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Christie Faces Federal Probe; Thousands Apply to Travel to Mars; Fashion at the Golden Globes; Hillary Clinton Kept "Enemies" List; Wrong-Landing Plane Attempts Takeoff from Tiny Airport

Aired January 13, 2014 - 15:30   ET

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

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: Thank you both very much.

Calls for impeachment, a "State of the State" address, more possible subpoenas for his staff because of the whole bridge scandal, of course, talking Chris Christie.

Did I mention controversy about a recent tourism ad featuring his family? Yep. New Jersey governor Chris Christie, busy week ahead for this man, but can he overcome all of this? We are live in Trenton.

Plus, a woman goes to the funeral of her mother only to find it's not her mom in the casket. It's some other woman.

And there are now questions from St. Martin in the Caribbean to Canada to Rhode Island, shocking story next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Bottom of the hour, I'm Brooke Baldwin. Thanks for being with me.

BALDWIN: We are just learning, Chris Christie's approval, job ratings, have dropped amid the scandal involving alleged dirty tricks.

Take a look with me. The poll has found Chris Christie has dropped six points from December. It was conducted last week as this whole scandal erupted.

At this hour, we are hearing out of New Jersey that subpoenas could be announced today by the newly named special committee investigating those traffic jams allegedly created by aides, top aides, to Governor Christie.

And as CNN was first to report, Governor Christie now faces a federal probe surrounding Hurricane Sandy and why he spent recovery aid on a pricey ad campaign featuring him and his family.

Paul Mulshine is back with me today from Trenton. He is opinion columnist for the "Star-Ledger" newspaper, so, Paul, welcome back.

PAUL MULSHINE, OPINION COLUMNIST, "THE STAR-LEDGER": Glad to see you.

BALDWIN: Let's begin with the Sandy dollar story, versus the traffic jams. I realize the Sandy story, as we may say, is less sexy, per se, but might it be as perilous to Christie as his presidential aspirations come 2016?

MULSHINE: I don't think so. It's kind of old news.

Everybody brought that up, his opponents brought that up, during the campaign, and the feds let him do it, unless they can prove some sort of fraud in having gotten them to approve it.

You know, it hurts a little, but I don't think it's a real deadly issue.

BALDWIN: OK, you say old news. Let me move on.

The head of this new committee announced today in New Jersey, he's a bulldog. He says Christie's denials of prior knowledge of this traffic-jam plot is just not credible.

He also says Governor Christie could face impeachment. It depends, of course. on where the answers lead.

What is the biggest question, Paul, you would like answered right now?

MULSHINE: I'd like Christie to fess up just when we knew this, quote, unquote "traffic test" was a fake, because his people were in touch -- his people at the Port Authority, his press spokesman, was in touch with the Port Authority people during the jam.

Now, his press spokesman Mike Drewniak is a smart guy. He used to be a "Star-Ledger" reporter. He had to know that this was a fake test because they did not inform the local officials of the closure, which caused huge traffic jams.

People were blocking the box all the way across town, and they didn't even have the police to get them to unblock the box, which meant the side streets were blocking as well, which drives drivers crazy.

And Christie immediately went into cover-up mode. His people went into cover-up mode.

Christie himself had to get in on the cover-up very early. I'm not sure he had prior knowledge of the event, but he was in on the cover- up early.

BALDWIN: OK, so that's a question you would ask.

Then you have, of course, a big day for the governor tomorrow, the "State of the State" speech.

Can Chris Christie give this major address without mentioning any of this going on? Or does he have to address it, take it head on?

MULSHINE: He'll be addressing it. He's the kind of guy that likes to get right after that stuff. His problem with this was that he's so convincing when he gets going, that he had us in the media convinced there was no political angle to this lane closure for two months.

And having believed the guy, when you're in the media, you say, OK, I'll take him at his word.

And then all the sudden you find out the truth, then you're like, wow, you really fooled me. I'm not going to let you do again.

