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Christie Takes Oath for Second Term; Perdue University Shooting; Storm Targets East Coast

Aired January 21, 2014 - 12:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

JAKE TAPPER, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back. I'm Jake Tapper in Trenton, New Jersey.

You're watching a special edition of "CNN Newsroom," covering Governor Chris Christie's inauguration for a second term.

Next, I'd like to talk to Steve Lonegan. He's a big Christie supporter, even though he lost to Christie in a Republican primary race for governor back in 2009.

He's now, of course, running for Congress, as you may know. He continues to be a Christie supporter.

The governor recently helped Lonegan raise money to retire the debt he racked up in his Senate race, which he lost to now Senator Cory Booker.

Steve Lonegan, thanks for joining us. Has the governor indicated that he will formally support your run for Congress?

STEVE LONEGAN, SENATORIAL CANDIDATE/CHRISTIE'S RIVAL IN 2009 PRIMARY: No, we haven't talked about that, Jake.

But I'll tell you, I thought that speech today was a powerful one. And that speech explains why the Democrats are so committed to pulling down the image of this governor.

When Chris Christie became governor, he inherited two catastrophes. One was the fact that, after the administrations of Jim McGreevy and Jon Corzine, New Jersey had the highest and most progressive income taxes in the country, the highest property taxes, the third highest sales taxes, and we were the number one outward bound migration state in the nation.

That was followed up with Hurricane Sandy, the most devastating catastrophe the state has to yet face. And yet this governor has taken on the labor unions, the government-worker unions. He' taken on the pension system. He's putting New Jersey back on track.

But most of all, what you saw in that speech is that he stands in the way of the Democrat agenda of raising taxes.

He made it very clear in that speech that he's not going to stand for higher taxes to expand the state's already massive income- redistribution scheme, and he's going return to the core principles of economic growth that this estate needs so badly.

That's a big blockade to Steve Sweeney, the senate majority leader, to the assembly majority and their desire to raise taxes and grow government even bigger, big reason to take down the governor's image, because he's doing a great job.

JAKE TAPPER, CNN ANCHOR, "THE LEAD": Right. Well -- sorry -- with all due respect, I mean, the Democrats, you may accuse them of overreaching and may not agree with all of the charges or believe all of the charges.

But we know the "Bridgegate" story does look fishy based on the emails that have come out, and these scandals, whether or not you believe each one of them, they are stacking up.

And they could impede the governor's ability to do what he wants to do. Do you think that he should have addressed the scandals and accusations today in any way?

LONEGAN: I think in his speech today, his inaugural speech, had he to talk about his vision for the future of this state, because that overrides everything else.

The scandals are a result of an effective -- it is an effective piling on by the Democrat Party. They come out with this special investigation committee. They bring in the prosecutor who went after Blagojevich in Illinois.

And the mayor of Hoboken, changing her story, had an epiphany and now has come forth and talking about being strong-armed, yet there is absolutely no proof whatsoever.

Look, this governor is the biggest threat to Hillary Clinton. We saw that in polls recently, and they have a real need to take down his image. And, yes, they're doing it.

But I believe over time he will come back by being persistent, tenacious and consistent. He'll be proven innocent of these scandals.

TAPPER: So there is nothing, Mr. Lonegan, nothing you have heard in the last few weeks about the Christie administration that gives you pause?

Because even Governor Christie has talked -- has fired two people and talked about how disappointed he was by the "Bridgegate" scandal.

Surely, you'll grant me that that is disturbing and that should not have happened.

LONEGAN: It is disturbing and it absolutely should not have happened, but what people want to see in a president and a governor is leadership, someone who steps up to the plate and makes a decision and takes responsibility. He fired two people that were very close to him, on a personal level. That had to be very, very difficult to do. And he admitted, it's very, very wrong. We all admit that. It was a very foolish move.

But what we're watching now is a pure pile-on, and there is not one shred of evidence, not one, that he knew anything about this.

The minute that evidence comes forth, I'll have a different message. I promise you that.

But, as of now that, doesn't exist and I don't think it's going to exist.

TAPPER: Republicans, in general, have not really changed their opinion of Christie, at least according to polling, since the "Bridgegate" scandal broke.

Do you see this all blowing over in a few months? It sounds like that's your view.

