suspended, including Jewlyes. But that wasn't all. The district attorney is now charging her and only Jewlyes with battery. And he says he's just prosecuting a crime, others calling it discrimination. So joining us now via Skype from her home is -- is it Jewlyes or Jewlyes? I want to get it right here.

JEWLYES GUTIERREZ, TRANSGENDERED TEEN: You got it right.

PAUL: Jewlyes?

GUTIERREZ: Yes.

PAUL: OK. Thank you so much. We're glad that you are with us. I just want to start out and be perfectly clear here. I understand, you did throw the first punch. Why? What led you to that?

GUTIERREZ: I can't talk about that because it's an open case, so my lawyer informs me to not talk about details.

PAUL: OK. OK, getting away from maybe exactly what happened that day, let me ask you this. Were there things that were going on that led up to that prior to that day?

GUTIERREZ: Yes. They were taunting me, provoking me, and bullying me.

PAUL: The girl that you fought with that day, and I understand you were bullied for at least two years, is this the same group of girls that you say taunted you for that whole two years or were there more?

GUTIERREZ: No, but they're like in that category, I guess.

PAUL: How many people, I guess, do you feel have taunting you and bullied you?

GUTIERREZ: There's a lot more.

PAUL: More than those four. More than the three. I know the D.A. is only charging you in that assault. Has he explained why to you? Do you believe it's because you're transgendered?

GUTIERREZ: I feel that the D.A. is being very conservative in keeping their ground. So I feel that they don't really like support people who are different.

PAUL: So I want to let you know, CNN did reach out to district attorney Dan Cabral. He hasn't gotten back to us. But I want to play some sound for you of what he said about the charges against you. Here we go.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DAN CABRAL, SENIOR DEPUTY DISTRICT ATTORNEY: There isn't a category of individuals who we do not prosecute. Words are never enough to justify fists. That's the law. If that wasn't done and we did not hold people accountable for their actions, where would we draw the line?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PAUL: So what is your response to what he has to say?

GUTIERREZ: I was only protecting myself because I feel like I was getting provoked, harassed, and bullied to the point where I had a breaking point and I just snapped.

PAUL: Did you go to the school with your complaints and did they do anything?

GUTIERREZ: My vice principal didn't do enough. She talked to the girls and had a conversation with them, but they didn't get any, like, sort of trouble. Like the a student goes to you to have a situation of gum spit in your face and you just have a conversation and you let her just go back to class, because I did it in a form of a way of protecting myself because she didn't, like, do enough.

PAUL: What about everybody else? What has the response been to this whole fiasco for you, Jewlyes?

GUTIERREZ: Everybody else?

PAUL: Yes.

GUTIERREZ: What do you mean?

PAUL: How about other students, other teachers, what is their reaction to this whole thing that's happened and to you being the only one charged?

GUTIERREZ: I haven't talked to any teachers about it. I feel like I haven't had the chance to.

PAUL: OK. Well, Jewlyes Gutierrez, we'll be following what happens. We're grateful that you took the time to talk to us. Thank you for being here to tell us your story. And best of luck to you.

GUTIERREZ: OK, thank you.

PAUL: Thank you.

And still to come, a grandmother's dream come true, a cannabis tour. The 72-year-old loves to smoke pot, and she was all smiles checking out what goes on behind the scenes at Colorado's marijuana dispensaries. We have more after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PAUL: The legalization of recreational marijuana, it's in Colorado and it's big business.

BLACKWELL: Big business indeed. Not just for people selling pot but also for slightly more creative types like the owners of a cannabis tour company.

PAUL: You heard him right, tour company. CNN's Randi Kaye went along for a ride with a grandma who couldn't be happier to check out one of Denver's most popular destinations.

BLACKWELL: Hey, grandma.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BARBARA HARVEY, CANNABIS TOUR CUSTOMER: Look at those buds in the back. Be still my heart.

RANDI KAYE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Barbara Harvey does not fit the stereotype. She's 72 years old, a grandmother, and loves to smoke pot. So today, a dream come true, a cannabis tour, now one of the most popular attractions in Denver. Think Napa Valley wine tours, just replace the vice.

HARVEY: These are all the dispensaries in Colorado. We have more dispensaries than Starbucks. How sweet is that?

KAYE: Tour members get VIP access and quickly ushered into private rooms to make their purchase. First stop is the 3D dispensary.

HARVEY: What about joints? Do you have joints?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have some pre-rolls.

HARVEY: This is if you don't want to smoke the whole joint you can put the remainder for later into this.

KAYE: Do so you don't lose it.

HARVEY: And store it and it doesn't get smashed.

KAYE: What is this called?

HARVEY: What is this called?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A dub tube. (LAUGHTER)

KAYE: Barbara buys two joints. The bud tender, as the guys behind the counter with called, enlightened us.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's kind of like a muscle relaxer on your bones. It's going to be very therapeutic for you. You're going to feel just total relaxation in your body but still have a lot of clarity.

KAYE: That sounds pretty good to you?

HARVEY: Oh, yes.

KAYE: She'll take one. She'll take one.

Time to hit the road again.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: America, what a great country.

HARVEY: And I thought maybe someone would like to smoke a joint with me.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Fire it up. All right, check this out. Legal pot.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Legal pot! Yes!

KAYE: When you found out there were tours like this what did you think?