But that's the way he is. He'll go right after it.

BALDWIN: Paul Mulshine, we'll be watching for that tomorrow.

Thank you so much, in Trenton for us, New Jersey "Star-Ledger."

Now to this, have you ever wanted to visit outer space? Yes, a lot of kids dream of being an astronaut, myself included.

But this is a little different, because how about living on Mars forever? This is serious stuff, leaving everything, everyone you know and love behind. You never come back.

A company wants to create a new settlement there. Thousands of people around the world entered to just be part of this study, to be selected.

And, coming up next, I get to talk to one of those finalists.

Plus, this is what everyone's talking about today, what the stars were wearing at the Golden Globes. One color stuck out, and, also, one body type.

Coming up next, he is the man from TLC's "Say Yes to the Dress Atlanta." Monte Durham in the studio, my friend, hello. Hello. Kiss- kiss.

Monte Durham, need I say more? We're talking fashion.

You look amazing.

MONTE DURHAM, TLC'S "SAY YES TO THE DRESS": So do you.

Happy new year.

BALDWIN: Happy new year.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Take a look at these pretty incredible pictures. This is Virgin Galactic SpaceShipTwo, making its supersonic flight in the Mojave Desert.

After being released by an airplane, the reusable space vehicle soared to a staggering 71,000 feet. The test flight moves the company closer to its goal, that being, flying paying passengers into space, which brings me to my question. So would you do it?

What if -- here's the "what if" for the day. What if the condition of flying into space meant you could never return to Earth?

Apparently 200,000 of you would be just fine with that. That's how many people applied to be part of Mars One. This is the one way, I'm talking no return, trip here to go colonize the red planet.

Round one applicants were announced, just over 1,000 in the running. And joining me is my next guest, Heidi Beemer, credentials, amazing, first lieutenant and chemical officer stationed at Fort Campbell in Kentucky, chemistry and astronomy graduate of Virginia Military Institute, selected for NASA's space exploration internship.

Heidi, I need to take a breath after giving your whole resume. Welcome, nice to have you on.

HEIDI BEEMER, SHORTLISTED FOR ONE-WAY TRIP TO MARS: Thank you, Brooke.

BALDWIN: So, this is like you're leaving for Mars, never coming back, never seeing those that you love.

I know this has been a dream of yours since the third grade. You even spent two weeks with NASA in the Utah desert living and working in space suits.

But, come on, isn't there a little tiny piece of you that's afraid?

BEEMER: Once you have an opportunity to live your dream, all that fear goes away.

This is something I have been working for my entire life and given the opportunity to accomplish it, I'm nothing but excited about the process.

BALDWIN: And the application process, rounds of psychological testing, medical testing, all kinds of stuff I'm sure you can't even share with me.

Tell me. The obvious question is why do you want to go?

BEEMER: As you mentioned before, when I was 8-years-old. my dad gave me a newspaper article about the Sojourner Rover.

And ever since I was a kid, I held onto at that newspaper article, and I looked at it and I said we need to send humans here, why not be me?

And so I've spent my entire life just trying to be the best applicant, be the best candidate.

And the reason I want to go is to help humanity. I want to be able to leave it all behind and give future generations something to look forward to. I wasn't born yet when we landed on the moon, yet looking back, that still has inspired me to do great things and push humanity toward the space frontier.

So, I want to be able to give that to future generations.

BALDWIN: To help humanity, we appreciate that.

Do you know -- I know you're not supposed to leave for a couple of years, but do you have any idea what you will be doing, how you will be living there for the rest of your life?

BEEMER: Yeah, so the system that they put in place is -- it's an elaborate -- excuse.

Yeah, it's -- they're sending six rockets to the surface of Mars, and those six rockets will have two habitation systems, two life support systems and two supply systems.

Once you connect them all together using robots, we'll then be able to live there on the surface in crews of four.