LONEGAN: I think, 90 days from today, this will be history. There will be some remnants and people will have changed their vision of the governor.

Those independent voters, those Democrat voters that were supporting him, they will have been affected by him. That's exactly what they want to achieve through all this theatrics and all these assaults.

Again, we watched the mayor of Hoboken suddenly changing her mind, discussions she had last May.

If anybody understands Hudson County politics, try to get a building permit or a development project through in Hudson County.

Kim Guadagno, the lieutenant governor's job, was to get head up what was called the Red Tape Committee, get projects done, get through the red tape, get through the bureaucracy, force economic growth, get economic growth moving.

If she said to the mayor, hey, we've got to move these projects. We're pouring all this money into Hoboken. Let's see them move along. Don't get hung up in red tape.

Suddenly, this mayor has a new interpretation of what that means. That's pure politics.

And Hoboken is receiving tens of millions of dollars of aid. There is no sign that anything has been held back. They have a lot to prove to make this truly stick.

TAPPER: Steve Lonegan, thank you so much for your views. We appreciate it.

LONEGAN: Thank you.

TAPPER: So how does all of this impact Governor Christie's possible run for the White House?

"CROSSFIRE" co-hosts Newt Gingrich and Stephanie Cutter will join us next with Chris Christie in the crossfire.

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TAPPER: Welcome back to CNN's special live coverage of the inauguration of New Jersey Governor Chris Christie. I'm Jake Tapper in Trenton.

Just a few minutes ago in the building behind me, Governor Christie outlined what he plans to do for his state.

But, of course, a lot of people around the country are wondering, what will happen to Christie, because he is the presumed frontrunner for the GOP presidential nomination, and there are so many scandals and controversies swirling around him right now.

Newt Gingrich and Stephanie Cutter are hosts of CNN's "CROSSFIRE."

How much damage has this scandal done to Chris Christie's potential 2016 run and can he recover? Newt, I'll start with you.

NEWT GINGRICH, CNN HOST, "CROSSFIRE": I think it's a lot like, to use the current football analogies, he clearly has had an interception.

This is not how he wanted to start. The bridge scandal clearly has slowed him down. It will nag him for another couple months.

Whether anything else comes out, I'm not at all convinced, but there will be some turmoil, there will be some difficulties.

I thought he looked good today. He's lost weight. He's gotten a haircut. The speech was pretty good, in fact, very good, for a pre- presidential speech. And he's simply got to weather this.

If another big shoe drops, that's a different story, but in the absence of something really big happening, I suspect he lives beyond this, and he is one of the major competitors.

TAPPER: Stephanie?

STEPHANIE CUTTER, CNN HOST, "CROSSFIRE": Well, to continue the football analogy, this is more than an interception. This is a major fumble on his part.

He clearly wasn't planning for this in his run towards the presidency. I think that was reflected this weekend in his speech to donors.

It is a long time between now and 2016, and anybody making forecasts about what this will ultimately mean for Chris Christie is really throwing a coin up in the air and seeing which way it lands.

But I will say for this current moment, according to opinion polls coming out, it has really hurt him. He's dropping independents like hot cakes. In terms of the leadership test, according to a Q-poll out today, those who believe he would make a good president dropped by double digits over the last month. That means something.

It doesn't mean it's not recoverable, but that does mean something and something he needs to watch. I think that's why, in listening to his speech today, he really was talking to independents, to try to get those numbers back up.

I don't think this speech will do it. I think what will do it is putting this investigation behind him, and that is completely out of his control.

GINGRICH: Yeah, Jake, I would say --

TAPPER: Mr. Speaker, there hasn't really --

GINGRICH: Go ahead.

TAPPER: Go ahead.

GINGRICH: I was going to say two things. One, remember that Seattle started the game with a fumble right inside their own 20 yard line and came back to win.

Second, I don't think that Christie is particularly the frontrunner. I don't think there is a frontrunner.

But what this has done is put him into the pack, you know, and I think it's taken some of the charm off, and some of the "Time" magazine cover-effect off.

He's got to work his way back. If there is no major problem, he will work his way back, and he'll be one of the five or six major contenders.

Nobody is going to be more than that, because there's no natural frontrunner in the party right now.

CUTTER: I agree with that.