HARVEY: Oh, I couldn't wait to go on one. I just think it's a great idea. You know, rather than waste your money on bars, just get in this and drive around Denver, see the sights, you know, and enjoy yourself like you're in your own living room. It's perfect.

KAYE: Barbara has suffered from bipolar disorder and sore knees. She says marijuana helps a lot. A few more puffs and it's time to put this joint away.

HARVEY: See, and then you cap and that will put it out. And you don't waste any smoke -- any tobacco smashing it. Voila.

KAYE: Why are the tours so popular? Because they get to stop at four dispensaries. They get endless gourmet munchies. And they get a personal cannabis concierge who helps them understand everything they need to know about ability marijuana.

Addison Morse owns this tour company, Colorado Rocky Mountain High, and can barely keep up with the demand, even at about $300 per person. In these parts, people like her are called, ganja-preneurs.

How does that label feel?

ADDISON MORSE, DENVER, COLORADO, ROCKY MOUNTAIN HIGH TOUR COMPANY: I think that is a perfect label. This is what Colorado is all about. This is who we are here. We were built on silver, gold, and oil, and now we're built on the green and it's really good green.

KAYE: Now at their second stop, a dispensary called Star Buds.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So there's three different ones. They act the same way.

KAYE: This tour customer buys some edibles.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I can walk out of here without having any problems.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Check that out.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Here you go. Have a great day.

KAYE: It's a quick stop. Then back in the limo for more fun.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Colorado Rocky Mountain High tours.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's good. That's good tasting.

KAYE: This tour always includes a stop for lunch or dinner. The group had their mind made up.

You guys are demanding tacos? Is that what I hear?

HARVEY: Well, I could eat a taco or two. I'm hungry.

(LAUGHTER)

KAYE: I have to say it was quite an experience being in that limousine with all the secondhand smoke. I was finding things just a little bit funnier than I normally do. My brain felt a little fuzzy. And I had trouble remembering questions that I actually wanted to ask these people during our interviews, which rarely happens to me in the field. So maybe it was just an off day or maybe it was something else.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KAYE: But the good news is a lot of the limousine companies and tour companies are telling us that they are planning to use vaporizers, so there won't be any secondhand smoke in the cars. When it heats the marijuana a vaporizer turns into vapor instead of smoke. So that's certainly good for the passengers who don't want to inhale the smoke and certainly good for the drivers behind the wheel. Victor, Christi?

PAUL: Good point, Randi Kaye. A lot of happy people.

BLACKWELL: Randi Kaye got a contact high. I can't believe it, she had a contact high.

PAUL: My goodness.

BLACKWELL: When the grandmother says, a dub tube. It's the best idea. Oh, she's baking, and not cookies. PAUL: More rain might be the last thing some places want.

BLACKWELL: Yes. But ready or not here it comes, the storm system that can even spawn tornadoes in some areas.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PAUL: Contrary to reports on the Internet, people, Niagara Falls did not freeze solid during this week's polar vortex.

BLACKWELL: But it did ice over. It gave us some really beautiful images.

PAUL: That is gorgeous.

BLACKWELL: These are from the other night. Parts of the falls crusted over with ice. You still have that roar from the falls. Beautiful.

PAUL: It looks like it's frozen.

BLACKWELL: If you have a weather radio this a good time to pull it out and make sure batteries are fresh and turn up the volume.

PAUL: There's a line of storms rolling across the eastern U.S. and tornadoes are possible before the day is done. CNN meteorologist Jennifer Gray is here with more. What have you learned, Jennifer?

JENNIFER GRAY, AMS METEOROLOGIST: We've already seen tornado warnings this morning in Georgia, South Carolina, and even Florida panhandle. No tornado warnings right now. We are seeing some severe thunderstorm warnings though in portions of South Carolina and moving into North Carolina. But we are seeing this long line of strong storms, and some of these can be severe.

We had definitely a strong line roll through Atlanta just about an hour ago. It's starting to taper off now. This line of showers or storms stretches from the panhandle all of the way up to the northeast, even getting rain in places like New York City, Boston. It is a cold rain but much warmer air has filtered in. That's why all of this is not snow. It is rain. And that's the good news.

A lot of storm reports. We had reports of hail. We had reports of very gusty winds all over the south. That will continue as we have a slight risk of severe weather throughout the rest of the day for the east coast. Rainfall totals could be from one to two inches in the southeast and isolated amounts even more.

PAUL: Jennifer, thank you so much.

GRAY: Whitney Houston's daughter Bobbi Kristina Houston Brown has tied the knot to long-time friend Nick Gordon.

PAUL: Congratulations to them. Brown made the announcement via twitter Thursday by posting this picture to her fans. Rumors about a possible romance between this couple surfaced after Houston's death in 2012.

BLACKWELL: Last year the 20 year old pushed back against critics who accused Gordon of being Brown's stepbrother.

PAUL: They are now married. Congratulations again.

Hey, that's going to do it for us today, and we are so grateful to have had you watching.

BLACKWELL: We've got a lot that we're covering in the next hour. Of course, the breaking news this morning, the death of former Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon, the water woes in West Virginia, those nine counties who are dealing with the lack of water. But FEMA is coming in. They've already sent in the first truck. So let's toss it over now to Fredericka Whitfield who is watching all the big stories.

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Very good. And you guys have had a very, very busy morning, as we're going to have for the rest of the afternoon. We'll pick it up where you leave off. Thanks so much.