And once we're there, we'll be able to do all sorts of things. Science will be our main objective.

We'll be going outside of the habitat three times a week and we'll just be conducting scientific experiments, learning about Mars's past, Mars's future and ultimately Earth's future as part of the solar system.

BALDWIN: I hear the excitement in your voice. You are young. You have so many years left to live.

How do you say goodbye to your family?

BEEMER: Yeah, so that's a big part that's always weighing in the back of my mind.

My family's very supportive of everything that I have done, my mother, my father and my sister. They have shown nothing but love and support.

I have been telling them for a long time now that I'm going to be an astronaut and that I'm going to be going to Mars. And I think, throughout the process, they're like, yeah, OK, good luck with that.

But I think once I presented them this project and said, hey, I think my opportunity my actually come, they've been nothing but supportive.

I think they're very nervous. They don't want to let go. And I don't want to let go of them.

BALDWIN: Can you blame them?

BEEMER: No, of course not. This is a ridiculous endeavor that we're going to be a part of, but it is practical and we're to the point now where we have the science to back up what we want to do. So --

BALDWIN: Practical, ridiculous, a dream, I hear all these words.

Heidi Beemer, to Mars, you go. Thanks for stopping by and talking to us little earthlings before you head up there.

Best of luck to you. Let's stay in touch.

BEEMER: Thank you. I appreciate it. Yeah, thank you, Brooke.

BALDWIN: OK, deal.

OK, now to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TINA FEY, HOST, "THE GOLDEN GLOBES": "Gravity" is nominated for best film. It's the story of how George Clooney would rather float away in space and die than spend one more minute with a woman his own age.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Oh, Tina Fey and Amy Poehler, hilarious, two years in a row at the Golden Globes, and the, of course, a couple of awards given out, but it's the fashion that has everyone talking today.

So, my friend Monte Durham from TLC's "Say Yes to the Dress" who is looking AT me like a crazy person with the woman from Mars. You wouldn't go to Mars?

DURHAM: No. How do you run out for a little bit of milk and bread? And there's no Gucci, Prada, no Fifth Avenue or Neiman Marcus.

BALDWIN: What do you do? Priorities.

DURHAM: I think I'll wait until it's a little more colonized.

BALDWIN: Golden Globes, this is what people are talking about.

DURHAM: Golden Globes.

BALDWIN: Let's run through -- we have asked Monte to come up with his favorites and your not-so favorites.

So, let's begin with the worst dressed?

DURHAM: It had to be Zoe.

BALDWIN: Zoe Saldana?

DURHAM: Yeah. I mean, it really -- this is what happens when you get a glue gun, I think.

BALDWIN: Let's take a close look here. What did you not love?

DURHAM: I'm trying to figure out what I do like. I do like that it's black. It was just ribbons and beading and black fabric.

BALDWIN: She's so beautiful, though.

DURHAM: She's so stunning. I was so sad.

BALDWIN: Here's a closer look. There's a lot going on.

DURHAM: I was very sad. Yeah.

And look at the lace sheer, the high low, the asymmetrical neckline -- I mean, hemline. And then you go with just a little pink ribbon around your shoulders.

BALDWIN: Paula Patton?

DURHAM: Paula Patton, well, there's another one. You look at it and -- never wear anything people can't identify.

So you don't know if she forgot to take off her stole over her shoulder or you don't know --

BALDWIN: Is that all one piece?

DURHAM: Yes. And it stayed with her all night, unfortunately. So it kept blowing up against her face.

BALDWIN: How do you look to the left in that?

DURHAM: Right.

BALDWIN: You just have to really like the person on your right.

DURHAM: And she had on a white -- it looked like patent leather platforms, as well, so the lady in white, there you go.

BALDWIN: She wears it well.

DURHAM: Yeah, incredible body, beautiful neckline, get rid of the ruffle.

BALDWIN: OK, the best? The woman you love, Tina Fey.