TAPPER: Speaker Gingrich, if I could just ask you, though, his poll numbers with Republicans appear unaffected.

It's -- his unfavorables have gone up significantly with Democrats and independents on a national level, but Republicans, their opinion of him appears to be unchanged.

Does that mean that these scandals might not be fodder for potential primary opponents, that Republicans really won't be able to use these against him, should he run, because Republicans don't really care?

GINGRICH: OK, I want to build on what Stephanie said a minute ago. This is so early in the process that it's very unlikely that this scandal is going to matter in late 2015. One of two things is going to happen. Either it's going to get a lot worse for him, in which case he's out of the race, or it's just going to have been noise. It will have been a long time ago by then, and it won't be a major factor.

But it's very unlikely in its current form -- remember, also, Republicans deeply dislike the media, and so having the media attack Chris Christie actually probably strengthens him among Republicans.

TAPPER: Stephanie, you want to get a last word in there?

CUTTER: Well, you know, I agree with much of what Newt said. The only thing that I'll say is that, in terms of Christie becoming the nominee, he's got a lot of other problems beyond this scandal.

This scandal is real. Seventy-three percent of people in the Q-poll have heard about this scandal. That's nationwide. That's pretty significant for a sitting governor, for 73 percent of the American people to have heard about your scandal.

But he has other problems in the Republican party, in terms of whether he's a conservative or a moderate, his economic record, some of the tax increases across that state.

So, you know, Chris Christie, there -- he's long had a glow about him, but that glow is wearing off, both in terms of the scandal and people really taking a look at who this guy is and what his record is.

TAPPER: Stephanie Cutter and Newt Gingrich, thank you so much.

Coming up, temperatures up to 25 degrees below normal, more than 2,000 flights cancelled, the Midwest and East Coast getting slammed with another winter storm, we'll show you who's going to get hit the hardest.

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ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN ANCHOR: Hello. I'm Suzanne Malveaux.

You've been watching a special edition of CNN NEWSROOM covering the inauguration of New Jersey Governor Chris Christie. But we have some headlines. We also have some breaking news that we have been following this morning. Want to just read this to you here. It's very little information, but this is the information that we have.

We understand -- this is out of Purdue University here -- that a suspect is now in custody. We're taking a look at these aerial views. This is from WTHR. But Purdue University is reporting that there was a shooting on campus, and that one person is in custody. I want to read all the information that we have now until we get more details.

According to our report, CNN is reporting that a suspect is in custody after a reported shooting on the campus of Purdue University. This is according to posts on the school's official Twitter account. This was just within 15 minutes or so that we are getting this breaking news.

You can see below there, it looks like people are beginning to gather outside of the school and on the campus to get a sense of what is taking place. An investigation, of course, is underway. Now, the posts -- these are the posts. The posts said that it simply asked people on campus to shelter in place. That they are still searching the area. They are still searching the campus, despite the fact that there are reports that at least one person is in custody. There is an active search that is taking place on campus. This is in West Lafayette, Indiana, Purdue University.

Details of the shooting not immediately available here. Now, the university, of course, is trying to get ahold of as many people as possible. The students on campus, as well as the professors, to stay in place.

I want to bring in our security analyst, Mike Brooks, who's on the phone with us.

Mike, first of all, if somebody is in custody, I assume that they don't know whether or not there's one or more shooters involved, alleged shooters involved. That this, right now, would be an important time for them to alert the students and tell them what they should be doing at this time. How are they doing that?

MIKE BROOKS, CNN SECURITY ANALYST (via telephone): Exactly. That's a -- most universities now, Suzanne, have a system in place for emergency notification. And usually they will get -- the students will get that via text, via e-mail and sometimes even a telephone call. But just the fact that they say they are to shelter in place, that's because they want to make sure that if this -- there is just one shooter that they - that we think they have in custody right now, one person in custody. They want to make sure that that shooter was by themselves.

And one of the things that I know they do have on campus is surveillance cameras. So they'll go and take a look at exactly the movements of this person before and after the shooting took place to see whether or not this person is by themselves or not. And that's one of the big things and that's why they're telling people to shelter in place right now.

MALVEAUX: And, Mike, I understand there are 30,000 undergrads there. How do they manage something like that? How do they manage to keep everybody in place to identify where the suspected shooter might be, and to start searching, to look in this university and this school? This is a big, big campus.