DURHAM: I love Tina Fey. I love it. Did she do it right?

BALDWIN: Amazing? Look at her body. She looks good.

DURHAM: Honey, we haven't seen a waist that small since "Gone With the Wind." I mean, Scarlet, here we go.

BALDWIN: Look at her, beautiful.

DURHAM: Here's the working girl, worked all night long and her dress stayed intact all night long.

BALDWIN: Good tape.

DURHAM: Yeah. And Spanx, as well.

But she looked fantastic, plunging neckline, multi-bead, but all in monochromatic colors, the plum, a fit and flair with a light train, I mean, right on, traditionally, red.

BALDWIN: I think our correspondent said red is the new black.

DURHAM: Yeah, I totally agree. And look here. Minimal jewelry.

BALDWIN: Stunning.

DURHAM: Oh, absolutely. Who knew a cape could look at good outside of Superman?

BALDWIN: And now -

DURHAM: Stunning, absolutely stunning.

BALDWIN: Did you say outside of Superman?

DURHAM: Yeah.

BALDWIN: OK, that's what I thought.

DURHAM: Yeah, yeah.

BALDWIN: And then a lot of pregnant women.

DURHAM: You know, you looked at Drew, which, God love her -

BALDWIN: Kerry Washington, Olivia Wilde --

DURHAM: Yeah, a little green there.

If you can't hide it, decorate it, so there you go. But, I mean, let's face it, Kate Middleton did it the best so far.

So, you know, girls take note of that. She looked beautiful.

But I give it to these girls literally putting it out there because they did on the red carpet.

BALDWIN: I love seeing pregnant women on TV, pregnant women in the movies.

DURHAM: Yeah, yeah, it's great, but what about the guys? We saw color, navy blue, plum, tuxedos.

You know I'm looking at doing my own tuxedo line, so that might be coming down the road.

BALDWIN: OK.

DURHAM: Bow ties, ties, no ties. Pocket squares, no pocket square. Jewelry.

BALDWIN: Look at you with your -

DURHAM: Yeah, yeah, cameo, it's daytime, glitter after 6:00. I have to watch all that myself.

BALDWIN: Congratulations on getting married, by the way.

DURHAM: Yeah, I got married, thank you so much, it was October. Off to Greece we went. Sir Jack and I are very happy. Thank you so much.

BALDWIN: Awesome. Congratulations.

DURHAM: We're very fortunate that we could do that in our nation's capital.

BALDWIN: Nice to see you.

DURHAM: It's always good to see you.

BALDWIN: Monte Durham, "Say Yes to the Dress Atlanta," appreciate it. Always (inaudible)

Now, we just heard a little bit of the best and the worst dressed. Hillary Clinton reportedly has her own list as well, big names like John Kerry, the late Ted Kennedy.

This was supposedly created after her 2008 presidential campaign. It actually rated people from helpful to treacherous.

And we'll run through some of the names. You may be surprised exactly where some of her fellow Democrats landed on said list.

That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Chris Van Holland, a leading House Democrat, quoted today as saying he has no idea how he got in Hillary Clinton's purported "enemies file."

An upcoming book asserts Clinton's presidential campaign back in 2008 kept formal lists, I am talking spreadsheets, of people who had done the boss wrong.

They included Senator John Kerry, now secretary of state, and the late Ted Kennedy, an early backer of Clinton's rival Barack Obama.

Also on the list, Senate Democrats Jay Rockefeller, Claire McCaskill, Bob Casey, Patrick Leahy and, as we said, Chris Van Holland.

Jake Tapper, host of "THE LEAD" joins me now. And it sounds a little Nixonian, memories of President Nixon here.

JAKE TAPPER, CNN ANCHOR, "THE LEAD": An "enemies list," I think this is a little bit different, because if Hillary Clinton and Bill Clinton had an enemy list, Democratic senators would not be on the enemies list. This is more a list of naughty and nice. What Democrats out there, who they expected to be nice, who they counted on being nice, were naughty.

And, you know, a lot of politicians have lists like these in their brains. Let's be honest. A lot of people have lists like these in their brains. Who's been good to me? Who's been bad to me?

BALDWIN: You don't have one of those, to you, Tapper?

TAPPER: You've been good to me. Don't worry. You're on the right side of the ledger.

But the idea of putting it all there in an organized way --

BALDWIN: With points, a point system.

TAPPER: Exactly.

And also having it continue years after the primaries is what makes this the juicy nuggets from this pending book that it is.

BALDWIN: So you talk naughty, I am also hearing that there is a nice list, that the Clintons staff kept a "friends list," but we can't find that anywhere.

Do we know if it exists?

TAPPER: I'm sure that it exists, but the problem is that they didn't win, so they didn't have any way of rewarding those people.

Look, President Obama, if you want to look at the people who are on his nice list, look at his cabinet. A lot of the people who are on the Hillary Clinton naughty list, Kathleen Sebelius, former governor from Kansas, Napolitano, Janet Napolitano, former governor of Arizona -

BALDWIN: John Kerry.

TAPPER: John Kerry, these people are in the cabinet. They were there for Obama when he needed them. He gives them jobs, not that they're not qualified for them, but he does reward them with posts that they want in his administration.

Let's be honest, also. A lot of the reason why a lot of people endorsed Obama was because they thought he was going to win. And, ultimately, that was one of the reasons.

But you can understand. I don't want to justify an enemies list because it is disconcerting, but you can understand why, when you read about some of these people, why the Clintons would be upset when people that they've gone out of their way to help ended up endorsing Barack Obama.

They could -- I could see that.

BALDWIN: Sure. You didn't ask me where you fall on my list.

TAPPER: I assume that I jump back and forth, I mean, that's just based on the nature of our --

BALDWIN: How did you know?

TAPPER: Well, because that's where I am on most people's lists.

BALDWIN: "THE LEAD" with Jake Tapper starts in just a couple of minutes. Thank you so much. We'll see you in five minutes from now.

TAPPER: Thanks, Brooke.

BALDWIN: Happening right now, though, take a look at this, live pictures of this Southwest plane.

We have been watching, waiting for it to take off. It was just taxiing, could be taking off pretty soon.

This is a Boeing 737, landed at the wrong airport, has to take off on a runway that's about half of the runway it had intended to land. We'll have an update on this for you, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: About a minute left, we're watching the Southwest plane. It's moving.

Chad Myers joining me here. This is the plane. It landed at the wrong airport last night.

It was supposed to land at Branson's -- what am I trying to say -- just the Branson airport, ended up at this Graham Clark Downtown Airport about seven miles distance.

But the big issue was the difference in distance in the runways.

CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: I mean, literally, we talked to Richard Quest earlier.

He said this takeoff will be easy compared to the landing yesterday when they had full brakes, full everything trying to get this thing going, full reverse thrusters.

Now, this is still a short runway. This is still a short taxiway.

We've been watching for the wind to maybe help the plane out a little bit. It will be coming out of the west. Not much help.

You want it from the south or from the north so the plane can take off in the shortest distance with a little bit of wind help.

A cross wind doesn't really help here. Thirty-eight -- about 38, maybe 37-and-a-half-hundred feet for this thing to take off.

We expect it to take off. Both engines are running and the lights are flashing.

BALDWIN: Let's remind people. There are no passengers on board. This is as light as they could get this plane. And these passengers were bussed last night, so you just have these pilots.

We also did learn, and, of course, they're investigating. We learned that the pilots, as they investigate, have been grounded.

So we have to leave the picture because I have to go to Jake Tapper, but hopefully this thing will be just fine.

Chad, thank you very much.

MYERS: You're welcome.

BALDWIN: I'm Brooke Baldwin. Thanks for being with me.

"THE LEAD" with Jake Tapper starts now.