BROOKS: No, it's a big campus. And that's why the surveillance videos I was talking about is so important because they're going to be able to hopefully isolate where this person came -- you know, came from. Where the shooting took place. Where did this person go afterward. The movements of that person before, during and after the shooting, Suzanne. And, you know, the university campus police, they train on a regular basis with the local law enforcement for active shooter situations such as this. So -- and I guarantee you that at the beginning of the season, the school season, most of the students will have signed up for these emergency notifications. It's encouraged, especially for incoming freshmen. These people who haven't been to the university before, haven't been in university life, to sign up for these notifications should something like this happen.

MALVEAUX: All right, Mike Brooks, thank you so much. We appreciate it.

We're going to take a quick break as we follow this breaking news here. But what we understand so far, at least one person in custody. Officials from the Twitter site of Purdue University reporting that there was a shooting that took place at that university just moments ago. We're going to have more after we take a break.

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MALVEAUX: Time to pull out the hats, the gloves, heavy coats. We are talking about a wave of cold air moving across the eastern United States, plunging temperatures up to 25 degrees below average, covering some cities already with lots of snow. More than 2,000 flights have been cancelled, and as well as New Jersey Governor Chris Christie's inaugural party. Meteorologist Jennifer Grey is joining us.

Wow, is this really happening again?

JENNIFER GRAY, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Oh, yes, it's happening again. We are seeing temperatures well below normal. We're going to see a lot of snow. In fact, some areas could see more snowfall than they normally get the entire month of January just in this one event. So that puts it in perspective for you.

Look, anywhere from D.C. all the way up to New York, Boston, will be getting that snow very, very soon, early afternoon into the late afternoon. So look at D.C., Baltimore, you can see a lot of snow there, already pushing into New York City, Long Island getting a lot of this snow right now. And then it will be pushing into the extreme portions of the northeast just in the next couple of hours.

Let's track this hour by hour. And you can see, snow already starting to fall in portions of the Northeast. This is rush hour this evening, 6:00 p.m. this evening, you can see a lot of snow from D.C., New York, and Boston. So, I-95 corridor is going to be very, very hard to travel. So if you could cut your day short, that is going to be the best plan. Still some lingering showers across the Boston area in the wee hours of tomorrow morning and then pushing out. The Cape still getting some snow as of 7:00 tomorrow morning.

So this is a relatively fast-moving system. It's going to be today, tonight and then early tomorrow morning. But places like New York City and D.C., snow already ending by tomorrow morning. So basically just today is what you'll be dealing with. This is going to push offshore as we go through the afternoon tomorrow and pushing into Canada.

So here are your snowfall amounts, and impressive. Portions of Massachusetts, look at that, eight to 12 inches of snow. We'll see eight to 12 inches possibly along the Jersey shore. And then four to eight inches possibly in D.C. Places like Philly, New York, we could see anywhere from six to 10 inches of snow. And so this is another huge system. Temperatures are going to be dropping out. We're going to see some areas in the teens, and we are going to see a slight warm-up as we get into the weekend, if that's a little glimmer of hope for you. But for the next couple of days, it is going to be very cold and folks will be dealing with a lot of snow.

MALVEAUX: Oh, my goodness, I can't believe it's happening again, Jennifer. We're going to all bundle up this week, as well. Good thing is, it's not going to last too long.

GRAY: Exactly.

MALVEAUX: Thanks, Jennifer, we really appreciate it.

Following this breaking news story, as well. Want to bring you the latest, the update. This is out of Purdue University. This is West Lafayette, Indiana. A reported shooting there. University officials alerting students via Twitter. There are about 30,000 undergrads on that campus.

What we have learned so far is that there is one person who is in custody. There is an active search of the campus that is taking place still as they tell people to stay in place, to take cover as they do a room-by-room, building-by-building search of Purdue University. But again, one person that is in custody after a reported shooting on that campus location.

As we get more information, we'll bring that to you. You're looking at the live pictures from WTHR, as they alert students of what is going to take place this afternoon.

Well, thanks for watching. CNN NEWSROOM with Wolf Blitzer starts right after our break. He's going to have more on this breaking news.

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